This
ongoing ensemble of street kids was created in 1983
to play percussion on whatever recycled material they
could find on the streets like bins, broom handles
and cardboard tubes hit with flip flops. Their experiments
developed into unique compositions and style. And
after gaining attention released the album 'Moleque
de Rua' on Sony that won awards in both video and
music. Hundreds of street kids have now taken part
- the present generation being trained by the previous.
Their
ongoing evolution sees constant energy and talent
from new members invigorated by the maturity of
the older members who now manage their fantastic
workshops and tours
At the European Social Forum 2004
15th Oct. 2pm -
3pm
Alexandra Palace Marquee
15th Oct.
9pm - 12pm
(Moleque will play from 10:30pm)
The Camden Center |
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16th Oct. 6pm - 12am
Europe Against Racism March
17th Oct. 5pm - 8pm
Trafalgar Square Carnival
Further info:
Web Site: www.fse-esf.org/
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From the favelas of São
Paulo emerges a band which winds up on David Byrnes'
latest compilation of hottest sounds from Brazil,
Beleza Tropical, 2, Luaka Bop, 1998. It's an amazing
story and an exciting band, a band which mixes your
traditional guitar, bass and keyboards with an intriguing
array of percussion instruments based on recycled
urban waste fusing traditional Brazilian rhythms
with rap, rock, funk or blues. Music and lyrics
are free from cliché and full of insight.
And more, the band's leader and mentor, Duda, and
other musicians, have been working for more than
19 years with young people from the favelas in their
neighbourhood creating this sound of resistance
and survival in hard urban times. The whole "Moleque
de rua" concept has inspired work in scores of music
and youth projects throughout the country
In
1983 Duda started up the band by inviting
kids from his neighbourhood, Vila Santa Catarina,
in the Zona Sul of the city. With no resources
for conventional instruments, he built percussion
instruments using age old street ideas for
recycling stuff from local tips. He took the
band to perform their first piece, Moleque
de Rua, (Street Kid) at a neighbourhood festival
with 18 litre cans and broom handles, and
they won first prize. Duda went on to develop
a whole range of percussion instruments from
recycled materials: the chinelophone (cardboard
tubes played with flip flops), the tamborinophone
(PVC tube drums), the bateria de latas (an
assembly of tin cans , saucepans and fryingpans),
the guitambau and the berimbaixo. |
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With this band of
young adolescents Duda experimented mixing different
rhythms and influences as he developed his own highly
individual compositions and style. After producing
a first independent single in 1983 the band caught
the imagination of the Brazilian MPB fans. They
went on to produce two video-clips, one of which
won the award for "Best Independent Video Clip"
at the Brasilia Film Festival. Their first album
"Moleque de Rua" was produced by Sony Music Brazil
and received several prizes (Revista Bizz, Jornal
do Brasil) whilst the band was hailed "Revelation
of the Year" in 1992 by the São Paulo Association
of Art Critics. Tours of Brazil and shows with major
artists preceded the next phase in their career
EUROPE '93-'98
The tours of this period alternated workshop-residencies
and community youth projects in inner city areas
with appearances at major World Music Festivals
in France, Belgium and Spain. At many of these Moleque
de Rua shared the stage with major artisits such
as Johnny Clegg, Kool and the Gang, Youssoun'Dour,
Santana, Jen Louis Aubert, and Brazilian artists
Gilberto Gil and Tom Zé. The second Album,
"Street Kids of Brazil", Crammed Discs, Belgium,
1995, was top of the European World Music Charts
in August and September 1995.
The
band is identified as belonging to a new wave
of MPB, as the recent inclusion on David Byrne's
Luaka Bop label compilation shows and as commented
on at the release of "Street Kids of Brazil"
by several critics: "This is roots music which
owes as much to rock and rap as it does to
Samba, Batucada and other traditions...Music
with a mission and vitality"(Folk Roots, Dec.
1995). Hétéroclite, the music
slides easily from blues to rap, rock to reggae,
the whole on a Samba free of the clichés
of the genre". (Le Monde, Rhône-Alpes
edition 13/7/96. |
Brazil 97- 2002
This music, which is Duda's work with Moleque de
Rua, continues to evolve in the rehearsal space
, the "Barracõ do Moleque", which he have
has built in the Coreia favela. A new generation
of "moleque" have joined the project as some of
the original youngsters pursue their own careers
in other directions and whilst others continue with
the band where now the two generations play side
by side.
The older members of "Moleque" bring the musical
maturity gleaned over years of composing and playing
together to the present band where conventional
instruments are found along side the colourful array
of the home grown harmonised percussion.
The in-coming generation of "Moleques", have grown
up in and around the favelas of Alegria and Coreia
with the sound of "Moleque de Rua", dying to get
their hands on that percussion. And now they have
come into their own. Having learnt alongside the
first generation this new generation, after 5 years
of playing at the barracão, are now
in the majority and bring to the band new
talent and explosive energy.
In
1998 the band played at several venues in
and around Paris at the World Cup and participated
in the Festival 'Banlieues du Monde" at Saint
Denis at the invitation of Réseau Printemps
of Printemps de Bourges. |
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On returning from France, Duda, the older
Moleque and the new generation channelled all their
energies into producing a new, totally
independent CD: "Pimenta Malagueta". Released in
April 2001 this CD is 100% written composed and
arranged by musicians in the band. The lyrics continue
to speak of the lighter and darker sides of the
favela, of kids at play, of social conflict and
injustice, but now also, as the musicians grow older,
their lyrics turn around more general existential
conflicts, love, man's place in the Universe and
in the world of technological progress and increasing
social exclusion - lyrics which evolve together
with an ever increasing range of musical languages.
The "Folha de São Paulo" critic, Pedro
Alexandre Sanchez ( journalist of Brazil's most
widely read and respected paper) spoke of a "tough,
caustic and aggressive" album which sets out to
reveal harsh social realities whilst furiously denouncing
marketing disguised as well-intentioned charity.
The CD is, according to Sanchez, an album of totally
authentic sound where the percussive force of the
youngsters energizes a rich mix of funk, swing,
a little rock'n roll, lots of samba and generous
doses of Brazilian rhythms. Moleque de Rua is seen
by this journalist and their fans as a band
that puts its faith in music and fights tooth
and nail to put its message across working together
with those who are creatively supportive and scorning
charity and self-pity in any form.
After an extremely succesful six month tour in 2002
throughout Europe, the band, which is comprised
of 11 musicians aged from 15 to 44, is now (2003)
touring in Europe from May to November with the
ever creative support of Gamins de l'Art Rue.
During this tour the band will record, at the BRUN'
Studio in Paris, their fourth album which will be
launched at the Forum Social in Paris in November
2003. This album will be the first in a new collection
from the record company NAÏVE »,
baptised : Create to resist ! (CRÉER
C'est RÉSISTER !!!)
MARCH 2001 launch of new self-produced CD in the
form of a CD-magazine.
The record's excellence is hailed by all the press.
To survive over time you need to be in perpetual
movement;after every ending comes a new beginning.
Obstacles do not hinder this living in perpetual
movement which, rather, thrives on obstacles and
thus overcomes them.
Artisitic creation ( and other types of creation)
needs endings. They are moments for looking inwards,
for focusing, for inspiration, endings which
transform themselves into beginnings. And these
beginnings are outward looking, moments of communcation,
of opening up towards others but also of exposure
to dangers which one needs to have prepared oneself
to face.
"The autonomy of the noble person does not lie in
their being rigid and immobile. Such a person
moves at their own pace and moving transforms
themselves. What is constant over time is their keen
sense of direction, of the internal law dictating
all their actions."
2002 is the year the 2001 Brazilian CD is released
in EUROPE by the label MÉLODIE, and also,
from May to October, of a six month European
tour alternating shows, festival appearances
and workshops and residencies in variuos countries
; Germany, France, Denmark amongsts others.
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2003
Another 6 month European tour ends with shows
opening and closing the European Social Forum
(60.000 participants) and also the recording
of a new album with Philippe BRUN, the indispensable
man behind the albums of Youssoun'N'Dour and
many others like him. |
2004 release of this album produced in association
with NAÏVE in their new collection dans une
nouvelle collection To create is to exists!!! The
launch show in April at the Élysée
Montmartre in Paris is to be followed by a
concert in suivit LONDON for the student magazine
JUNGLE DRUMS and the British Council. Next
comes a week in Berlin with AL GLOBE and then the month
of May in Barcelona at the World Culture Festival for
the creation of a special show with local people
and musicians. Paris, London, BArcelona and
Berlin will thus be the four capital cities launching
a new European and African tour for 2004 -2005.
Planning for the future, Moleque de Rua is working
with various international partners on a project
to establish a cultural centre to give more young
people from their favela the opportunity to get
involved in their own and other artistic and cultural
projects.
BAND MEMBERS
Duda - Voice, Guitar, Cavaquinho, Keyboards
Caluga - Bass
Xandaon - Guitar
Bombinha - Voice, Percussion, Keyboards
Pistola - Voice, Drums, Percussion
Bica - Drums, Percussion
Dudu - Percussion, Keyboards
Carlos - Voice, Drums, Percussion
Abel - Drums, Percussion
Guigui - Percussion
Héverton - Percussio
Jacques Pasquier Sound & Management
GDLAR / MOLEQUE DE RUA / J.PASQUIER
Further info:
www.naive.fr
artrue@wanadoo.fr
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