Summer is more than a season. Summer’s a feeling. Summer is the time to find a little bit of heaven in earth’s most transient moments. It’s those moments when heat and humidity give way to a refreshing spell of breeze and rain. Now, to circle back, and outline more music that captures this spirit, my mind goes to Clara Moreno’s sophomore album, Mutante.
There was a time that Clara Moreno, seemingly, felt fated to great things. Born in 1971, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Joyce and Nelson Angelo, literal icons of the MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) movement, from a young age she understood her love of music and chose to follow that path of her parents, to become a professional singer. By the time Clara was a teenager she had already appeared on recordings by such Brazilian heavyweights as Milton Nascimento, Xuxa, and Egberto Gismonti.
However, in 1989, at the age of 18, looking to explore other avenues, Clara took her talents to France where she enrolled at the Sorbonne and at the CIM School of Popular Music to study French and music, respectively. For many years one could find Clara performing in various Parisian jazz cafes, imbibing the European music scene. By the time she came back to Brazil in 1994, it was to debut on her mom’s 1994 release, Revendo Amigos, performing a duet with her on “Minha Gata Rita Lee” in homage to another artist who inspired Clara’s own transforming sense of musical vocabulary.
Clara’s debut would have to wait until 1996. On her self-titled debut, one could hear Clara trying to update her roots in MPB with newfound alternative music styles. Her take on Chico Buarque’s “Partido Alto“, rearranged as a quasi-rap and acid jazz track, or the gorgeous downtempo of “Podia Ser Pra Sempre” or “Detalhes“, speak to Clara’s contemporary musical leanings. In a different time, world, or place, such music would have invited comparisons or be in the same league of popularity as a Nelly Furtado or Erykah Badu.
Where Clara Moreno’s debut did take her would be to Japan. In 1997, Clara became a regular on a Japanese concert series called “Gets Bossa Nova” hosted by Kawasaki’s Yomiuri Land. Out of contract, she entertained offers by a Japanese record label, Avex Tune, to release an album that could capitalize on her popularity.
What came to be, Mutante, was a release recorded both in Brazil and Japan, featuring some truly inspired production and mixing/remixing from choice musicians from each country. From Japan, producers and artists like Soichi Terada, Yasuharu Konishi, and Cubismo Grafico, were able to tap into the source of a lot of their Brazilian influence by using Clara as a muse for the songs they’d appear in. Brazilian producers Alexandre De Souza Moreira, Flavio Mendes, and Marcio Menescal, were given the freedom to sprawl out to further explore electronic dance music and alt-pop concepts they had scratched the surface on while working with singer-songwriter Vitor Rami. At the center of all this was Clara, completely game to try all this new fusion based on the belief this was the way for MPB to evolve and touch the minds and hearts of young people.
Accompanying Mutante‘s release was a record called Clara Claridade (The Remixes) featuring impressive remixes by many of those involved and others like Joe Claussell and Ashley Beedle, who deconstructed its acid jazz and EDM leanings, into abstract dancefloor bangers or moody head bops. On the album’s eventual UK release, the one I’m offering today, you get a blend of both sides.
Opening track, “Feminina (Bambino & Samba Mix)”, is a wild, swingin’ transformation by Cubismo Grafico reimagining Joyce’s Brazilian standard into something as propulsive, in a different way, splicing Clara’s vocal into multi-dimensions. For a record full of choice covers running the gamut from Jorge Ben Jor to Jay Kay’s Jamiroquai, songs like “Banana” reworked by Joe Claussell speak a progressive language using the originals as bases to go elsewhere, in that particular case to fuse MPB with deep house. Jamiroquai’s fiery funk warning “When You Gonna Learn” gains a darker edge in its “When You Gonna Learn (Mr. Beedle’s Spacer Out!!)” version, while the acoustic-led cover amplifies its more personal flavor.
What keeps me coming back to this record are tracks like “I Want You Here”, “Partido Alto”, and “Mutante”. Original songs like “I Want You Here”, which was chosen as its lead single, invite the distinct flavor of the alt-soul scene in, giving Clara’s smooth vocals a great canvas to unfurl a sultrier, more connective form of MPB that really suits her phrasing. Chico Buarque’s “Partido Alto” transforms into a heavy form of Brazilian house or jungle music, capturing a new angle to the fiery desperation of the original. Rita Lee’s “Mutante” sounds positively foundational — a fellow sister in arms who once tried to do the same with MPB and New Wave.
In Clara’s Mutante world her cover becomes not a lovelorn song but one with a different spirit, embodying a vibe that can resonate with all such hopeless romantics who follow their own muse wherever that may take them. For all of you still with me, perhaps it’s now time to take a beat and luxuriate in this spirit?
