Mary Halvorson's portrait at Jazz Magazine

Spring's arrived here! Flowers are blooming, and I had the finest gift today.

One of my drawings was chosen to feature in David Cristol's latest article for Jazz Magazine. The photos are from Petra Cvelbar, and the article is about Mary Halvorson's most meaningful albums in her life. A breath of fresh air :) 

A part of the article is online (in the previous link) and the other part of the article is in store's, in the latest Jazz magazine issue.

When I did this portrait of hers, the sun was shining, the weather was sweet, I was at one of the most fascinating gardens in Lisbon, and thrilling music festivals: Gulbenkian's Jazz em Agosto! And I had one of the most original guitarists playing at my front (blessed Mary!), and some of the most inspiring colleagues by my side: the photographer Petra Cvelbar and David Cristol. 

The trine is now reactivated with our joint work here. As in Gestalt, the result is bigger than the sum of the parts. So happy about that! May new adventures follow.

A while ago, I wrote some more about David here. You can find some of his work here, and some of Petra's here. Enjoy!

The right place (Joana Bernardo | Radar)

This must be the place © Rita Draper Frazão 2019

Radio Series

A couple of weeks ago, I started a new project for my blog, and this is my first publication about it. This new adventure of mine, is something I had in mind for years. It's about my favorite Radio Hosts, and I called it Radio Series.

In the following times, I will publish some articles and drawings here, about each one of them.

I feel like the radio keeps me company, and makes me happy in a deep way, as music does.
Radio programs and music are something one can't grab or touch. One can listen (and sometimes see). Differently from other visual arts, the no images attached space these two provide, allows me to fill that gap with my imagination. The result is what you can find in these Radio series. May you hear the sound in these drawings and texts.

My first stop is at Radio Radar. Enjoy and join me in the ride!

One of those things

Way before I met Radar's radio host, Joana Bernardo, seems like our lives were already linked. 

While a child, Joana was friends with persons that used to spend Summer Vacations in a house owned by my family. We never met back then.

We've just found out about this, many years afterwards, when we studied together at the fine Arts School, in Lisbon. That's how we met.

Then, in 2009, Joana started to work with Radar, hosting the show Bairro do amor (in English, something like the love district). That's also the title of one of the most iconic Jorge Palma's album, a landmark in the Portuguese music scene.

Turns out, Palma, in different times, also went to that same house. He even wrote a song about it, and recorded it in his Voo Nocturno album.

In the end, the link between these unexpected and seemingly disconnected facts, between Joana, the radio show, Jorge Palma and I, is just one: music. 

Radio peek

Despite our friendship of years, I had never made before, a portrait just from her. This time around, it was mandatory for me, that this series, started with the drawing and article I did about her. She was the first person I contacted to do so, and the first one to accept my challenge.

Joana and I, didn't see each other for a while. Arriving to the radio, I was a bit afraid our catching up could interfere with my focus on the drawing. But, fortunately, things came across the other way around: the conversation flowed, with my ideas, and I think I must've done her portrait in minutes!

Type of Language

I need to mention this chick did a master in contemporary editorial and typographical practices. In that context, she made a book called 30 anos 8 dias. It's about the daily life of a group of creative people around 30 years old. I found it a true archive for the future. 

In the context of this radio series, that book's relevant to mention, to emphasize the curiosity of this radio host, in knowing different things, different people, and different ways of doing things, daily. I see that same openness in her musical choices in the radio - that can include, pop, new wave, rock, jazz, hip hop, reggae, folk, grunge, or r'n'b. All wrapped up, in that clear voice of hers. Worth to mention her diction, that reminds me the finest porcelain.

Nowadays, one can hear Joana at Radar FM , live from Monday to Friday, from 14h to 17h (GMT), in Comércio Livre - Monday to Friday, and in Álbum de Família - Wednesday at 14h, Sunday at 12h and Monday at 23h. Podcasts can be found here.

In the Radio's studio, there were some typography elements, that reminded me, of our common graphic design background. Somehow, I wanted a reference of it, in this drawing. So, I later stamped This must be the place, with types of several alphabets of my personal stamp collection - that I have been making, ever since I am a little kid. Loved playing with them, and still do! 

These typographic choices are, therefore, are an allusion to that diversity I find in Joana, to the text, and to our childhood - the period where our lives started to be connected, at distance. 

The right place

About the portrait, itself, I started to chose which color I wanted it to have, and why. For Joana, I wanted something airy, sweet, and unattainable (a cloud, a scent, a steam one can't grab, as the radio) - a hue almost confusable with the background white. Something reservedly mysterious and alluring, at the same time.

Here's someone who looks at things with sharp eyes, and makes them objective - as if that was simple! In my vision, that required a fast drawing with simple lines, to match.

During our drawing-talky session, I got to know Talking heads is one of Joana's favorite bands. This must be the place (Naive Melody), is both the title of the Talking Heads' song, and my portrait of Joana Bernardo. The song is 36 years old, and still so actual. It's also one of my favorites tunes of this band. I chose this specific song to her portrait, due to its airy, exotic & in vogue tone. I see so much of that in her.

This must be the place is said to be Talking heads' first love song. But not a common one.
They had had the genius of writing a love song, out of pure joy, without making it look tacky. So many bands trying to do now, what they've accomplished almost 40 years ago. They were breaking ground for the future to come.

And Joana Bernardo is also that type of being, who thinks ahead - as if that pinky steam in her drawing, could vaporize the world to come, and inspire it to be, the place to be in.
The better place I'd want you, Joana and me, to be in too. As in the lyrics of this song, Feet on the ground, head in the sky. I guess this must be the place. A match made in heaven.

The next Radio series

Curious to know who am I writing and drawing about next?
I am preparing some really cool stuff for the next chapters, and more exciting contents will come soon! Stay tuned, and don't miss a bit!

My drawings at Jazz Magazine

Upper East Side (John Zorn) © Rita Draper Frazão

Jazz Magazine is one of the oldest Jazz Publications in Europe. It's based in Paris, and exists since 1950.

I feel like it's so hard to be a music critic, in the sense that judging might be easier than transporting the reader to the place, the people, and the specific sound, when the person wasn't there.

The author of this article, David Cristol, did more than that. 

As if incarnating Proust, he made me dream, and provided a wide variety of references that framed the context in an extremely rich way. To the point that I feel like writing about him, instead of writing about the concert, the musicians or my drawings, as I usually do.

I just loved this text, it was a pleasure to read it (even though my French is so rusty!). It also reminded me the days I lived in Milano: i gelati, il duomo, la scala, i Sforza e Leonardo e sopratutto quella lingua la cui pronuncia e suono is to die for.

One could tell, David's references are wider than music. The sensibility to, for example, connect the dots between a Aleister Crowley and this concert, could only come from a very observant personality, a cultured person and from a peculiar being.

Along with this review, are two drawings of mine. One from John Zorn and the other one, from Bill Laswell. You can see the whole thing, my drawings and David's wonderful text, here! 

It was a team work. Thank you so much for inspiring me David! Hope it inspires you all as well! 

From chaos to a dancing star

The colors, the type, the places, the flavors, the sounds but most of all, the persons. 
All you're about to read and see, summed up here: vISual impro.

Welcome to my first post of the year!

Yes, I know it's already February, but I have been "cooking" stuff in January, to present you guys this, now.

I was invited to draw an event at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, in The Netherlands. This event was their Carte Blanche series, where the referred venue, invites a musician to host and chose the line up of that night. This time, the musician given Carte Blanche was the American drummer and percussionist Hamid Drake, whom I have drawn live 2 years ago, in Jazz em Agosto Festival. That was, to me, one of those inspiring moments in life I won't forget. 

The Beginning of Chaos 

The stakes were high, and I couldn't be more excited about this trip.

While packing (what a chaos!), my suitcase had two thirds of overcoats and sweaters and a third of painting material. I wanted to have my colors ready for whatever situation popped in. Turns out, that as a matter of space, I just had my black pen with me during the flight (the rest was in the airplane cargo hold). I need to mention this so you can get into the story I am about to share.

It was midday, the sun was shinning, the light was incredible, and we were floating. 

That was my thought. 

I immediatly remembered PJ Harvey's song We float, and had the urge to draw it. Wanted the typography to convey the float flow, and that was what took me longer to draw. Blinking in my mind was the we float, take life as it goes verse part of the song.

But I didn't have my colors, so I asked the TAP stewardess for color crayons, that they usually have for kids. 

The Cloud Carer

I sure must've seemed a kiddo when she brought them to me, as I smiiiiiiiiiled...!

She inspired me to do a portrait of her and, in my drawing, she is The Cloud Carer - my color and dreams provider :)

I felt so comfortable on this flight. Lucky me who had my friend Júlio helping me out with a special seat!

Lib(e)ri

This was my first drawing in Amsterdam. 

I did it before sleeping. Or rather, I could not sleep! 

All was so visually inspiring, I wanted to draw everything! 

In front of me, there was a shelf full of books. The book's spine colors and the book's placing order are both real and accurate.

I thought about the colors that books set free. how books might set a person free, and then was wondering about a word in a language that could possibly mean both free and books, and remembered that Libri (books) and Liberi (free), in Italian, sound and are written almost the same way, and hence the title Lib(e)ri.

 I no longer was interested in the shelf. Since its content molded its form, I felt no need to draw it and books prevailed. I could go to sleep now.

Rotterdam

I had some busy days ahead, and still wanted to visit my friends Constança, Mariana and Louise in Rotterdam, where I had been before so many times, and I love it there.

I got lost in public transports and Dutch language and was late enough to catch a train that just allowed me to have a quick tea with them. But it was worth it! And speaking of tea, it is funny because I have learned this new word for me in German: Muckefuck. No, it's not motherf*****, it's a barley drink! 

During my train trip to Rotterdam, I met Ameneh ( آمنه) Deljoo. 

Ameneh is an Iranian citizen doing her Phd in the Netherlands. It was funny, because we just had a one hour conversation, but it was so powerful, I wanted to draw her straight away, in the train. 

From the very moment she told me her name, I loved the sound of it, and wanted to know its meaning. Ameneh comes from the word Amen, and means safety, trust, devotion, guardianship and loyalty. Uau! I wish I'd have such a meaningful name!! Inspiration knocked my door right away! 

That led us to a really interesting conversation about Languages, Traveling, Arts, Music, Psychology, Computer Science, Cuisine, and Portuguese Pastry. Santo pastelinho de nata! (Holy custard tarts!)

I felt Ameneh as a person full of life, and I wanted to register that. This portrait is about what she had brought within her soul and the thrilling things she is looking up to reach now.

I wanted to have a visual metaphor for that, so I chose the brown to represent her soil, her roots and the yellow represents the light she wants to attain in life. 

This last color was made with Saffron. Using a bright and meaningful color with taste (and a delicious Persian rice with that spice made part of our talk too!) made, here, all the sense to me.

These two concepts, were the starting points for the poem I wrote about her.
I asked Ameneh to help me out translating it to Farsi, so I could include it in the drawing too.
So, here it is:

آمنه

 آمنه از عشق تو به اين سرزمين 

كه به تو معناي معنوي اسمت را داده است

آمنه و تو با خود عطرِخورشيدِ شرقي را داري 

از روياهايي كه تو را دور كرده است از ان خورشيد

  زندگي از نزديك تو را حفظ خواهد كرد آمنه

Ameneh 

Ameneh, from your love for this land,

that gave you the grace of your name, 

Ameneh, it is with you the East flavor of the Sun 

From the dreams that made you far,

May life bless you closely, Ameneh.

It took me many hours to finish this image. Of this series done in The Netherlands, no doubt that, this drawing, was the most laborious one.

Back in Amsterdam

That same night, I met my dear friend Ryoko Imai. 

I will talk a bit more about her later in this article, because she was very important during this trip. Ryoko plays percussion and comes from Kawasaki (川崎市), in Japan. She currently lives in Amsterdam. 

Usually when I'm doing a portrait of someone, I need time to do it (to feel, to perceive, to think, to draw, to paint...). Very rarely happens such a thing, as finishing a whole portrait in 5 minutes, which was this case. Her brightness, beauty and inspirational attitude were immediate triggers for a "must draw now" urge! 

Carte Blanche to my imagination

The next day was the big day. 

The scooter ride

The day where the 3 concerts included in the Carte Blanche to Hamid Drake initiative would take place at the Bimhuis. I had a very special scooter ride, on my way to the venue. 

I had so many layers of coats, I felt like a Panda! It was windy, and the city crossed my eyes in frames with a beautiful speed, as in a movie. 

The canals, the water, the trees, the clouds, the boats, the ducks, the typography, the flowers, the people, the bridges, the bikes, the windmills, the markets, the old houses and buildings mixed up with De Stijl, Art Deco and Modern Architecture; the diamond factories business, the delicious restaurants, the arty cafes, the great painting, the stunning graphic design, the hip fashion brands, the great improvisers, the great punk scene, the different cultures melting pot - all, of Amsterdam's busy life was music to my ears. 

This little tour, with the (almost) full moon ripping a blue-grayish sky had the taste of freedom - alike a butterfly coming out of a rock. 

Already at the Bimhuis (and therefore I drew its logo), I wasn't expecting to come across with a live incarnation of one of Pompeii's Female figures on Villa of the Mysteries! 

Good to remember, these frescos were done around 60-50 years b.C.!! 

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at this video here) 

Yes, it could've been her, Ludmilla Faccenda, posing in another life. Reincarnation believers or not, on this life, she sure seemed to me, the perfect sample of the Italian Beauty (La Bellezza Italiana), worth making a portrait of. 

She was, definitely, my muse that night. Ludmilla's a sensitive woman, a force of nature with an intense presence. Yeah, things might not be perfect, but she is a fighter, a believer that will work hard to make things done, the best way. So, it made sense to me, that red was present in this portrait. 

This is the color of energy, of battle, of work in progress and of confrontation. Red is also the background color of the Villa dei Misteri's Frescos (Unesco's World Heritage), recently restored.  

Ludmilla is Hamid Drake's manager and was one of the responsible for making possible all this event, including having me drawing there. 

Indigenous Dragon

This one above, is Hamid Drake's portrait. The main reason to be of this whole trip!

I made it live, during the first concert of the night, while him and Pasquale Mirra were playing.

His long dreadlocks are, in my drawing, a poem I wrote on the spot. I called it Sol, the 5th musical note, but also in Portuguese, the Sun.

Sol

The channel of all the above

all you got, shines still

all you give, sees through

the spirits are high 

and thank you back,

and so do we

it's life and love

The entrancing joy

of Life

Life!

Life!

There's something about Hamid that redirects me to the generosity of the being, the group consciousness, and its power to built or destroy, as dragons can do, as drakes do. This has a relation to this dragon I have made some time ago, and to the story I told there, too.

And well, I called this Dragon Indigenous, because Hamid's chants reminded me of some American Indian Chants. Tribal, spiritual, brutal, deep, he's got a sort of childish creative power in the present now, that might pretty much change your life in a blink, while seeing one of his concerts. Or, I felt it so. 

Moving, to say the least.

The second concert gathered members of ICP Orchestra (Wolter Wierbos, Ab Baars, Michael Moore and Ernst Glerum) and had Kaja Draksler, as a guest on piano. 

The image above is the Dutch trombonist, Wolter Wierbos.

I was amused with his performance and his shoe laces were key to the concept of this portrait.

There was some roughness and stiffness with movements stuck to the ground of what he knew best (portrayed by the all brown safe outfit) and at the same time, there was some fun element within him (the red laces).

From his feet there was the connection to where he treaded, and to this unexpected element - his red shoe laces. I also didn't mark the horizon line on purpose, I wanted to keep the feeling that his figure might've just arrived!

And I didn't come up with the red and brown, they were indeed real. They just happened to be the perfect visual metaphor to what I was feeling.

This one is the pianist and composer Kaja Draksler, while performing with the referred ICP Orchestra members.

She showed great talent and sensibility, and I was very very pleased to hear what she was playing. It was really beautiful.

She definitely stood out, though I felt, as well, almost as if there was an invisible wall one needed to break to come across to the rough diamond she is.

Kaja comes from Kranj, in Slovenia, so I wanted to write about her (Poetický = Poetic) in the drawing, in her language, Slovene.

The typography I drew, was inspired by Slovenian type design (like this, for example). Its color is just a little darker than the paper's color shade: a color still to become bolder and a drawing that can look like a draft. Both, are signs of the flower to blossom, Kaja is. 

Also noteworthy, that this whole event was happening according to the Norwegian Punkt Festival's central concept, which is the live Remix. 

I regard the remix as a way to relate, to answer back, in a perspective of narrative with continuity.

This concept made sense, also because the third concert of the night, reunited key figures of the referred event in Norway, namely, Erik Honoré, Jan Bang and Eivind Aarset, who played along with Hamid Drake in this last musical moment of the night.

Bang Bang

Here's is my Jan Bang's first portrait (yes, I did other drawings related to him).

There were moments in this concert so thrilling, that I felt like jumping and dancing along, as Jan did.  His energy was contagious and he seemed to me, by far, the most excited of the group. Although, the most incredible thing about it, was that he never overshadowed the other elements of the group, by the contrary, he was at all times, sensitive to the environment, helpful and an important piece of the puzzle.

I envisioned his electronic paraphernalia as a city silhouette, his lego, his playground dividing the lower half of the drawing, of a constant moving Jan and a the higher half of the portrait of an attentive and still Jan. Double Jan, Bang Bang.

Too cool for school

Too cool for school is my Eivind Aarset portrait. This time I have done something different from my regular process: I painted before having drawn him and not the opposite. This was not about the structure and contour - the drawing - but about its expressive content - the paint. 

Since the moment he entered on stage, Eivind sure seemed to me the coolest thing on earth. His gestures, his pose, and his sonic-grungy playing, looked too good to be true. Everything kind of seemed so ethereal, so surreal, non-human, unbelievable, even.

An alpha being, with a double aa surname calls for a b side portrait.

He had such a strong impact on me, I drew harder on the paper (and the paint was still wet when I drew him), and this image is the result. It's his portrait's reverse.

Adding to all this, then - and in my musical awareness and unconsciousness - I found out he is the guitar player of one of my all time favorite records (will talk about it further below).

He's just too cool for school, in its best sense.

Another thing I have to mention about this event, is that sometimes happens that, the end of a concert catches me in the middle of a drawing, leaving it forever unfinished.

That was what happened with Erik Honoré. Hopefully, I'll have the chance to see him playing live some other time soon :) Anyways, I really liked his Heliographs, and I think they are worth checking out.

Post Concert

After the concert, nice conversations, at the Bimhuis cafe, followed.

Somehow, I often feel inspired with stuff others might consider rubbish, as napkins, like this one, above. It actually made part of a talk with Jan Bang.

I loved the colors and the drawing of it, also because I thought about the Dutch flag colors (I even used the exact cobalt blue and the bright vermilion), their amazing tiles, and the great inspiring flowers I saw everywhere there (not only Tulips).

Could link it to The Scooter Ride drawing because, much of what I drew here, was stuff I saw during that ride as well. Everything seemed like being in the landscape metamorphic process of turning things into free butterflies.

Tri Bang

The night ended up with me challenging Jan bang to make a drawing with me. He looked at me and said: "but I can't draw!"

In fact, there are many different modes of "making a drawing together", and at least in my concept, that doesn't necessarily mean that both persons involved need to draw. In this case, he was just being himself, inspiring me, posing and lending me his hands for the composition,  which was quite a big deal already. The result is what you see above.

Color wise, I wanted to portray, here, his vivid and energetic side (light green), along with a more caring, sensitive and watery mood side (blue) with parallel clear support, a structure, a ground (black and white). Regarding the drawing itself, I was sought to convey, in its technique and process making, the idea of multiplicity, that he's someone able to manage several things with precision and detail (and hence the number of layers and overlaps, producing new visual elements). It's my Tri Bang.

My drawing interview with Henning Bolte to All About Jazz 

The first initiative of inviting me to all this, was Henning Bolte's idea. So, none of this would've happened without him, and he was a key person throughout this process.
Along with Ludmilla Faccenda and the Bimhuis, a bridge between the Bimhuis and the musicians, the musicians among themselves, and me was made.

Henning presented the Carte Blanche to Hamid Drake event, and you can hear everything it happened that night, through the Bimhuis radio, here.

Henning is most known for being a writer and a critic (you can take a closer look on his work and read his review from Carte Blanche to Hamid Drake, here). But I think he's some other things too - he's an open spirit, a creative person and a provider.

This drawing was done in very special circumstances, since Henning interviewed me for All About Jazz magazine, and his portrait was done during the interview (the first part, you can read here and the second part here). 

His interview was inspiring, and made me think of many things in a way, I haven't done before.

Both, my portrait of Henning and Doris Day's Que Sera Sera share the same subject. This portrait of Henning, is about the things that get stuck in the way - the past; about looking at the present in the eye, and believing in the future - what will be, will be. It's about the snake in Henning, a skin shed, where one's standing and the metamorphosis in life. It's about what holds and what propels Henning.

His eyes gave me the blue color motto. As Theo Parrish once embraced, I wish that you never give up on finding new things and feel your journey - life - as if you're Walking through the sky.

Meet the Dancing Star

The next day was full moon night, and also my last night in Amsterdam.  The festivities program could've not been more auspicious, since me and my friend Ryoko Imai were about to meet again.

But this wasn't just a regular friends meeting. We had in mind drawing and playing together.

But I just could not imagine how deep and how amazingly important this encounter would turn to me.

From chaos to a dancing star

After a delicious dinner, Ryoko and I started our session. I had brought my painting stuff and we were at her studio, so we had everything we needed to start.

When Ryoko first improvised, I was observing and making her silhouette. When she played the Fuga from Violin Partita II in D minor by J.S. Bach, I was painting her silhouette, and when she finally ended up playing María Cervantes by Noro Morales, I was painting the background.

I just realized this, afterwards. We never spoke about any rule whatsoever before, during or after this session. The synchronized timing was natural.

In the end of the session, she mentioned the sounds I was making while painting and drawing (I used this special silver pen, that has a little moving ball inside). You can actually hear what she was talking about, since we recorded the session, and Ryoko edited a short sample you guys can listen to here:

The way Ryoko was playing, her commitment and the music she played made me feel really privileged to witness such a bright talent. 

I looked to her feet and to the floor of the studio, looked back at her and thought: 

Where you'd come from, what you might've lived and what you've become now: a shinning star, right before me. 

The connection in my mind to that One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star quote, from Friedrich Nietzsche, was immediate. 

In the microseconds these decisions take place in my mind, the next thing I know, 

I was painting her portrait background, with Ryoko's studio floor color, that beige.

While I was painting her figure, I made sure I didn't paint the whole surface, making her a plain silver figure.  On the contrary, I wanted the silver lines to be perceived, as if some effort (the chaos) was required to fulfill the whole space.

When our session ended, the studio lit. Colors and fireworks bursted. We were so happy!

I was already delirious with the bunch of emotions I was feeling, but it would get even better, when Ryoko gave me two very special presents.

One was a Taiko stick, Ryoko made herself.

During a concert, she hit too hard with it and broke it. As soon as she showed it to me she said something like: "this is for you to make something out of it". 

I knew right away this would be the tridimensional extension of our meeting.

Painting the broken parts with silver color, was my intervention.

It was the ultimate metaphor for the whole concept of the drawing and this session.

It was from a chaotic moment where the stick broke, that urged the shiniest part. And that was just possible because we did it together, Ryoko and me.

I wanted to find a special scenery to take these pictures too, since I wanted to find a place where the floor, or ground matched the color of the drawing, as the Taiko stick does, as well!

The other present she gave me was this:

It is a 紅白豆 (Kouhaku-mame) hand painted box from Mameya Bankyu. Kouhaku-mame is a traditional Japanese snack made out of soya beans. In this case, inside the box, there were two bean flavors: plum (red one) and a salt-honey one (white).

The hand painted monkey portrays the Earthly Branch sign for 2016. He is wearing a traditional Japanese vest. Also red and white are the national Japanese colors, and the ones used for celebrations.

I loved the box, and the snacks as well, so bad, that they inspired me to do a drawing about what I felt while eating them.

Eating these 紅白豆  made my imagination travel far. 

It was snow flakes gently landing in my stomach, as cotton balls. Suddenly, my 2016 seemed as golden as the monkey vests. I felt blessed.

Leaving with a colossus 

On my way back, I had the same airplane window, with a different view and another song in my mind. My pen exploded due to the atmospheric pressure, and that's how this drawing started. Black ink explosions? Sounded like Khmer!

It was just now, that I am writing this down, that I first saw there is a video clip of the song of Sand I had in my mind during that flight. And it's got airplanes too, Nils Peter Molvaer and all those great musicians, including Eivind Aarset.

The rest was done while having in mind this colossus, that this album is to me.

...And life was never the same, afterwards this album, and this trip. 

When I went to the Netherlands, my luggage was, basically, overcoats and painting material, but I came back with a suitcase full of life, art, music and love.

Feels like having made the journey from chaos to a dancing star.

________

A special acknowledgment to Henning Bolte & Ryoko Imai

An eclipse weekend

Eclipse

Last weekend I went to the second edition of Festival de Jazz e Música Improvisada da Parede. 

Here are some of the drawings I have made, enjoy seeing them! 

This one is Ricardo Ribeiro and was made with both my left and right hand, drawing at the same time. Ricardo's portrait is about a construction of two things happening at the same time, music on one side, poetry on another. 

This one is Jorge Nuno, the guitarist from Signs of the Silhouette. This concert and this music was about the strength of the bones, the crack of bones, the smoke puff in between...

Not often do I make drawings of persons who had made portraits from me. And that was that case here. Miguel Lopes, a.k.a. Miguel Fascinado is a visual artist, a brilliant photographer with a sense of composition from a painter. I was mesmerized with the images he was doing during Signs of the Silhouette concert. It's not about the world, it is about how you see it, how you frame it, how you attribute colors with an etherial quality, with such beauty, grace and poetry. 

I envisioned Ricardo Jacinto being a tree with the posture of a cello player. I wanted this drawing to have a certain roughness to it, some stiffness on the roots, and leafs growing from his hands. That's what he does - grows things from his hands. 

This drawing was made in the first concert of the festival, in a moment of inspiration for me. 

 Abdul Moimême is spinning a top, in a distant desert, with one hand and, bringing forward other stuff, from Smup's stage curtains - what I call here, his traveller luggage, represented by the diverse shapes and colors of the pattern. This drawing is about the axis of the places we carry with ourselves, the emotional luggage we bring from those, in everything we do. It's about Abdul being there, playing, and portraying so many other faraway places, at the same time. 

This one is the violinist Maria do Mar. I have done some other portraits of her (please see here and here), but I kind of feel this one is the fairest of them, so far. Maria has such a special name that she doesn't need to use her surname. The name Maria d-o M-a-r (from the sea) carries the ocean and the breeze of the beach with it, and this time, I wanted that wave movement in her portrait. Plus, with the line that comes from her shoulder is written imensa (immense) and that is exactly what she is, a force of nature, a larger that life person. 

Volte-Face

It is nothing very common, but I can point out three of four concerts where I was, and due to it, an important catharsis happened with me.
In all those important moments, I felt a switch was turned on in my head and nothing was like as it used to be, afterwords. 

This drawing is the testimony of one of those rare moments. It was the concert Maria Radich and José Bruno Parrinha gave. Their music extension was very deep in me, and led me to be writing almost the whole time of their performance.
On this one, I wanted the text to be its main feature (I called it Volte-Face), not the drawing itself. The colors chosen regard to the text too, both Maria and Bruno have colors flowers and gardens have (or so that was my inspiration). The background color regards to the city references in the text: the streets and the corner that led me to the stone, the construction, the pavement, the smog, the pale grey.

It's written:

Dos laços e dos escassos, 

Vais a braços ou embaraços,

Erros crassos ou maravilhosos jardins lassos.

São pequeninos passos, ruas de brutal enlace, de volte-face,

na esquina de um tal país,

sem línguas no que diz,

de rápido rumo e aprumo,

É sumo na vida,

É rumo de sonhos,

De cascas com cor,

De raspas com amor. 

It's very hard to do a perfect accurate translation of this text, but here's a possible one:

From the ties and the scarce

Going forcibly or embarrassedly,

Crass errors or wonderful loose gardens.

These are little steps, streets of brutal connection, of a change to come,

on the corner of such a country,

without languages in what it says,

of fast rhumb and poise,

It's juice in life,

It's course of dreams, 

Of peels with color,

of zest with love.

"My drawing festival" ended up with the first drawing of this post, Eclipse. 

It was made afterwards all concerts where finished, when the moon was huge, we were all talking in the courtyard, and I looked to Paulo Curado's blue drinking ticket and asked him if I could have it, he said ok and asked if I wanted to drink something with it, but I had other plans for what that was, the beginning of this drawing. Even though he played, this time, I didn't make any portrait of Paulo, but, as he was my kind of maecenas and I made this drawing as a gift to him, I included something I connect to Paulo Curado: seagulls. It was a drawing made with both my right and left hand. 

In the end, this Eclipse drawing summed up all the textures, colors and richness of this festival. A bottle of oxygen, these days...

Thank you Rui Eduardo Paes for trusting my work, for choosing an auspicious date, for programming, inviting and choosing such a nice venue to do this Festival. It was great!

My Summer Heroes Story Tale

Once upon a time, August started with lots of music and motion with Jazz Em Agosto Festival, at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. Today my drawings for Jazz.pt were published and here's the story through some of its characters- the musicians - told by someone who was there every night, on the first row, listening and seeing. 

Chapter 1 

The beginning of this traveling lit with the Fire! Orchestra.

The first portrait I did, was this one, from the Norwegian french horn player, Hild Sofie Tafjord. She looked like a white Roman goddess among the forest of the Gardens of Gulbenkian and the noise of the Orchestra. Beautiful. A drill in the dark, she was my window to the music, my kick-start to the festival. I asked my long time Norwegian friend and also a musician, Asbjørn Ribe to help me out translating (Takk!) window to Norwegian. It's Vindu. It took an angel to figure the jungle among us. 

Andreas Berthling was playing with his electronics and I had this image of him, strolling with all those colored wires as flowers or candies :)

 The voice of Mariam Wallentin lamp's body wasn't fire, it was light, an incandescent lamp. I loved the tone of her voice, deep, and strong.  

Chapter 2

Michael Mantler’s Jazz Composer's Update & Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos (OJM) were playing with several guests.

The loops in Bjarne Roupé's guitar playing inspired me in a vision of figure skating and this background pattern. 

I wanted to portray the Austrian piano player, David Helbock as if I was seeing him through a black and white lens. Austria has a very special place in my heart and, for sure, their musicians had a role on that.

Representing the Portuguese crowd from the fantastic OJM is, in my drawings, Marcos Cavaleiro. I think it was the first time I saw him playing live, and it was a great surprise! I did his sketch live and then worked for days on its background, with these collages. 

As soon as I saw this drummer, I knew I wanted some of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's vibe on his portrait. From it, I took the people and flowers theme inspiration along with the colors of its 4 great Sergeants (John, Paul, George and Ringo). Marcos Cavaleiro was creative and stepped up to the plate on this gig. His commitment to the OJM purpose made it worth all the work this drawing implied. Bravo!

Chapter 3

Mats Gustafsson's Swedish Azz project was playing.

Back in 2013, Jazz.pt magazine asked me to do a best of of my favorite releases that year. One of them was Dieb 13's  trick17.  Perhaps because I previously knew his work and loved it so much, he was one of the persons I most wanted to see live this year. 

His manicure inspired me to use nail polish as ink on his drawing. The greens of the nature, the ready to use canvas like color of his table, and him, in a deep sparkling blue night sky.

Swedish Azz is a demanding project for skillful performers and Swedish music connaisseurs. Although his performance was good, full of details of the minuscules sounds, I sensed he had much more to show - he just needed more space to do so. I'm looking forward to see more of his work.

Per Åke Holmlander was the instrument he created and played in this concert. 

Very creative and fun!

Erik Carlsson was all around the place, so fast, so sharp, he could fly, or he could be a fly. Found trummor's the word for drums in Swedish. It sounds alike tremor in Portuguese (to shake, to tremble). Thought it was a funny coincidence because, I had the feeling, this guy was ready to shake some consciousness out!

Had heard Mats Gustafsson several times. It was a surprise this concert. Thank you so much for sharing with such care the Swedish Music History and some of your personal heroes like Lars Gullin, Bengt “Frippe” Nordström, Jan Johansson, Bernt Rosengren, Georg Riedel, Lars Werner, Berndt Egerbladh and Per Henrik Wallin. They became mine as well! I loved this concert, this project and the way they all turned Swedish classics into something even better, if that's possible!

All concert long, Mats and the music was telling a story, so I made his table with an open book shape and the swedish flag. This concert surely was also a reminder of why Jazz em Agosto Festival is vital and a festival really worth going to - definitely an investment to the future creativity. 

During this concert, and due to its also pedagogic nature, I remembered how many concerts I saw there as a kid, and how that played a crucial role in my life nowadays. If I hadn't had such a musical parenthood, I would've never been doing what I do today!  

Chapter 4

The stars were aligned and it was Red Trio's time. 

If my Jazz em Agosto story were a fairy tale,  Gabriel Ferrandini would certainly be its prince, riding the music. This concert, on a gallop, he snapped the cymbals, shaping the thin air around. 

Red Trio's guest for the night was John Butcher. I imagined the sound as a color being compressed in layers until exhaled.

Had made a portrait of this double bass player in a different occasion. This one was special because, along with this drawing I wrote a poem in the concert, for him, and the drawing regards to the text. As the outline was the first thing I did, just afterwords the content, I used pencil (thought of it as a color of dust and cement) and the colors used are mentioned there as well. The birds inside and the mad city outside Hernani Faustino.

I wrote it in Portuguese and will put here both versions (en/pt). 

Poema de fora para dentro 

Quando a paisagem e a cidade se impunham 

de torços esquecidos,

era o azul dos pássaros

e o carmim das Marvilas da vida

o vulcão a chegar,

o avião a descolar

e o cimento e o pó,

é só,

turbante de uma outra vida

tiragens de outro azul,

um mais a sul,

de maré enguiçada,

de jangada na alvorada.

Poema de fora para dentro.

---

Poem from the outside in

When the landscape and the city were imposing 

of forgotten torsos,

it was the blue of the birds

and the crimson of the Marvilas of life

the volcano arriving,

the airplane taking off

and the cement and dust,

it's only,

turban of another life

print runs of another blue,

one further south,

of stalled tide,

in a raft at dawn.

Poem from the outside in.

This one is Rodrigo Pinheiro, brilliant as he is! There was a moment during the concert where he kind of was in this position, although he was like that to make certain sounds, I pictured him as if the piano was a music rug he was pulling. Some years ago, his playing inspired me to do one of my favorite musicians drawings so far.   

It was one of my favorite concerts of the festival. I really liked it. Them, the music, the interaction, all.

Chapter 5

Time for a break on just music. 

This day we had cinema too, with Lok 3 who performed along/watching two mute films (first the Symphonie Diagonale from Viking Eggeling, 1921 and then Berlin, Die Sinfonie der Großstadt, from Walter Ruttman, 1927). These were indeed very inspiring. Different form each other and pretty interesting both. And always great to review the amazing city, Berlin is. Its rebirth from the ashes is just amazing.

As a matter of size and proportion, on this drawing, the elements in black (taken from the film) were too imposing, not the family-musicians (Alexander von Schlippenbach and Aki Takase are a couple and the parents of Dj Illvibe) which was a pity, as all of them are proven very talented. The drawing shows them being ruled by the screen, by the vortex of images.

Even so, one could still get Alexander von Schlippenbach's high level of playing. He was definitely the musician with most class of the Festival. I pictured him as painting a city (Berlin), its roads and streets by his piano. His hand is road marking with a white line - and, at the same time, is the piano keys.

Had seen him other times live, and witnessed his eared approach. It seemed very refreshing (hence the light green) how he knew his records - jazz, opera, classical, experimental stuff that he mastered with the right cuts and speed. I pictured his own portrait as being a vinyl record. The center of it is simultaneously, his headphones. I had in mind in this drawing the idea of repetition until you create something else from it, which is exactly one of the things I think he does!

Chapter 6

The revelation day came with The Young Mothers.

Starting by its guitar player, which I firstly drew, Jonathan Horne. The safari was on and, Dude, when the man arrives, he's gonna get you! His guitar was unstoppable and his outfit was the most inspiring of the whole festival, for sure! Proudly representing rock. 

Jawwaad Taylor is the man behind the trumpet and the hip hop on the band. He was on the vocals too, and so I wanted to paint him throwing words with sound to a wall. Had street art on my mind, and made a point in making a list of invented words by its sound.  I've spent many hours working on this drawing along with the Marcos Cavaleiro's portrait. 

This one portrays Stefan González (vibraphonist and one of the drummers of the band) in the moment they were playing "Mole". At this point of the concert, I looked around and everybody was bouncing to the sound of the music. We were so happy and I know they were too. This drawing is a tribute to that - to enjoy life through joy and flow. Stefan you made your vibraphone playing sound like a kids play easy breezy, with ping pong balls flying with the wind! It was so beautiful. Besides that, he gave the hardcore metal vibe to the band too!

I drew Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, the mentor of the band and the one who had the idea to brilliantly mash up rock, metal, hip hop and jazz in one band. I used a Ionic column as a reference to his structural role in the band, but he wouldn't be a white classic one, but a post modern electric blue one! If I'd sculpt Ingebrigt that's how it should look like.

At the end of the concert, the public fiercely applauded, standing! Asking for more! One more time! Two times! And they came back for the encores jumping and smiling, as little kids do or as artists who had just done something memorable and hard to achieve - to convey life in art in its most expressive way. It's already on the list of the unforgettable concerts of my life. 

Chapter 7

When you get to the top of the mountain, keep climbing.

That is a zen saying not easy to look up to. That has never been so true as in this concert. The stakes were high in the mountain, as the concert in the day before was what it was, and the guys playing this night  are considered legends. 

We're talking about Wadada Leo Smith and his band who this night was playing his Great Lakes Suites. His ideas didn't sound that clear to me so I decided to draw him in 3 different positions in the same drawing with earthy colors. Anyways, I think it is a nice idea to give importance to nature and its force in the world, so cheers up for making that into music. In the end of the concert he was kind enough to say they played for everyone there. I really appreciated his inclusive gesture.

The other legend present that night, was the band's guest, Henry Threadgill. Although his beautiful hands were in action, he seemed lost in the rain, in the lakes, in the city or wherever he was at, all sites but there. Still, and also as Alexander von Schlippenbach, mentioned before, one could tell his star quality. It seemed he simply wasn't on his days. I decided to put no color on his drawing because of that, also you can't really tell by the drawing where he was, there is no ground, just some vertical visual rain or noise, and in between a charcoal pencil shade of Henry. 

Everybody has its moments, and I don't believe in full time super heroes. And we, the audience, have our days too. Hopefully I'll have other chances to listen these guys. 

Chapter 8

It was the last day of the festival, with the French Orchestre National de Jazz directed by Olivier Benoît. The theme of this concert was, again, Berlin. 

Had seen Fidel Fourneyron playing last year but didn't had the change to draw him. I'm glad I did now! On this drawing he has the golden arch for the universe, a gate to the stars. All the drawing was made live, the sky collage and arch painting where the parts done afterwords. I thought of this image for him, because, from the place where I was sat he was the first guy I could see from the whole band.

Alexandra Grimal lived up to the intensity of some moments of this concert, which where my favorite parts. The black and the charcoal I used in her portrait were truthful to the colors she wore but the main reason why I used them was to symbolize her deep, sharp and at the same time rough nature. It crossed my mind the image of a hawk, accurate on his targets. Alexandra was able to come up with several targets at the same time with sensitivity and focus (hence the several petrol blue circles in the drawing).

The last drawing I did in this festival was from the drummer Eric Echampard. There was a certain firmness on how he played the cymbals. Structure, persistency and even an obsessive way of approaching this instrument were all there. It was in the most intense and deep moments of the music he shone the most. No polished finish, this was about a certain physical brutal quality. And that's why, afterwords doing the drawing live, I decided not to paint the rest with pencils or brushes but to use my own fingers. If you zoom the drawing you can still see some of my fingerprints. 

In the end I took home new musical heroes in a shinny mood, but not only that. A great collection of memories, from the amazing environment of this musical family, to the chocolate a friend surprisingly offered me, to the new friends I have made, to the old friends I have met, to the drawing talk I had afterwords one of the concerts, to the feet I drew and did not have time yet to finish because of these drawings, to the never existing brie with raspberry toast, to the water with lemon nights, to the four leaf cloves of Eeva, to the waltzes in a kinky part of town, to all the new nail polish and magazines I had to buy to finish these drawings, to the toilet closed because I took a bit longer in the auditorium giving someone a nail polish, to the autographed vinyl I got as a present from one of the bands and finally to the stage lamp that exploded right before one of the concerts. 

All of that is a proof of life at its best! 

So, I thank all the Gulbenkian Foundation team and Jazz.pt crew for this opportunity to live it at its fullest and expressing myself. And no, the prince didn't marry the princess but, the good part is that, in the end of this story, my Summer heroes go free.