At 75, Gal Costa has just released his 40th album. (Marcos Hermes / Reproduction)
When Gal Costa, in December, was announced as the attraction of the Koala Festival – scheduled for September – around 9,000 tickets were sold in 24 hours. Coala is a festival geared towards new Brazilian music, or one that does not occupy the conventional spaces of dissemination. Gal, in theory, would not fit this profile.
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However, since 2011, when she released Recanto, an album directed by Caetano and Moreno Veloso, the singer opened a dialogue with the younger audience. In transposing this album to the stage, songs like Baby, Divino Maravilhoso and Vapor Barato hit a new generation hard.
These new followers – anonymous or famous – accompanied her on subsequent albums, such as Stratospheric and A Pele do Futuro. It is this audience that longs to see you at a festival, in a more relaxed atmosphere and with more affordable prices than those of big concert halls.
At the end of 2019, when the singers Rubel and Silva participated in presentations by Gal, producer Marcus Preto suggested that Gal make an EP with four songs that would bring duets with, in addition to the two, Criolo and Tim Bernardes. The bases were made, but the singer didn’t put her voice at the time.
During the isolation, last year, in a telephone conversation with Preto, Gal decided to retake the idea, precisely driven by this perception that young people are increasingly looking for the work produced by the names of their generation – Caetano, Gilberto Gil , Milton Nascimento and Maria Bethânia, among others. I wanted to give back.
The EP project gained momentum and was expanded. Zeca Veloso, Zé Ibarra, Rodrigo Amarante Seu Jorge, Jorge Drexler and António Zambujo joined the initial participants. The album won the name of No Pain and, after being released in digital format, gains CD and vinyl versions this Friday, 12.
In a telephone conversation with Estadão, Gal commented on the appreciation of the music she and her partners produced. “Bossa-nova was a very modern movement, and we are its children. We have an open and consistent view of the world – in addition to talent, of course. This is one of the reasons for my generation’s longevity. We are in a difficult period and the music heals. It healed me every time. People are listening to songs from the past in search of a better time than what we are experiencing. ” Because of the pandemic, the disc was recorded at a distance. The guests sent the bases and the voices. Some of them produced their own tracks. Others received the attention of Felipe Ventura Pacheco, also responsible for the album’s strings. Finally, Gal recorded his part.
No Pain looks at Gal’s repertoire recorded between the 1960s and 1970s, the most cultured of her career, with the exception of the track Meu Bem, Meu Mal, by Caetano Veloso, which she released on the 1981 LP Fantasia. The song is shared with Zé Ibarra, from Banda Dônica. The name of the album, initially released as Gal 75, in reference to the singer’s age, is the title of the song chosen by Zeca Veloso, Caetano’s son, who is on the 1967 album Domingo, which had Caetano and Gal on vocals.
No Pain is a love song that Caetano signs with Torquato Neto (1944-1972), a Piauí poet whose Gal keeps a strange memory. “He had very cold hands. Cold and wet. He touched me and it gave me some distress. But he was a very loving person. I remember people walking around Rio at dawn, ”says Gal.
The Portuguese António Zambujo, one of the names suggested by Gal, chose Pois É, by Tom Jobim and Chico Buarque, present on the album Água Viva, from 1978. “Gal confided that he had sung this song only on the day of recording the album. Then, never again ”, says Marcus Preto. The arrangement is centered on the strings piloted by Felipe Pacheco Ventura, who also signs the production for this track and for Paula and Bebeto, in which Gal added his voice to that of Criolo.
Tim Bernardes chose Baby for finding one of the best pop songs in world music; Rodrigo Amarante was considered for Leaflet, but finally suggested Avarandado. Seu Jorge could have stayed with a newsletter, but there was something missing from Luiz Melodia and the chosen one was Juventude Transviada, one of Gal’s favorite songs. Negro Amor fell to Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, who sang it in Portuguese with virtually no accent. So the difficult puzzle of who would sing what was put together.
Good-natured, Gal only loses her temper when she thinks about Brazilian political issues. And, if she is talking more and more to the young audience, it is essential that he wants to know which side she is on. On social media, whoever sits on the fence may fall to either side, even unjustly or involuntarily. Gal prefers to be attentive and strong in his position.
“I am against that government. He has wrong proposals I have been criticized a lot (on the networks) for exposing my position. Cruelly criticized. But, if you don’t like it, it leaks ”, he says.
Service:
Gal Costa
‘No Pain’ – Biscoito Fino
R $ 42.40; digital platforms
