Alceu Valença turns 80 with tour and carnival block in his honor
A native of São Bento do Una, a city in the countryside of Pernambuco, Alceu Valença turns 80 with the same youthful spirit that made him stand out on the Brazilian popular music scene. Since the 1970s, his compositions have become popular for mixing influences from frevo, forró, maracatu and xote, a sound that celebrates the diversity of the Brazilian Northeast. The artist stood out for "electrifying" traditional regionalisms with electric guitars and harmony with drums and accordions.
This Wednesday (1st), the artist is in Olinda to receive tribute in a carnival procession from the traditional Pitombeira block. Founded in 1946, the traditional Pitombeira dos Quatro Cantos promotes the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the singer and composer from Olinda. One of the most anticipated moments of the night will be the meeting between Pitombeira and Alceu Valença, at Estação da Luz, celebrating two stories that helped to build and strengthen the cultural identity of Pernambuco.
Tradition and revolution meet in the psychedelia of the artist's songs
The artist grew up surrounded by the musical references of Pernambuco, especially when moving to the capital, Recife, at the age of 10. There, he combined frevo and maracatu with the emerging rock of Little Richard, an American singer, composer and pianist. His first relevant professional performance took place at the experimental show Erosão: a Cor e o Som, in which he already mixed regional rhythms with electric guitars.
However, before taking off in music, Alceu Valença graduated in Law from the Federal University of Pernambuco and even won a scholarship, in 1965, for a three-month course at Harvard University. There, he got closer to students, met hippies and even attended Black Panther meetings in Boston. Contact with the counterculture of the 1970s inspired him to bring psychedelia to Brazilian art.
In the midst of the military dictatorship, Alceu took the stage at the 1972 International Song Festival, celebrating artists such as Geraldo Azevedo and Jackson do Pandeiro. With Geraldo, he released his first album, known as "Quadrafônico". In his following releases, the artist innovated by making psychedelia a way to highlight traditional northeastern culture. From this fusion, productions were born, the albums "Molhado de Suor" (1974), his first solo album, the emblematic "Vivo!" (1976) and "Espelho Cristalino" (1977).
Already established in Rio de Janeiro, the artist caught the attention of young audiences and critics when he defended the song "Vou Danado Pra Catende" at TV Globo's Abertura festival. The station's musical director at the time, Guto Graça Mello, included Alceu's music in the anthological soundtrack of the soap opera "Gabriela", shown in 1975.
In the following years, his compositions won over groups of different generations, establishing the artist as one of the biggest names in Brazilian popular music. Songs such as "Anunciação", "Tropicana (morena tropicana)", "La belle de jour" and "Girassol" are among the 316 songs registered to his name, with the first being the most played, totaling more than 197 million reproductions on Spotify alone.
Tour celebrates the artist's 80th birthday, resuming repertoire
Alceu Valença has been touring Brazil since March with the show "80 sunflowers", created to celebrate the artist's eight decades of life with a look back at his work. He declares himself a "disciple of King Luiz Gonzaga" (1912 - 1989), a figure considered the greatest representative of northeastern music in Brazil and the world.
The title alludes to his eight decades of life, revolving in a solar, energetic and renewed way around music, as well as one of his most famous tracks, "Girassol". The series of presentations debuted in Rio de Janeiro in March and includes São Paulo, Salvador, Florianópolis, Curitiba, Brasília, Recife, Fortaleza, Belém and Belo Horizonte.
The tour is not restricted to shows. Some of the cities it passes through will also host fine arts exhibitions and film screenings. Alceu highlighted that he is a filmmaker and has appeared as an actor in several productions. "I played the main role in the film by Sérgio Ricardo [also singer and composer] 'A Noite do Espantalho'. Afterwards, I made a film called 'A Luneta do Tempo'", he said in an interview with Agência Brasil.
The singer added that he has a large collection of films made in different countries, such as France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, the United States and Brazil: "I always liked the art of cinema and took cameras with me. I have a lot of things. They are other parts of my work. It's not just the music. It's the trajectory", he declared.
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Source: CNN