Shopping on Avenida São João

Building `gallery` shopping centres in the European style was championed in São Paulo from the early 1960s, during the initial `verticalisation` of the city, by Italian architect Ermanno Siffredi.  Others followed suit, and the character of these elegant buildings still holds sway in São Paulo Centro. São Paulo already had a considerable and elegant built heritage.

Foyer of the São Pãulo Teatro Municipal opera house. Ramos de Azevedo, 1911.

But the shopping gallery projects did not import materials and craftsmen and women wholesale from Europe, as did the Teatro (1903 – 1911) and the Gothic Revival Catedral da Sé (1913 – 1954). The galleries were not stone but ferro-concrete constructions, and some designs were the outcome of architectural competitions. With striking results.

Façade of Grandes Galerias, Avenida São João 439, São Paulo. Siffredi & Bardelli, 1962

Boldly modern in its sweep and style, the Shopping Center Grandes Galerias nonetheless combines curves and straight lines to good effect, just as the eclectic Art Nouveau Teatro does. The Grandes Galerias were designed by the Italian practice of Ermanno Siffredi and Maria Bardelli, business and personal partners. Since their qualifications were not recognised in Brazil, they were not always named as architects. Brazilian Alfredo Mathias also had a hand in the design – he went on to design the Portal residential complex in Morumbi.

Their effects are achieved with simple devices – linear placement of ordinary light fittings, pale curved facade floors which draw the eye away from the darker faceted standard plate glass windows, the safe yet open galleries which invite a casual shopper to linger on the railing and enjoy the view. And there are more visual delights inside.

A vantage point for vigilant security

The curves of the façade are carried through into the arcade walk in both horizontal and in ascending vertical planes. The wooden battens  – a favoured decorative element in Brazil – of the façade shop fronts wrap around the mezzanine, spacious despite the intrusive fire system piping.

Each floor has a distinct pattern for its tiled floor. The demands of commercial advertising may intrude – what IS that on the underside of the elevator ? – and the character of the design may or may not be strong enough to overcome them.

A visual Babel

The lifts are a case in point. The floor tiles, and the dark facings and stainless steel doors interpolated in the curve of wooden battens, are matched in colour, and contrasted in form. But the ceramic mural of shoppers and their consumer durables above is somewhat lost in the noise of the commercial environment. Let’s take a closer look.

Fashionable furnishing at its height

Decorative ceramics, household furniture, light fittings and wall coverings are all advertised in a rather more subtle way than today’s retail items. Today the building is known as the Galeria do Rock, and sells skater fashions, T-shirts, tattoos and sports goods, and serves as a commercial music venue for tribute bands. Urban sub-cultures thrive here.

Sloping access to lower ground floor, original lettering

What we see here under the commercial noise and frankly, the startling poverty of São Paulo Centro today, is the elegance and the real optimism of an earlier age. Today Avenida São João is inhabited by the urban poor and small retailers.

The facade on Avenida São João from the inside looking out

Hard to believe that in 1978, Brazilian music star Caetano Veloso wrote a song to honour São Paulo – “Sampa” – which has the corner of Avenida São João and Ipiranga at its heart, where Bar Brahma was “a favorite of intellectuals, musicians & politicians in the ’50s & ’60s, with beer, snacks & music”, if Google Maps is to be believed.

 

Modernist composition, ground floor, looking up

Under the glitz and the grinding poverty, the architecture of the Shopping Center Grandes Galerias is a fading though glamorous echo of that time.

Choro in Cambuci

Cambuci is a neighbourhood south of Sao Paulo’s centro, in the area named for its park, Parque Aclimação. Low-rise housing predominates, though prices mean that the developers are moving in. For the moment it retains some of the older character of Sao Paulo – single-storey houses with small gardens, friendly, less anonymous architecture which only survives in pockets or in back streeets in more developed areas like Itaim and Higienópolis. There, vila houses are at a premium – here they are the norm. The side streets are quiet, the pace relaxed.

The bar on the corner

On an airy corner of the Rua Gama Cerqueira a bar stands wide open. Red awnings stretch over the pavement, with high stools and tables for the clientele, French doors flung wide, and hurrah! – plenty of room to park. This is not Vila Madalena.

A welcome sight

The ambience shows the Mediterranean influence of the district’s people, here since the beginning of last century. Welcome to the Bar e Armazém Cambuci.

Armazém, bar, boteco …

A high ceiling and the open doors keep the room cool.

Bebidas – a  wide range

The shelves behind the bar sport an enormous array of bottles, the walls are covered with mirrors, cartoons, posters, household objects and memorabilia. The clientele is a mix of families and couples, friends, larger parties, locals and music lovers come to hear tonight’s attraction, Trio Cambuci. They play choro here every Tuesday. It’s a natural home for Brazil’s oldest style of popular instrumental music.

Guest vocalist Valeriah Soares and guest cavaquinho

The choro crowd, musicians and audience, are welcoming. Everyone knows everyone, and if not, they soon do, smiling at each other and nodding in time to the music played by virtuoso Stanley Carvalho on clarinet, Cidão 7 Cordas on the seven-string guitar which takes bass line and rhythm, and Artur Bernardo on Brazil’s answer to the tambourine, the pandeiro. Stanley bears a more-than-passing resemblance to British comedian Ronnie Barker, and is just as affable.

British comedian Ronnie Barker – looks like him, não é?

The trio plays tonight with guest John Berman on clarinet too, a beguiling combination which produces exquisite harmonies. Here’s the Trio in action in the bar, captured on YouTube.

And as always, there are singers in the audience …

– Celso Miguel, a star of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), who made his name in the 1960s, was a regular singer at the long-gone boteco (“boate“) Baiúca on the Praça Roosevelt near Rua Consolação in Sao Paulo’s centro, and still has a voice of velvet …

– Valeriah Soares, a rising Brazilian chanteuse who I’ve seen in other choro bars in Sao Paulo

Stanley encourages, nay demands that the crowd sing along, and calls more guest vocalists to the microphone. One lady, moved to tears by the beauty of a choro by Jacobo do Bandolim, recites the verses of a song while her compagnonne sings the chorus. Here in the warm heart of Brazilian popular culture, there’s room for tears and laughter.

http://www.barearmazemcambuci.com/

P.S. The sad news is that Bar Cambuci has closed. Irreconcilable differences between the business partners are cited. Looking for the next venue …

Réveillon in Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo in the holiday season from mid-December until the end of January is like France in July and August – deserted. Restaurants shut, shops close early, staff on holiday in a distant corner of this huge country … They go to the beach to jump seven waves to see in the New Year, or to the mountains to escape the heat and to believe they are in Switzerland, or home to the north-east or to the interior.

On the street, only the security staff – porteiros for the apartment buildings, segurança privada at their posts in green fibreglass cabins for the wealthier suburbs – are in evidence. With mirrored windows, sometimes you can only tell cabins are manned by the whisper of the inevitable television.

Zona oeste, Sao Paulo – the segurança wondered why I took this

The more extravagant Christmas lights have been turned off, houses and apartments locked up, plants watered. Dogs sprawl disconsolately on the driveways, or growl and sniff under the iron gates. A gecko darts across the footpath and up a tree trunk. They come into the buildings to escape the heat.

Street people are in evidence, collecting drink cans for recycling, or settling for the night under black plastic or under their hand-carts. They feel emboldened to shout their thoughts down the echoing streets.

Traffic is unusually light, party-goers in Lurex and perfume. The sky darkens, threatening rain without coolness. And beneath it all, under the brash diminuendo of aeroplanes overhead and the premature rattle and boom of fireworks, an unaccustomed Sao Paulo sound – quiet.

P.S and now the rolling thunder of fireworks, shouting, cheering, whistles, chanting and noise that is the countdown to midnight, predictably early. Feliz Ano Novo from Sao Paulo!

Christmas market, Benedito Calixto

The vintage and antiques market at Praça Benedito Calixto in Sao Paulo on a Saturday is pretty lively. Under the tarpaulins, spread out on trestle tables or displayed in the traders’ booths, there’s a huge variety of goods for sale. It’s been a landmark destination for more than fifteen years. http://www.pracabeneditocalixto.com.br/

Silver and shadows

The market is set up in the square among the trees and benches from 9:00 a.m. Praça Benedito Calixto is home to restaurants and shops, cafes and offices. It’s just off the busy Rua Henrique Schaumann, the continuation of Avenida Brasil in the Zona Oeste of Sao Paulo.

Market safeguards

Parking is an issue, as in all Sao Paulo, though the locals are only too happy to help for a small fee. Around the stalls it’s a crush which doesn’t subside until after 4 p.m.

You can take the kids

Markets like these are open-air museums of the material culture of Brazil, and a great place for buying gifts. You could say that they are a more successful version of the modern museum or gallery with its coffee and shop – you can handle and buy the exhibits.

Gift shopping for …

Calixto has more of the vintage than the antique, and some stalls verge on the junk shop end of the market, but there are also high quality items, old and new. I once bought a rococo bronze torchère there which had come from a propserous fazenda in the interior.

Torchère

It’s a cornucopia of vintage advertising, vintage cameras, ‘Persian’ carpets of all kinds, ceramics, crockery,

… sunglasses …

crystal chandeliers and their individual ‘drops’, all kinds of clothes for men, women and children, old and new,

… sticks …

silver cutlery, vintage film lighting, smaller items of furniture, old and new, old and new glass ware,

… stools …

graphic art, hats, vintage household goods of all kinds, incense, jewellery of all kinds, knives,

… silver …

leather ware, linen, masks, contemporary paintings and sculpture, picture books, puppets,

… CDs and vinyl …

vintage radios and record players, hand-made shoes, spectacle frames, old tools and machinery, vintage toys …

Colourful communication

A food court in the centre of the Praça sells Brazilian food and drink, and in the middle of it, this expert group of musicians plays chorinho.

Genuine chorinho, every Saturday until after 6 p.m.

The seven-string guitar, cavaquinho and pandeiro are the mainstays, but like the stall holders and their goods, it’s a changing line-up. Yesterday the guests were an accomplished second cava (bottom left) and an energetic young woodwind player (left, on clarinet). 

Espaço Cultural Alberico Rodrigues with literary busts

The Praça is also home to a pocket theatre, upstairs in the café / bookshop / gallery / publishing house run by the writer Alberico Rodrigues.

Literary café

It’s a pleasant place to take a break from the crush, at the foot of a wall display of literary giants.

Banca Praça Benedito Calixto

The carefully constructed cultural eco-system in which market traders do business alongside writers, antique and repro rub shoulders cheerfully, excellent carpets hang alongside copies of copies of graphic art, and chorinho can be enjoyed within earshot of jump blues, is a delight.

Decorative market, and customers

As are the customers themselves – did I mention it’s a great place for people-watching? Not just at Christmas, but all year round.

Jump blues on the street

World-class Jazz in Sao Paulo Centro

JazzB is an intimate jazz venue in downtown Sao Paulo. The area is better known for its sex industry workers and drug users than for cosy music venues, but it doesn’t feel unsafe. Of course there are exceptions, but the taxi driver says it’s fine, and it doesn’t seem threatening. It’s lively, with lots of folk on the streets, and plenty of neighbourhood bars. JazzB is in the Rua General Jardim, which runs west from the Praça da República in the area known as Vila Buarque. 

View of the street from your table

The bar seats around 100, and divides into two areas, to accommodate two types of customers. At the front behind large plate glass windows are tables and chairs at which couples and friends out for the evening sample the bar food and the wide range of bottled beers.

Beer bar

The bands play in the corner of the L-shaped space, facing a set of tiered seats which rise to the ceiling in studio theatre style. Here jazz aficionados can appreciate the music without too much interference from the chat of those who come to talk against a jazz background.

Jazz fans have a good view

Not long open, JazzB is already a landmark venue for the adventurous tourist – my fellow guests included a young Japanese man who perused his guidebook as he waited for the band.

Picturesque setting, though the Steinway needs tuning

On Saturday we were favoured with an evening of improvisation from the Jorginho Neto Quinteto. Jorginho is a virtuoso trombonist, who has played at festivals in Brazil and in New York. An alumnus of the Orquestra Jovem (Youth Orchestra) Tom Jobim, he plays with the highly regarded Banda Mantiqueira jazz ensemble and other Brazilian jazz groups. On Saturday evening, he played with Daniel D’Alcântara (trumpet and fugel horn), José Luiz Martins on piano, Bruno Migotto (bass), and Edu Ribeiro guesting on drums.

Musical brasswork

D’Alcântara is another stalwart of the Brazilian jazz scene, playing with the Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica de São Paulo and teaching at Sao Paulo’s premier jazz music school, Souza Lima. The two brass players had great fun passing phrases back and forth as they led, alternately and together.

Jorginho Neto, slide trombone

Daniel D’Alcântara, trumpet

Both players also stood back to let the trio of younger musicians have their way. Edu is a fine and energetic drummer, taking some inventive solos, occasionally accompanied by percussion on his acoustic bass from Bruno Migotto. (That explains the wear marks!) Migotto handles his instrument with enthusiasm and infectious enjoyment. The raised eyebrows were saved for explosions of invention from Martins at express train speed, which Neto brought back to walking pace with masterful finesse. These players would be at home on any stage, truly world class. Here’s their version of jazz standard The Nearness of You.

See http://jazzb.net/ for JazzB’s current programming.

P.S. If you sit on the stadium seating rather than at tables on ground level, AVOID the top tier, especially near the noisy service lift. You’ll be bumped repeatedly by clumsy serving staff, and distracted by noisy staff and customers at the downstairs bar below.

Ska in Sao Paulo

Went to see Sao Paulo Ska Jazz at popular venue Jazz nos Fundos (Jazz at the Back). It’s behind an unpromising-looking car park near a flyover which is home to a recycling depot used by Sao Paulo catadores, collecting metal, cardboard and wood on man-sized handcarts. The venue reflects its location in the decor – the look is industrial salvage with musical overtones.

http://theproverbial.org/2013/04/28/jazz-orkestra/

Front line brass

Sao Paulo Ska Jazz (SPSJ) revisits pop and Brazilian classics – Oasis, Tom Jobim – with a ska or a reggae rhythm and a hard-driving brass section supported by electric bass, drums, piano and electric lead guitar. The music may recycle other styles, but it’s definitely not rubbish.

Big band

Though the sound can lack balance, the musicians are a tight-knit unit, with the quick understanding and appreciation of each other’s talents which comes from working hard together.

Watchful Musical Director

The eight-piece band is fronted by sax player Marcelo Pereira, who also plays with La Orkestra K. Playing the guitarra (electric lead guitar) at the core of the band is MD Aquiles Faneco, directing with an eagle eye and taking his solo spots with aplomb and sometimes abandon.

Piano solo from Sidney Ferraz

The players listen closely to each other, backing up solos, introducing or returning to the melody, as the focus shifts from one to another.

Baritone and tenor saxes, trumpet and muted slide trombone

The band has been together for close on five years. How refreshing that they can nevertheless still surprise one another with what they do!

A muted performance!

Look at the expression on the face of trumpet-player Diego Garbin as trombonist Douglas ‘Tigrinho’ takes his solo. The noise this band makes is a joy! From the Jazz nos Fundos archives, here they are in full swing.

http://jazznosfundos.net/#!10391

Saturday in the Park

It was a public holiday in Sao Paulo last Saturday – the 460th anniversary of the founding of Sao Paulo.

http://theproverbial.org/2013/07/23/where-sao-paulo-began/

The holiday fell on a Saturday, so no time off work, but nevertheless, with a sunny weekend beckoning, there was a holiday mood. A good day for a walk. Avenida Paulista, where a street celebration was promised, or Ibiripuera Park, with weekend crowds and shaded walks?

Corner of Rua Inglaterra and Rua Groenlandia, Jardims

I walk up to Ibiripuera Park, the largest in Sao Paulo, through steady traffic. Vendors man their pitch at the lights, selling cut-price flowers, gadgets, and in his usual spot, a man who sells brooms. Sitting beside the road, I thought he had an exotic Brazilian animal on his lap, but it was only his stock of feather dusters.

Sao Paulo is well supplied with public sculpture, perhaps aspiring to the European tradition of bronze soldiers and statesmen, but it’s generally on a more intimate scale, celebrating more modest Brazilians – journalists, tennis players, civic leaders.

http://theproverbial.org/2012/07/31/public-sculpture-brasil/

Cora Coralina, leading Brazilian poet

On an approach to a side entrance of the park there’s a bust of celebrated writer Cora Coralina (1889 – 1985), not published in book form until her mid-seventies, though she had been writing since her teens. Living in Sao Paulo for much of her life, she was a modest and popular writer, born in the interior of Brazil in  – and returning at the age of 67 to – the town of Goiás Velho which was the source of much of her subject matter. After her husband’s death she earned a living by making and selling sausages and cakes, selling books, and also writing stories, poems and children’s literature for the newspapers.

The park is bustling with the Saturday crowd – cyclists, joggers, skaters and skateboarders, families with pushchairs, friends out power-walking as they talk – and here too there are vendors, of agua de coco, ice-cream, refrigerantes or soft drinks, and bicycles for hire. On the grassed areas there are the practitioners of capoeira – a Brazilian dance and martial art form – people singing and playing the guitar, pairs of lovers, tight-rope walkers practicing, people in hammocks, religious groups praying in public …  Most people don’t have gardens, so the park offers them welcome space, fresh air and natural surroundings. During the week the park’s population reflects the affluent suburbs close by – they come to exercise – but on Saturdays they stay away.

Porco Ensebado (Greased Pig) by Ricardo Cipicchia

We walk along the shaded asphalt paths, a leisurely stroll, with all kinds of people walking in both directions, skaters weaving through the pedestrians, cyclists in their lanes, and every imaginable kind of casual dress and undress. Children play around the water fountain, a circle of youths and girls bat a volleyball from hand to hand, someone strings up a hammock. The sun is quite fierce, but an avenue of giant bamboo is quiet and fresh. A large plastic cup of cool agua de coco is welcome. The park is full, but not crowded. A park employee stands at a pathway junction with a whistle, warning skaters to stay in their lanes as they speed down the hill.

Statues appear scattered throughout the park, chosen for popular appeal. The bucolic game with a greased pig is clearly a favourite – its back and neck have been burnished by many hands. The sculptor Ricardo Cipicchia also has a piece on the esplanade in Santos, a fisherman casting his net into a boiling sea.

http://theproverbial.org/2013/04/25/saturday-in-santos/

Here in Ibiripuera everything is peaceful. So much so that the park police have an easy Sunday. Who could imagine that down on Avenida Paulista the street party included a demonstration, which turned into a riot, complete with special police and property damage?

Policing the park

From that perspective, you understand that one of the functions of public art is to define a national character, a model for citizens to follow. The gentle, innocent country people and poets are acceptable, desirable, but urban rioting seems to be just under the surface this summer. Both are cultural expressions, posited as opposing tendencies, and the function of public sculpture in this is clear.

In the days of the military Junta the radical arts group 3Nos3 performed “baggings” of public sculptures – covering the heads of various dignitaries and mythological characters with plastic or cloth bags to demonstrate the ostrich-like blindness of the country’s political class to the state of the nation and the abuses of power. (Thanks to Simon Lewandowski.) And perhaps a reference to some more sinister practices too. More at

http://www.mac.usp.br/mac/conteudo/cursoseventos/mac_encontra/2011_2/ramiro.asp

Mario Ramiro bagging a public statue