Interviewed by Marc Gidal via Skype

Date: August 14, 2015

Locations: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and New Jersey

Edited by Marc Gidal

Last revision: January 5, 2023

 

 

Vinicius Cantuária: My métier [profession] in Brazil, my environment in Brazil is more–I have more things to do. Not only make music, but make business, too. In New York, I only have to make music.

Marc Gidal: I see.

VC: I don’t have to do something different than music.

MG: That’s really interesting. Let me ask you, when you first came to New York in ’94, how did you begin to meet musicians? How did you begin to develop relationships with Brad Mehldau and Arto Lindsay, and the people you mentioned?

VC: When I moved to New York in 1994, I had in my bag many projects. I did many projects in Brazil. I worked especially with Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and with Chico Buarque de Hollanda. So my reputation in Brazil was in good shape. I had met Arto Lindsay before. The first time I went to New York was in 1981 with Caetano. I performed with Caetano at the Public Theater in New York. Arto Lindsay, at the time, was working in the production of the concert, so I met him for the first time. And then of course, after this, I met Arto many times in Brazil. When I moved to New York, Arto Lindsay called me: “Vinicius, I’m just doing an album for [Ryuichi] Sakamoto’s label in Japan. But, I don’t know what to do, because the money is almost finished, and I don’t yet have the album made. Can you help me to do something? Can we write songs together?” And then I said, “Of course.” Then I started to work with Arto. This job for me was so important, because after this, I met Sakamoto. And Sakamoto invited me to do an album. Sakamoto opened the big door for me; he invited me to do an album like he did with Arto. The album I just did myself and Sakamoto with Rykodisc. Rykodisc is from England, but a company in the US that represents Rykodisc released the album in the US. And then I started to meet musicians. I met Bill Frisell. Because of Bill Frisell, I met Lee Townsend, who’s Bill Frisell manager. Because I started to work with Frisell, I called Brad Mehldau and said, “I love your music,” blah, blah, blah. You know what it’s like, and I don’t remember exactly how it happened. But it is very, very nice for me to work with these people.

MG: That’s interesting. So you really got hooked in with the downtown scene through Arto.

VC: Yes. I co-produced the album with Arto, okay, and then, I wrote five songs with Arto Lindsay for the O Corpo Sutil, the name of the first album for Arto Lindsay I did. And then after this, I met Sakamoto, and then Arto called me to play in his band. And then, I did a concert in New York. And people went to the concert like John Zorn. John Zorn after the concert said, “Oh Vinicius, I love your music, do you want to do something together?” And then I met Jenny Scheinman, I met Joey Barron. For the album, I worked with Brian Eno. And Brian Eno said, “Vinicius, I love your music.” This is like a job, it’s like a process. You start working and then you start meeting people. And then one introduces you to another one, and then another one, and another one. This is like a network. It’s like this.

MG: Really interesting. And then did you also have contact with the Brazilian music scene in New York at the time?

VC: No. Very, very little. So little, because I put in my mind, if I want to play with Brazilian musicians, I can go back to Brazil. [laughter] Do you know what I mean when I say that, I don’t want to be there and then work like in a ghetto. Like I want Brazilian music, I want to eat Brazilian food. I was in New York, I want to eat American food. I want to eat Japanese food. I want to make music with African people. Of course, I love Brazilian music. Of course, I am from Brazil. But my focus in New York was this, to open my mind and open my music, share my music. And then I just had a good–Mr. Paulo Braga, the Brazilian drummer. He is, for me, number one in Brazil, number one in the world. Paulo Braga is just fantastic. He plays in my band. He is my Brazilian contact, direct. But I use a lot of different musicians. I work with Paul Socolow, he’s American. Michael Leonard, Masimo. I try to put my band musicians from different parts of the world.

MG: I see. Interesting. Is it true that Jobim encouraged you to move to New York?

VC: Yes, Jobim. We were huge friends and we had good conversations. And then, of course, Jobim encouraged me, like other people. But Jobim, because he knows, he had that experience before, and then he said to me, “Vinicius, go, man. Go. Go there. You can find something very good for you and your music. Go, go, go.” Yes, it’s true.

MG: And Ricardo Silveira, did you know him in Rio already? Because he was in New York, too.

VC: Yes, Ricardo is a huge friend. Before I traveled to the US, Ricardo played on my first album in Brazil. He’s a huge friend of mine.

MG: I see. Can we talk about Indio de Apartamento? [his album on Naïve records, 2012]

VC: Yes, of course.

MG: Is this album autobiographical?

VC: No, it’s not. It’s kind of, but it’s not exactly autobiographical, no. I think it’s more than biographical. I think it’s my vision about music these days. Because before, we had to go to the studios, big studios, and meet people. And now I work in my studio like a painter, like a tailor. I work everyday in my studio. So Indio de Apartamento reflects this kind of life experience, daily experience. Everyday I go to the studio, recording. Vinicius works like this. It’s just the way I play my music.

MG: So, who is the “Indio” and who is the “Moça Feia” [a song title on the album]?

VC: The Indio is me. [laughter] I’m the Indio because I was born in the Amazon, in the rainforest. I was born in Manaus [the capital city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas], the capital of the rainforest. My mother’s side came from the rainforest. So I’m an Indio. I’m the Indio. And “De Apartamento” is where I live in New York. And then it’s unbelievable because in my studio, it’s just a little studio. I have an apartment in New York, and in my apartment, I have my studio. I’m the “Indio de Apartamento.”

MG: I see. And what about the “Moça Feia”?

VC: “Moça Feia” is like a tribute. “Moça Feia” means ugly girl. This is a little joke because sometimes when you see a girl, when you see her for the first time, you say, “Oh, the girl is not so beautiful.” But the second time you see her, “She’s not so ugly.” And then the more you see her, she becomes beautiful. You know what I mean? This is the idea of the song “Moça Feia.”

MG: I see. I love this album, it’s beautiful. But I would love to know how you would describe the sound you were trying to create.

VC: In my studio, because I don’t have to pay to perform in my studio, to record in my studio, I can take a month, or maybe a year, just to find a song. I have in my studio high technology and many hand-made instruments. I mix the high technology of computers, samples, effects, reverb, and echo with the simple pandeiro or simple acoustic guitar, or simple caxixi [basket shaker], very Brazilian hand-made instruments. This is my universe in my studio. I can have, like in the Sakamoto sample, something very strange. And then I have just a little box, a matchbox. [sings while shaking it with a syncopated samba rhythm] So, this is my idea. I can spend time mixing the technology with the hand-made Brazilian percussion. I have time to develop the songs. This is my idea about music. I can take my whole day. I can stay all day, all night. I start to record at nine in the morning, and I’m still, the next day, recording the same track, trying to figure out the sound that I really want. I can experiment on different kinds of microphones. I can experiment with different kinds of guitars. It’s like a real, real, real, real job.

MG: Was it soundproofed in your apartment? Because it’s a very quiet album. I can imagine the noise of the street was a problem.

VC: Yes, sometimes I had some issues. I have sounds coming from outside, like the siren from the police, from the firemen. If you put the headphones, maybe in my albums, you can find some, the neighbor upstairs talking, you hear something. But this is part of the music for me. The sounds and the sirens are part of the music for me. I use the noise. But normally I don’t have this because the people in my building are so quiet, so nice. Like me, I don’t make a lot of noise either. But if I have some noise coming from outside, it is welcome to my music. I don’t have any problem.

MG: This might be an obvious question, but I assume that the drum and the shaker at the beginning of “Indio de Apartamento” is supposed to be a Native American drum, or an Amerindio, Indio drum.

12:43 VC: Yes.

MG: And the clapping at the beginning of “Humanos”? Why the clapping?

VC: Yes, the clapping because, when I did the song, when I recorded the song, I was thinking about Spain. I thought about flamenco music. I thought about Paco de Lucía. I did the harmony, I can imagine Paco playing this guitar. I play just simple harmony, but when I play the harmony, in my mind, I hear Paco de Lucía solo on the top of this. And then the clap is just like a “tut-tut-tut-tut-tut.” This is Spanish music.

MG: I see, cool. I think on your website, you say that the sound of the album is “unique, Brazilian, universal atmosphere.”

VC: Exactly, exactly.

MG: What do you mean? Can you explain that a little more? What do you mean by that?

VC: Okay. When I play acoustic guitar, I try to play real Brazilian music. I use the chords, I use the reflections, I use the kind of groove, to play pure Brazilian music. But, around this, I want to put sounds, and some contemporary ideas. This is my philosophy for music. Okay, I’m from Brazil, I play Brazilian music. But I open windows for new ideas, for new contemporary ideas. My vision about the music is I have a beautiful white wall, a very big wall, but white, completely white. And then I start to put some colors there: red, black, yellow; and some of my friends come and they put purple. My original idea is so pure, where Vinicius makes pure Brazilian music, but in the end, he can mix something not only Brazilian. Because when Sakamoto plays piano, he plays it like he’s Japanese. When Bill Frisell plays his guitar, he plays like an American guitar player. This is my idea, collaboration with people. Give my hands and take another hand, mix the music. And I think in the end, when I just listen to the album, say, “Man, this is Brazilian music, pure, but with contemporary ideas and classic,” and blah, blah, blah. My original idea always is to do something like this.

MG: Well, I think you achieved it for sure. This album and the other albums, too. Tell me something, since you brought up Sakamoto and Brad Mehldau. You are an expert at playing bossa nova, and you play with non-Brazilian musicians who also play some bossa nova, especially Sakamoto and also Mehldau. What do you think of how they approach the music, how they play bossa nova?

VC: What’s the difference between bossa nova and jazz? For me, the difference between bossa nova and jazz is that in bossa nova you play acoustic guitar and in jazz you play piano. Of course, you can play with guitar or another instrument, but I think basically, bossa nova is this. Why is bossa nova so famous in the world? Because we have the Brazilian acoustic guitar. [sings the rhythm and melody to “Garota da Ipanema”] Why is jazz so famous? Because, [sings a fast bebop melody] on the piano. But if you play bossa nova on piano, this is almost jazz. I think Brazilian bossa nova is a process. Bossa nova is a music made for people in Brazil in the ’50s. They listened. Tom Jobim made bossa nova, but Tom Jobim played classical piano. And Tom Jobim was an expert in American music, Gershwin, Cole Potter. In the ’50s, Tom Jobim went to the movies and he listened to music there. He was totally in love with his music. And then he went back home with this music in mind. Bossa nova and jazz, they have a very strong relationship. So, when I play bossa nova on acoustic guitar, Frisell, and his guitar, jazz guitar or country guitar, they are so close. And the same for piano. When I played with Brad Mehldau, Brad say, “Vinicius, this is so beautiful.” He can understand the music, because bossa nova and jazz are very close, more close than people can imagine. They’re very, very close.

MG: So you like how they play?  Sakamoto, how he plays Jobim?

VC: Yes, the same thing. First of all, because Sakamoto is a Japanese guy, he just grew up with bossa nova, with jazz, and is so familiar to him. It is the same thing. It’s the same thing for me.

MG: The song “Moça Feia” has a really interesting sound that you created with Sakamoto scraping the piano strings at the beginning. And then he has a long cadenza at the end, a long ending. Do you have any thoughts on that? Did it have any meaning for you?

VC: Normally, when I record and work with Sakamoto–because I record a lot with him for his album and he makes a lot of soundtracks in Japan. He invites me to play guitar and percussion. And then he always says to me, “Vinicius, in the song, in the end, the song is too plain. It’s too plain.” So I asked the same thing from him. I have some tracks with Sakamoto playing after, when the song is finished. And I do the same thing. This is very unique.

MG: It’s like part of your collaboration.

VC: Yes, this is part of our collaboration, to play after the song. It’s kind of like a tacit situation. After the song, you’re still playing. This always happens with me and him, and I love it. I love it.

MG: Interesting. What about the scraping of the piano strings at the beginning?

VC: Oh, this was Sakamoto’s idea. I didn’t ask him to do that. I was so surprised when he did. I love it. This is very beautiful, very unique. He’s totally inside the song, totally.

MG: Does it relate to the lyrics?

VC: Yes. Yes, totally.

MG: Can we talk about Lágrimas Mexicanas? [with Bill Frisell, produced by Lee Townsend, 2010] Again, I was going to ask you how you describe the sound that you and Bill Frisell are making together?

VC: This is incredible. When I moved to New York in 1994, and then a couple of years after, in 1996, I met Frisell for the first time. And after this, we are still in love with my music with Frisell. We’re still good friends, and always, we work together. And then we always talk, “Oh, let’s do an album. Let’s do an album.” But sometimes our schedules are not the same. I’m in England, Frisell is in Japan. I’m in Japan, Frisell is in France. But finally, we can say, “Okay, let’s do this album. Let’s do it next week or next year.” Finally, we find the dates. “Okay,let’s do it.” And then when he went to the studio, man, we just played. We stayed in Seattle, in the studio for like five or six days. And then it’s easy for us because we play a lot together. Our music is complementary. When I play with Frisell, it’s just unbelievable because I play acoustic, or I will play acoustic and percussion, and then he plays different kinds of guitars: 12-string, dobro, acoustic, semi-acoustic, electric. It’s like magic for me and Frisell, because our music abilities are so complementary. And I start to play some songs, and Frisell comes with [vocalization]. And the opposite, he starts to play something, then I’ll go and just follow him. This is the process. For most of the album, I have the songs almost ready. And then I go to the studio with him and I show him, “Frisell, I have this idea.” And then he comes with–to finalize some songs. We work together on the songs. This is the idea for the album.

MG: Interesting. And it’s about your experience with the Latino community in New York. Is that right?

VC: Yes, just a little bit. It’s just more my dream than my experience. I would have more dreams than experiences with the Latino situation, but I’m a big fan of Mexican culture. And I’m a big fan of Latin American people. They come to New York to work, in the restaurant to work. This is a difficult job, to work in restaurants, working all night. But some Latinos come to work at a high level, good musicians, good inventors, good directors and actors. I try to mix with all Latin American people. I’m a part of this, too, because I’m from Brazil, and then I come to work in New York. It’s not easy for me, either. And then I feel part of this community. New York, I think, is the city and the world. You can go there, you can do your job, whatever you do. New York is very open. It’s a difficult city to live in, but very open. And New York pays attention to you. This is an important thing. New York is the city that pays attention to people. New York can easily understand if you have something to bring to the city, to bring to the people. New York is very important for this.

MG: You mean that people pay attention to what happens to New York? Or that in New York, people are paying attention?

VC: Yes, both. People pay attention, and then New York offers an opportunity to show people how we can do something very special. New York is just the city for a big opportunity for you. If you have something special to do, go to New York and work, because the city can understand you. This is my opinion about New York. It’s difficult to live there, it’s not easy, you don’t have a lot of friends. The city is never asleep, and you have to work, work, work. But if you work and if you have something to show people, New York says, “Okay, you’re in the right place.” This is my opinion. I’m not American, I don’t know if another city is–I perform in the US. I play in the San Francisco area, in the Miami area and Florida, and in Chicago, and I play elsewhere in the US. But for me, New York is unique. I tell my friends in Brazil, if you are underground in the subway in New York, and then one guy says, “Hello, we need a saxophone player now!” And a minimum of fifty people say, “Okay, I’m a saxophone player!” Or, “Hello, I need a doctor now! Emergency!” Many doctors respond. Everybody goes to New York looking for something to do.

MG: Interesting. And “Lágrimas Mexicanas” is the pain, the difficulty of being a Mexican immigrant in New York?

VC: Both sides. Sometimes the lyrics talk about this, but sometimes they can talk about the miracle of being in New York, because New York is difficult, but it’s not so difficult, it’s easy, too. It’s difficult for Latinos, but it’s difficult for American people, too. But sometimes it’s easy for Latinos and easy for American people, it depends upon the view. To tell you about a small thing: I’m leaving Brooklyn, and very close to me is a beautiful place to buy flowers; the guy who worked there is a Mexican. Everybody loves this guy, this guy has a wonderful life. He doesn’t make a lot of money, he’s not a rich guy, but he worked there. But another, just next door, had a deli, and it’s different kinds of jobs, different kinds of propositions. It’s not the only difficult thing. Of course, they have difficult things, especially for Latinos when they go to America, it’s not easy. Most of the people who work there, they don’t have the papers to work, they don’t have social security, they don’t have a Green Card. They have to fight everyday for life, for survival. It’s not easy. But the city offers opportunities for him, they make his job, and then they can grow up and have their kids. Their kid is American, they are born in the US, and they can go to college, they can go to be a doctor. I think New York, the US is so open for this kind of thing. And New York has just the maximum possibility.

MG: Interesting. And then you have at least one song about New York, “Calle 7.” Is that about 7th Street in Park Slope?

VC: Yes. Because Calle 7, 7th Avenue, has American people and the people more in the middle class, they live on 7th Avenue.  But there you can find the Latinos who work there, and some Latinos have good positions there, too. 7th Avenue is the real sample about the mixed things, Latinos and American people, and they live, and have a very nice relationship. It’s just so good for me. 7th Avenue is a very nice place to just walk and see the differences between American people and Latino people, and in good shape for me.

MG: Interesting. On your album Cymbals [Naïve, 2007] is a song called “O Batuque”? Can you help me understand that song? How would you explain it?

VC: Yeah. “O Batuque” is a track about a Latino guy who goes to work in the subway. And I wrote the lyrics about the perspective, one guy who goes to work and then meets different kinds of people. He met the Latinos, he met the Black people, he met American people. The “Batuque” title is because the guy is in the subway, and the subway makes some shaking like [sings a syncopated rhythm]. And then the guy is almost like a rapper, like the guy in the track about the city. He wakes up and he goes to work, and then from his house to his job, he can meet different kinds of people. You know what I mean? But in the end, all these people are the same. This is the idea of the song.

MG: I see. Batuque is a circle dance, right?

VC: No. Batuque is just the movement you make to play percussion. Batuque is specific. When you go batucar, as a verb. Batucar is like this [slapping his thighs to make rhythms, like drumming]. This sound, batucada, is the sound from the batuque.

MG: I see. Okay. It has many meanings. Tell me, I know you didn’t really participate that much with the Brazilian musicians in New York, but did you notice the scene, like the scene for Brazilian music changing while you were here in the ’90s and 2000s?

VC: I think so, because the music always changes. First of all, when I moved in 1994, there was more Brazilian music around, more Brazilian spaces to play Brazilian music. The bossa nova was growing and then you had more bars. Brazilian music is so quiet. Like in the US and Europe and Japan, this is more bossa nova. But now it’s a little bit different, because now we can have more. You have some groups from Bahia. A lot of percussionists come from Bahia to live in New York, and then the music is a little bit different. It’s not only bossa nova.

MG: So, now, like choro, forró, and axé?

VC: Exactly, forró. Mauro Refosco has a nice band. Mauro Refosco, a Brazilian percussionist. He plays now with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But he has a Brazilian forró band, they are called Forró in the Dark. Now we have fewer groups than when they played Brazilian music, but you have some clubs that have different kinds of music, like Nublu. Nublu always has Brazilian music, but not just bossa nova. They have the DJs, they have electronic music, and they have forró.

MG: Fewer clubs, but more types of Brazilian music.

VC: Exactly, exactly.

MG: Can I ask you–this is not about you, but it’s about your experience when you were in New York. I’m curious to know what happened when Bebel Gilberto’s Tanto Tempo was released in 2000? Did it have an effect on the Brazilian music scene, do you think?

VC: I think so, because they know this album. It was so strong, I’m talking about commercially strong. The album was, I think for a Brazilian album, the most successful so far, for many years. It’s awesome. I’ve worked with Bebel before and after this, so I can see the difference.

MG: Was there an increased interest in bossa nova, do you think, after that?

VC: I think it’s not only bossa nova. I think it reflects more different kinds of music. The album was just more open for different kinds of things.

MG: Like electronic music?

VC: Like electronic, like commercial things, too. After they released it, the ranking is a little bit higher for Brazilian music. “Oh, Brazilian music is not only under Muzack music, it’s not only for the bar. Brazilian music is this. You can make a very nice concert.” Brazilian music can use different spaces because Brazilian music is not more like a ghetto. This album helped to a certain point, helped to put Brazilian music at a high level. It was more the promoters, the festivals, and the music events, they said, “Okay, I want Brazilian music more than before.”

MG: That’s really interesting. Speaking of misunderstandings, did you encounter common misunderstandings about Brazilian music in New York? When you got to New York, did you feel like there were certain things that people did not understand about Brazilian music that kept coming up?

VC: Well, yeah. A lot of people don’t understand Brazilian music. When I moved to New York, sometimes for curiosity I went to some places that didn’t really have Brazilian music, by myself. I was in Brooklyn on 7th Avenue, they have a bar there. In the bar, they have a big television and normally people go there to drink and watch American football or baseball, or basketball. One day, to my surprise, I was walking around, just passed by, and I saw a guy playing acoustic guitar and trying to play bossa nova. It was a fiasco. Nobody wanted him to do this. People were still working and then watching television. The poor guy [sings the “Garota da Ipanema” melody]. People don’t understand this. I think bossa nova is different if it’s there; with the rock and roll band inside, or the blues band, the people will pay more attention.

MG: I see. Can I ask you about your current goals with music? Is there a project you’re really excited about? Is there a new project that you’re really excited about that you’re involved in?

VC: Yes, I’m very traditional for these kinds of things. Personally, I always have a new project. I’m in Rio now, so you know what I was listening to here now, just now, before you called me? I just listened to Urubu by Tom Jobim. Sometimes it takes me three or four days to listen to this album. I cannot see a new project to listen to these days. I’m just looking for something in the ’60s. I’m very conservative in music. To listen, not to do, to listen.

MG: What about the projects that you’re doing? Is there something new? Do you have a new goal for a future project?

VC: Yes. Yes. My new project is called The Sounds of the Rivers. The Sound of the Rivers is an album dedicated to Brazilian rivers and the rainforests, because each river has a specific sound. Each river sounds different from another. I’m trying to work on these projects so I’m going to the Amazon with a sound engineer, and a photographer to take some pictures and take some movies, little movies from the rivers. I’m working with the sound engineer to record the sounds of rivers. The sound of the people that live around the river, and people, the Indian people, local people. I’m going to the market streets because these are very small towns. I want to record massive amounts of sounds and pictures in it. Eight big rivers. Eight tracks. And then, I will go back to New York with this. I want to do a river for Angelique Kidjo, one river for Brad Mehldau, one other river for Frisell. I wanted this guy to put his vision about this river. I want to show pictures to him. I want to show the sounds when I make it, and then I want him to put his sound ideas about this.

MG: Fabulous. That’s a wonderful project, and a great use of your time while you’re in Brazil, knowing that you’re going to come back to New York. Is there an environmental motivation? Are you inspired by environmentalism?

VC: I am inspired because I was born in the Amazon. Then in the ’80s, I went to Manaus to do a concert with Caetano Veloso. And Caetano Veloso wrote a poem for me about the Rio Negro River. Rio Negro is the river just in the city of Manaus. Manaus is close to the river. Caetano wrote the poem for me. And then after this, I said, “Okay, Caetano gave me this poem, so I want to write the poem for other rivers and make music for these rivers.” Of course, this environment is so important because the Amazon’s rivers are the very treasure, not only for Brazil but for the world. Because the water of the planet is there. Brazil has more than fifty percent of water on the planet, you know. I think it’s good to do something like this, to pay attention and show people how important it is to keep the rivers clean.

MG: Wonderful. Let me just ask you one point of clarification. You didn’t want to be part of the ghetto of Brazilian music in New York. Are you referring to the people playing Brazilian music at the Zinc Bar?

VC: Oh, yes, I’m very friendly with–I love these people. I think only my professional vision was this. I have many friends and I play with these Brazilian friends. Sometimes, I bring sounds to play with me. But my idea is not only to play in the same place. I think I can do various work with Brazilian music if I try to find different places. I try to play with different musicians to open doors, not to be put in the box. Because the box is so small. I always have to open windows and doors. I think I can help more Brazilian music, if I go in different directions. I don’t have anything against it. No, the opposite. I have good friends who play there. And then sometimes I go to see them. And then I collaborate with them. I have a good Brazilian percussionist, Marivaldo dos Santos. Marivaldo plays in STOMP. He’s the percussion guy in STOMP. Sometimes Marivaldo plays at SOBs. Sometimes I went there to perform with him, because he has played with me and my band. And then one day, he called me to go there. But my idea is, if I want to play with Brazilian musicians, I’d go back to Brazil. I want to play in the US. When I play in New York, I play at the Jazz Standard for four days. Two sets, sold out sets. Ninety-five percent of the audience are American people. It’s not Brazilian people. American people go to see my work. If I want to play for Brazilian people, I’ll go back to Brazil. I’m going to play in Paris. Ninety-five percent of people there in Paris are from France. I’ll go to Japan next, in ten days, I’m going to perform in Japan at the Quattro Club. It’s like a big jazz club in Japan. And then 95 percent of the people there are Japanese people. I want to show Brazilian music to as many people as I can. So if I’m playing in Paris, it’s important for me that the audience is from France.

MG: I see. Okay. Well, I want to thank you.

VC: Thank you so much for having me in your project.

MG: It was a pleasure to meet you. Take care. Good luck in Japan.

VC: Thank you so much.

 

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