WOMAD

Totonho & Os Cabra

From Brazil

Biography by Andy Morgan, June 2003:Despite its spurious punk-rock chic in the West, sniffing glue is more fatal than fashionable as a form of escapism in the impoverished favelas of north-eastern Brazil. Back in the 1980s, composer, musician and radio jock Totonho set up an NGO called ‘Projeto Ex-Cola’ (Ex-Glue Project) to try and fight a glue-sniffing epidemic in Rio de Janeiro. At the same time, this remarkable artist was trying to make good his enviable reputation as a musician and composer and beat a path to success through the dense jungle of Rio’s music industry. Totonho’s love of music germinated in his youth when he used to sell goat’s bladder stew in the streets of his hometown Monteiro. He fell under the spell of the local repentistas, who sang a kind of improvised poetry typical of Brazil’s north eastern region. In early adulthood Totonho played in various outfits in the nearby city of João Pressao whilst studying at the local Faculty of Art and Education. After his move to Rio he started to collaborate with luminaries such as Geraldo Azevedo and João Bosco and formed his own band, Totonho & Os Cabras (‘Tony and The Goats’) who proceeded to create a nationwide following by dint of tireless touring around Brazil’s alternative circuit. In 1999 Totonho struck a seam of luck when his demo landed on the desk of producer Carlos Eduardo Miranda who paved the way for the release of Totonho’s first album on the deliriously hip and happening São Paolo label Trama. Totonho continues to squeeze a double life as a social activist, mainly via a radio programme which aims to help the impoverished community of Lapa in central Rio but also through OBA, or the Basic Arts Workshop which uses music and culture to counteract the effects of violence.Biography supplied by Trama, April 2003:Composer, producer and singer, Totonho was born in 1964 in the town of Monteiro, state of Paraiba, in the northeast of Brazil. He spent his early days there selling goat’s bladder (a local delicacy, no less) and witnessing local folk songs interpreted by repentistas (a typically north-eastern improvising singing poet). That’s when Totonho had his first contact with music. “My house was always full of musicians, so I got used to seeing them play at home. Did you know that my hometown Monteiro was once considered the Mecca of repente?”. At the age of nine, Totonho set up his first band Os Renegados (The Renegades), who used to play on tin cans (guitars made from tins, drums made of tins, and so on). “That’s when it all started and I became a composer.”, recalls Totonho. In 1982, he decided to make music his career. Moving to the nearest city, João Pessoa, he set up the Musiclube da Paraiba, a cooperative of composers, which included names such as Chico Cesar, Jarbas Mariz and brothers Pedro Osmar and Paulo Ro, amongst others.During five years, Totonho took part in a project called Tocar Por Prazer (Playing for Pleasure, a group of bass players, guitarists, vocalists and composers) singing around João Pessoa. At the same time, he studied at the Faculty of Art and Education which is where he started his long-standing social work, in the local João Pessoa favelas (shantytowns).Having won several awards and now known as one of the most outstanding composers of the region, Totonho moved to Rio de Janeiro at the end of 1988 to do a postgraduate degree and try his luck at becoming a professional musician.Meanwhile, Totonho carried on composing and enriching his musical experience, playing with a number of leading Brazilian artists such as Geraldo Azevedo and Joao Bosco. At the end of this year, he united forces with a number of other musicians, thus forming the group Totonho & Os Cabra (rough translation: Tony & The Goats). The group immediately went on the road , gigging in seven major Brazilian state capitals and subsequently went on to become one of the most notable bands on the Rio alternative circuit. In 1999, a demo tape landed in the lap of producer Carlos Eduardo Miranda. The result was the self-titled album Totonho & Os Cabra on the cutting-edge São Paulo based label, Trama. Totonho explains, “I like to compose by starting off with a word, making a sentence, breaking it down, twisting it round, making another one, changing it, finding a synonym. I’m a type of builder who breaks a brick into pieces until it fits into my construction!”The other side of Totonho’s life which is the continuation of his social work. During the four years he spent battling to get signed, Totonho had already set up his own non-governmental organisation called Projeto Ex-Cola (Ex-Glue Project, for victims of glue-sniffing which is very common amongst street kids in Rio de Janeiro). Indeed, social work is a whole different chapter in the story of Totonho’s life. “I used to teach reading and writing to a native Indian community, and nowadays in Rio I’m continuing m social work through a radio programme, which helps the community in the area of Lapa, centre of Rio. One of the other projects I’m involved in is the OBA – Basic Arts Workshop, which uses culture as a basis for counteracting the effects of violence”. The idea, apart from discussing problems within the community, is to also bring new names from the world of music to Rio. Many of them have been on Totonho’s radio show.