No Balanço do Jequibau: uma sonoridade paulistana

Abstract

Created by Mário Albanese and Cyro Pereira, released in São Paulo, in 1965, Jequibau is a musical expression structured in a quartet (5/4). Best known for the epithets of “Samba em Cinco” and “Bossa em Cinco”, recorded in more than twenty countries by musicians such as Hermeto Pascoal, Charlie Byrd, Sadao Watanabe and Susana Colonna, Jequibau has remained out of the media and academic focus. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by systematically analyzing it from different perspectives. To this end, its trajectory is critically described, comprising its various moments through historiographic and ethnomusicological approaches. Its conception as a oeuvre is analyzed by a more philosophical bias, in which the concept of art is at the center of the debate. Its intricate relations with the city of São Paulo and its identity discourse, showing what synthesizes and what Jequibau adds to it, is also an object of discussion and reflection. Finally, the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic aspects, as well as their influences and transformations, are analyzed using tools such as score and concepts such as time-line-pattern, micro-variations and musicality frictions. All research and text presented here are permeated by materials collected over ten years of fieldwork. There are many articles, newspaper and magazine articles, scores, interviews, images and testimonials examined here. Once neglected and forgotten, Jequibau presents itself as an important contribution to the thinking of popular Brazilian music, becoming an important part of it.