Não vou pro céu mas já não vivo no chão Hugo

Não vou pro céu mas já não vivo no chão
Hugo Sukman
Building on a forty year career, along with hundreds of songs composed with Aldir Blanc,
one of the greatest duos in Brazilian music has finally generated a song that perfectly
portrays João Bosco, "Sonho de Caramujo" (Snail's Dream). “ I've met the fate of a musical
snail/Today I grip or sing/Not heading for heaven but no longer living on the ground/ I live
inside the shell of my guitar”. Aldir's lyrics brings to light Bosco's typical samba, as he has
appropriately named the album, " Não vou pro céu, mas já não vivo no chão", which is now
a concert tour and will travel around the world from Quixeramobim to Bombaim, featuring
João Bosco, himself, on board with his guitar.
Although not clearly autobiographical, Bosco's new work can be considered a synthesis of
his life and his career, reconciling his glorious musical past with a promising future. From
previous years and past accomplishments, João rescues his (more than historical) mythical
partnership with Aldir Blanc. As for his future musical alliances, João highlights the great
talent of his latest regular partner, his own son, Francisco Bosco, a truly outstanding
essayist, poet, and song writer that is beyond any accusation of nepotism. Master Aldir
Blanc has already revealed through the press that Francisco is more of a mature songwriter
as he was himself at that age.
Through his melodies, his voice, and his ever increasing sophisticated guitar playing, so
unique and identifiable that his name not even needs to be mentioned, João Bosco shares
his stories supported by his partner's precise lyrics. Together with Aldir, his partner since
1971, the year they composed the carioca samba, "Bala com Bala", and the barrocomineiro song, "Agnus Sei" (both made famous by Elis Regina), João celebrates the art and
nuance of partnership (and other forms of love) in the song "Plural Singular" ...”You are and
have always been/My Pair/And no pair/Non-being becoming being/To be born/Transcended
(...)/A love so singular is plural/ Grain of sidereal jewelry”.
On the track, "Mentiras de Verdade", besides paying homage to one of his major forms of
musical influences, the samba-canção, João and Aldir compose a musical narration about
the long separation that their partnership experienced between the 1980's and the early
years of this 21st century, telling their version of the much publicized disagreement, as well
as, celebrating their reconciliation. “True, it's true/ Today I admit/ Yes, we are a myth/
Cruelty and tenderness/ endless tenderness/ Tied with a bow/ Satin leash/ Chose to forget
about myself/ To be more yourself, less than me/ Truth and lies that love between us has
revived”.
Aldir, with his typical irreverence from Rio de Janeiro (so common in their work), matches
Bosco's typical Minas Gerais' constriction in the samba "Navalha" with its forceful religious
metaphors “Your smile is a blade/ That opens my heart/ Blood on the chest/ Blood of
Christ's passion”. Francisco Bosco acknowledges his father's creative process as much as
Aldir, and also tries to translate João Bosco in the contradictions of "Alma Barroca”: “My
feet are on the ground/ My heart is in the air/ My soul is baroque/ I'll be good and loyal/
Your admirer/ The most cruel/ No reason, incidentally/ No one to blame/ Pain belongs to the
both of us/ And so does our love”.
Yes, João Bosco is baroque, and in the recording of " Não vou pro céu, mas já não vivo no
chão ", he sings of his baroque soul that touches the hearts of all Brazilians! But he also uses
the emotion to travel through many of his musical and literary influences. With a new
partner, Carlos Rennó (from São Paulo), he explores his lyrical vein in the sophisticated and
faithful, "Pronta pra Próxima" as well as in the passionate "Pintura"; light songs, almost
Jobinianos, as many of Bosco's compositions tend to be. With still another new partner, the
carioca Nei Lopes, João explores and displays another aspect of his work (present in albums
such as " Gagabirô " or " Cabeça de nego"), which is the presence of a universal black music,
in "Jimbo no Jazz", a tribute to Ray Charles, which grows into a forest of rhythms that have
their African roots in common: “And the jazz the samba and the milonga and the tango and
candombe/ And the rumba and the mambo, they all come from Congo”.
Equally comfortable in great love songs (think of Papel machê” or “O amor quando
acontece”, among others), and in Afro improvisations, João Bosco distills Caribbean
influences in “Tanajura”. Although he always returns to Rio de Janeiro's ditties, like
"Desnortes", a beautiful homage (also written by Francisco Bosco) to Rio de Janeiro, the city
that this mineiro decided to live in after being 'musically' adopted by the city's greatest poet,
Vinicius de Moraes, in the end of the 1960's.
If Vinicius was the sponsor of Bosco, then Clementina de Jesus was the godmother,
recording his songs, such as "Incompatibildade de gênios ", while encouraging him at the
very beginning of his career. Clementina's influence is present in the recreation that João
recorded of the gorgeous samba "Ingenuidade" (by Serafim Adriano), which they sang
together when they opened in the 1976 anthological concert, in Rio de Janeiro, the concerts
series named Seis e Meia.
Just like this, appearing quite unintentional, just a regular produced album with another set
of new songs, João Bosco reviews his entire musical path! Watching and listening to João
Bosco demonstrate his broad musical horizons in the album, " Não vou pro céu, mas já não
vivo no chão" is, as the title suggests, like flying into the unique history of Brazilian music.