D
ubbed ‘the coolest man on the planet’ by the likes of
Vogue Brazil and the Daily Telegraph, Mr Jorge reaffirms
the mantle with the release of América Brasil – the album that composing. Oh, and acting: this summer’s Brit-flick blockbuster
ORLD
critics are calling his best yet. This, of course, is saying something: The Escapist saw him busting out alongside Brian Cox and
Jorge’s samba-centric excursions have been celebrated ever since Joseph Fiennes. “I think it’s better not to be one thing or
W his 1998 debut, Moro No Brasil (I Live in Brasil), recorded with another,” he said. “It’s better to be like an old Hollywood star,
his band Farofa Carioca. It was this album that got him featured like Fred Astaire or Frank Sinatra, who danced, sang, acted. You
in a documentary on Brazilian music, which led in turn to that shouldn’t have limitations.”
star role as Knockout Ned in the 2002 Oscar-nominated favela
This sky’s-the-limit attitude informs América Brasil. With a
drama City of God. Acting has since become a second career
line-up comprising everything from acoustic guitar, the ukelele-
for the goat-eed singer/songwriter, a favela boy whose teenage
like cavaquino and percussion to keyboards, violin and flute,
brother was killed by police and who – without a few lucky
Jorge sets about exploring relations between North and South
breaks – might have ended up very differently indeed. “The more
America and invents a new genre (the Brazilian barbeque
I work,” he’s said, “the luckier I become.”
hoedown, anyone?) along the way. Fuller production and
Jorge garnered further cred by appearing in the acclaimed
instrumentation makes this a lush affair from start to
Brazilian art-house film House of Sand, but it was Wes
finish; rhythms are melded on the stirring América do
Anderson’s 2004 sea comedy The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Norte (North America), all wild violin and squeaky
which made the biggest, um, splash. Jorge’s performance as a
cuica drum, while Mina do
guitar-strumming crew member with a
Condominio comes
penchant for singing David Bowie songs
complete with
in sensuous samba form proved so
infectious chorus
popular he released them on an album;
and an upbeat
Bowie would later remark that “had Seu
samba funk.
Jorge not recorded my songs acoustically
There are bossa
in Portuguese I would never have heard
ballads, too (the
this new level of beauty he has imbued
dreamy Marianna)
and even, with
them with.”
Samba Rock, some
Having built up a large worldwide
all-stops-out blues.
following with his live shows, Jorge
Jorge might be
América Brasil enjoyed a commercial hit with 2005’s
cool, but he still
Discos Como No Cru, an album of rootsy originals.
knows how to let
DCN001CD Between now and then, ever the
himself go.
polymath, he’s kept on touring, writing, Jane Cornwell
a ten-piece band formed under the Beat Assailant name and
hit the road.
“We started playing small clubs and now we’re busting out on
the main stage at big festivals in front of 30-40,000 people,”
says the rapper proudly. “Our music has a lot of jazz and funk
influences and we didn’t want to rely on a DJ programming
samples and beats but to get that big live groove thing going.”
New album Imperial Pressure finds rapper and band ripping
through 17 original compositions designed to rock clubs and
festivals. All tracks remain rhymed in English; when is Beat
Assailant going to adopt the language of his native land?
“Well, I’d like to but right now my vocabulary is too limited. If
B
lack American musicians taking up residence in Paris is
I’m gonna rhyme in French then it’s gotta be as hot as when
nothing new – Sidney Bechet and Miles Davis set the
I rhyme in English. I don’t’ wanna rhyme something wack like
template many decades ago – so when Atlanta rapper Beat
voulez vous, y’ know?”
JAZZ
Assailant landed in the French capital he was maintaining a
tradition. Not that he originally saw things this way.
Was, I wondered, the American surprised at how passionate
the French are about hip-hop?
“I just came to Paris to visit, no intention of staying – I didn’t
speak French and didn’t have any idea of what the French rap
“You bet! Hip-hop is really big here. I couldn’t believe it when
scene was like – but I started meeting a lot of people in music
I first arrived and found people rapping
and when I met Max Lebidois we began working together
here. I can walk into a club here and
in his studio. And through that the first Beat Assailant album
close my eyes and the sound, the vibe,
came about.”
it’s just like being back in the States.”
Beat Assailant’s
For now Beat Assailant is gearing up to
2005 debut album
tour Imperial Pressure. Hopefully, he
Hard Twelve found
says, this will lead to a Eurostar journey
the rapper joined
to London.
by a trinity of
“London’s like home to me. I can’t wait
French musicians
to blow up in the Jazz Café.”
on horns and
keyboards. The
Garth Cartwright
Imperial Pressure
response to the
Dirty Dozen Records
Beat Assailant play The Jazz Café, DDRUK001
album was strong;
London 21st November 2008
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