Do ônibus colegial ao trem de doido: interações entre a Bossa Nova nas Geraes e o Clube da Esquina

Abstract

Innovations bossa nova proposed shaped a new profile to the urban popular music in Brazil. No matter how apparent the disputes around the construction of the imaginary relative to it, there are a few general agreements in the specialized literature on this topic. One of these is recognizing Rio de Janeiro’s South district as the main stage for the so-called “modern Brazilian popular music”. It is clear that Rio de Janeiro was the cradle of this new proposal, but limiting this important esthetical movement to one single hub from which it would radiate does not lead to a better understanding of its wide field of references. Based on the available discography, we will try to highlight part of this inconspicuous bossa nova page – focusing on the musical scene that emerged in Belo Horizonte, capital city of the state of Minas Gerais (MG), between the late 1950s and the 1960s – in order to analyze specifically one of its possible developments: the presence of significant traits of the bossa-nova language in much of the work of a few artists who were crucial for conceiving Clube da Esquina, phenomenon that became a symbol of the identity of MG’s urban popular song. To do so, we will prioritize a fraction of MG musicians Toninho Horta and Wagner Tiso’s phonographic productions and their links with bossa nova, one of the exponents of which in MG was Pacífico Mascarenhas.