Marisa Monte at The Garden Hall, May 11th 2024

 

A friend of mine told me he once saw Joao Gilberto here in Tokyo about fifteen, twenty years ago at the Tokyo International Forum Hall. He said that at one point, in the middle of a song he nodded profusely to the point of falling asleep. It’s a funny anecdote. To me, I wouldn’t have minded seeing him taking a nap for a whole show, just to being in the presence of a legend of such stature. The truth is that Japan has a strong committed Brazilian music fan base. Labels like Disk Union have released music from upcoming artists with an impeccable taste and ear for their selection. Just last year young artists like Amaro Freitas, Tim Bernardes and Bala Desejo came to visit. I’ve been lucky enough to see four giants of Brazilian music. Egberto Gismonti (Nana Vasconcelos was scheduled for the concert as well but sadly passed away a couple of months before the show), Hermeto Pascoal, Tom Ze and Caetano Veloso (one of my all-time top 10 concerts). To that list a fifth name is added: Marisa Monte.

She’s from a generation following the ones aforementioned. Her debut was a live album, which is really odd, but it contained all the clues for what will be an illustrious career, specially in the single Bem que se quis and Cartola’s Preciso me encontrar. By her second album Mais, recorded when she was barely twenty three, she assembled a jaw dropping list of guest musicians. She was hanging out with Bernie Worrell, Nana Vasconcelos, John Zorn, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Marc Ribo and Arto Lindsay at the producer’s helm. We’re talking Orson Welles levels of precocity. I discovered her in the mid-nineties with her third album, Verde anil amarelo cor de rosa e carvão, a tour de force, she even got Philip Glass to write strings and horn arrangements for a song on that album.

One of her signature tunes opens that album and opened this show. She came out right on time sporting a tuxedo, a unique but more subdued ensemble, compared to the one I’ve seen on YouTube she rocked during the tour for her latest album Portas. The audience welcomed her with open arms. The applause level indicated that the vast majority might have been compatriots, Japanese audiences tend to be less obvious when it comes to manifest their approval of an artist or a performance, in other words they don’t applaud a lot, as it been discussed previously. When the brief instrumental intro hit, everyone knew what will come next. With the first couple of “Maria, Marias” were sung the crowd erupted and then went next level when the drum joined in at “Farinhar bem, derramar a canção”. Maria de verdade was a great choice to start the show but I couldn’t help to be a tad disappointed because I was expecting Portas, from the eponymous album, her latest one. She has been opening every show for the past couple of years with that one and it’s such an epic. It was sorely missing form the setlist at Tokyo.

Nonetheless the Tokyo crowd got to experience a fair share of jewels. From Infinito Particular, which followed the opener, to Beija eu, one of my favorites with Marisa on a stool strumming an acoustic guitar. Another nice surprise was Carnavalia from her offshoot project Tribalistas, another song that convey that epic vibe of stuff like the songs Portas or Infinito Particular. As a matter of fact, it felt like the show picked up steam considerably in the last third when she donned the electric guitar and played a couple of songs from her latest album along with the previously mentioned Tribalistas song and the set closer A menina dança.

The energy was in the stratosphere when she came back for an encore. She first played another of her huge hits, Amor I Love You. Everyone was buzzing about it because in Brazil this is one of her songs with the most radio airplay. You got to remember, she’s not a niche artist in that country, she’s as big as you can imagine, probably one of the biggest. It was such a trip to see her in this relatively small venue compared to those huge stadium shows from her native country. Thanks Ebisu Blooming Jazz Garden Festival, for making that happening. 

 By the time she got to the Tribalistas’ Ja sei namorar, one that I know for a fact was on the radio even in all Latin America, every one there -from the VIP crowd seated up front to the people in the back- were waving their hands in the air like they just didn’t care. It’s true, though, that it was a scale downed show, with four amazing musicians backing her up but lacking the horn section that joined her for her latest album world tour. Her voice at first sounded like it might not have been in tip top shape, but like with Joao Gilberto, in the presence of greatness magic is undeniable.
 
Thank you for reading, after a drought of almost nine months without shows. Hopefully the pace will pick up in the next few months. Please follow me on Twitter for updates at @ConcertTokyo. You can also click the Like button and get notifications at The Tokyo Concert Experience on Facebook.