“Portas” is the most recent solo album by Marisa Monte, recorded during the pandemic, with bases made in studio at Rio de Janeiro. Subsequently, there were remote sessions in Lisbon, Los Angeles, Madrid, Barcelona and New York. The work also features arrangements by Arthur Verocai, Antonio Neves and Marcelo Camelo and features Seu Jorge and Flor. The album was mixed between Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles and New York and mastering was also done remotely in New York.
For more than 30 years, Marisa produced and accumulated a large amount of audio, audiovisual, photographs, sheet music, audios of songs being composed, among others, which was essential to bring the Cinephonia project to life. There are 30 songs that were part of the soundtracks of Marisa’s audiovisual records, but were not available in streaming audio until June of 2020.
15 years after the worldwide success of the first album, Marisa Monte, Arnaldo Antunes and Carlinhos Brown reunited in an authorial album by Tribalistas, released with a live broadcast of great impact on the artists’ Facebook. The live was watched simultaneously, for an hour, by 6 million fans in 52 countries. In the repertoire, more hits, such as “Aliança”, “Fora da Memória” and “Diáspora”. The group went on tour for the following year, releasing the album “Tribalistas Ao Vivo” in 2018.
“O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade” was produced by Marisa and co-produced by her great friend and instrumentalist Dadi. The album deepened Marisa’s creative relationship with Arnaldo Antunes and Carlinhos Brown. It brought news such as the first partnership with Rodrigo Amarante in the song “O Que Se Quer” and guests as producer and multi instrumentalist Gustavo Santaolalla, from the group Café de Los Maestros and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson in the arrangements.
Marisa produced and launched two simultaneous and very different projects: “Universo Ao Meu Redor” that brought a deep research of samba from Rio de Janeiro and “Infinito Particular” with songs with Carlinhos Brown, Arnaldo Antunes, Nando Reis, Adriana Calcanhotto, Marcelo Yuka and Seu Jorge, which resulted in your return to the stage after the birth of her first child.
Marisa, Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes released the album Tribalistas (2002) after countless partnerships. The success of the CD was national and international with a collection of hits, “Já Sei Namorar”, “Velha Infância” and “Passe em Casa”. That same year, her passion for Portela, the Samba School of the singer’s heart, resulted in two more records produced by her at Phonomotor: “Argemiro Patrocínio” and “Seu Jair do Cavaquinho”.
The album “Memórias, Crônicas and Declarações de amor” (2000), was released by Phonomotor, the singer’s own Musical Seal. It presented great successes to the public such as “Amor I Love You”, “Não Vá Embora” and “Não É Fácil”.
Marisa Monte consolidated herself as a producer with the praised “Omelete Man” by Carlinhos Brown and, the following year, “Tudo Azul” by Velha Guarda da Portela.
“Barulhinho Bom, Uma Viagem Musical” (1996) was produced by Marisa and Arto Lindsay and with the cover of comic book artist Carlos Zéfiro, pseudonym of Alcides Caminha. It is a hybrid album, part live with records from the show “Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão”, in Rio de Janeiro, and part in the studio, with seven new songs in Marisa’s voice, such as “Magamalabares” by Carlinhos Brown and “Tempos Modernos” by Lulu Santos.
Her third album “Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão” (1994) was recorded in New York and Rio de Janeiro and was produced by Marisa herself and by Arto Lindsay. Featuring Gilberto Gil, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Velha Guarda da Portela and the Época de Ouro ensemble. It also marked the beginning of her partnership with Carlinhos Brown.
The release of her second album, Mais (1991) –produced by a team of musicians of her generation, and featuring her first songs co-written with singers/songwriters Nando Reis and Arnaldo Antunes – revealed Marisa Monte’s great talent as a songwriter with a style of her own, which reflected her multiple musical influences. Marisa had another huge popular hit with the song“Beija Eu”, which was co-written with Arnaldo Antunes and Arto Lindsay, and another acclaimed tour.
Marisa would perform at Teatro Villa Lobos and record a live TV special directed by Walter Salles and Nelson Motta,which was broadcast on TV Manchete at the end of 1988, even before the release of her first album. MM (1989) featured samba, jazz, black music, blues, soul, bossa nova and rock songs. During the national and international tour, she had her first great hit, “Bem Que Se Quis” (“E Po’ Che Fa’”), Nelson Motta’s version of a song byItalian composer Pino Daniele.
On her first performance at Jazzmania, in Rio de Janeiro, in September 1987, the repercussion was huge: she was the new sensation in the Brazilian music scene. Quickly became known among the young crowd of rock fans and also among the more mature crowd of fans of jazz and Brazilian popular music (MPB).
At the age of 18, she withdrew from her university studies at Escola Nacional de Música and went to live in Rome in order to study opera singing more in depth. Before leaving Italy, she performed in Venice, where she met again with producer Nelson Motta, who directed her first professional concerts on her return to Brazil, which were produced by Lula Buarque de Hollanda.
Born in Rio de Janeiro on July 1st, 1967, Marisa Monte showed interest in music from a young age, and, as a child, she took piano and drum lessons. She loved Maria Callas and Billie Holiday, as well as Carmen Miranda and Brazilian music.