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Afro-Brazilian phenom to perform

By Daffodil Altan
Arizona Daily Wildcat,
October 25, 1999
Talk about this story

It all happened one evening, five years ago. Legendary Brazilian singer-composer Caetano Veloso attended a dress rehearsal at the Olodum Theatre in his native city of Salvador de Bahia. From the audience, Veloso noticed a silent young woman movingsolemnly about the stage. Near the end of the performance, the main character died, and the woman stood over him, singing a Latin dirge.

The voice was crushing and majestic, full of the spirituality andtribulation of Afro-Brazilian culture.

It came from Virginia Rodrigues, the daughter of a poor market vendor who worked as a manicurist and sang at weddings to support her fledgling musical career.

After that night, Rodrigues was taken under Veloso's wing and is now one of Brazil's most acclaimed artists. Tomorrow, Rodrigues brings her voice to UA Centennial Hall.

"Her voice really impressed me, it was special, unique," Veloso recalled recently in an interview with The Los Angeles Times. "Without rejecting samba and the 'street music' of her youth, she injects a sacred, operatic quality even into popular song."

The performance will feature songsfrom Sol Negro (Black Sun), her 1997 debut album as well as material from her recently completed second album which pays tribute to theAfrican carnival groups of Bahia.

Rodrigues' ascent out of anonymity has reaffirmed the role of the state of Bahia as a musical treasure trove and the cradle of Afro-Brazilian culture.

Rodrigues' voice resonates with the history of Bahia and with the echoes of the church choirs and religions that have shaped her life and art. Included in her influences is Candomble, the religion of former Afro-Brazilian slaves that has permeated Catholicism despite the efforts of the church to stamp it out.

"When I go on stage, I feel that I become another person," she said during an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "You have to leave yourself and be with the gods. When I sing, I feel as if I am singing with the gods."

But Rodrigues also sings for her people, claiming there is a fundamental political undercurrent to her music. "I protest when I sing,"she said. "About the condition of the Brazilian people. About theenormous inequality in this country. And I believe a great deal in the black movement."

After her New York performance at the Bottom Line last year, NewYork Times reviewer Jon Pareles said she, "conjured a timeless, mystical Brazil where nature and spirit worlds meet and where the songs of the Afro-Brazilian pantheon share the purity of Gregorian chant."

This year her performances will be backed by a five-person Brazilian jazzensemble featuring two drummers, an acoustic bass and guitar, and a viola. "The show is a bit different. It's happier. I dance more."


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