Porto Seguro, a Charleston-based Brazilian music band, will close out its Piccolo Spoleto appearances with Sounds of Brazil, an evening program featuring a mix of Brazilian rhythms and popular repertoire, on Friday, May 29, at 7 p.m. at Gage Hall.
The band performs Brazilian samba, bossa nova and choro. Earlier in the festival, the group performed Where Bach Meets Jobim, a concert exploring the relationship between Brazilian and classical music traditions. Vocalist Alva Anderson said the music they perform reflects how artistic traditions move freely across borders and cultures.
“It’s a kind of a testament to the fact that although we look at the map and we see lines that separate countries and separate borders and borders that separate us, music flows easily across these lines,” Anderson said.
Anderson has lived in Charleston for 10 years, though her family’s connection to the city stretches back generations. Her mother grew up downtown on Spring Street, where Anderson’s grandmother managed a tea room and boarding house. Her father was raised in North Charleston on Jacksonville Road, and both family homes are still standing.
“I’m very happy to be back here walking the streets that they walked when they were kids,” she said, “And sometimes meeting people who may have remembered him or know them.”
Anderson came to singing in a second language gradually. A Brazilian bartender at a restaurant she frequented learned she wanted to sing songs in Portuguese and, weeks later, he delivered 15 CDs to her home. Hearing “The Girl from Ipanema” by Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz was what changed things.
She now has about 25 songs in her Portuguese repertoire, which she describes with a mix of emotions.
“Nature, oh, and love, and how love is like nature, and how love is sad, but it’s also wonderful.,” she said. “It’s beautiful and it’s so lovely and painful.”
At Where Bach Meets Jobim, Anderson also played viola, but she will primarily perform as a vocalist during Sounds of Brazil.
Porto Seguro was already an established group when Anderson joined. Flutist Susan Conant, one of the band’s principal arrangers, first connected with Anderson through church music work. Conant hired Anderson to sing at a church where she served as music director, and later invited her to a Porto Seguro performance.
It was through that connection that Anderson attended a Porto Seguro concert and first heard choro music.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my god, this music. It’s great. It’s great!’” she recalled.
Conant eventually invited Anderson onstage during a concert, and later asked her to join the band. The concept behind Where Bach Meets Jobim was also Conant’s idea, Anderson said.
Guitarist Tom Noren grew up in Brazil through high school and speaks Portuguese. For Anderson, he became an important resource inside the band. He would send her songs by email along with videos and she would check her pronunciation with him.
“He’s my Brazilian mentor in the band,” Anderson said.
John Holenko plays mandolin and, alongside Conant, helps arrange much of the group’s music. Bassist John Kennedy was one of the ensemble’s inaugural musicians.
Drummer Bryce Waldron-Noren, Noren’s son, first joined the group as a high school senior filling in during performances. Anderson remembered his early hesitation.
“Now when I say ‘Bryce, take a solo,’ he just — Wow,” she said.
For audience members attending Sounds of Brazil, Anderson said there is only one expectation:
“There’s always room for dancing, even if it’s just in your seat.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO:
Sounds of Brazil will take place Friday, May 29, at 7 p.m. at Gage Hall, 4 Archdale St. Tickets are available at the door or at citypapertickets.com.
Wesley J. Pérez Vidal is a magazine, news and digital journalism graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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