Oswaldo Montenegro

Oswaldo Viveiros Montenegro was born on March 15, 1956, in Grajaú, Rio DE Janeiro, eldest son of four brothers. He always loved to read and devoured collections by Jules Verne, Monteiro Lobato, Malba Tahan. At the age of 7 he moved to São João Del Rey, Minas Gerais, where he spent most of his childhood. The spirit of Minas Gerais influenced Oswaldo's entire life. At night, he jumped out the window to accompany his father's friends on evening serenades for girlfriends. Passionate about this music so alive and present in his daily life, he started, at the age of 8, to study guitar with one of these seresteiros and composed his first song, "Lenheiro", the name of the river that cuts through the city. At the age of 13, already back in Rio DE Janeiro, he won his first festival, with "Canção Pra Ninar Irmã Pequena", a song that he would later record on the video track "O Vale Encantado", with the title "Canção Pra Ninar Gente In 1971, he moved with his family to Brasília, a city that he would adopt and which is a constant theme in his work. It was in this city that Oswaldo met and maintained close contact with the Prista Tavares family, of which the Maestro Otávio Maul. That was a decisive influence. Through them, he comes into contact with classical music. Passionate, attends concerts, knows works, spends nights talking, is interested in musical technique and theory. that fall into your hands on Music, Music History, great composers. At the age of 14, still in Brasília, he began to participate frequently in the city's festivals. He then met friends and partners who would accompany him throughout his life, such as José Alexandre, Raimundo Marques, Ulysses Machado, Madalena Salles. He starts to do shows and write arrangements for his songs. In 1972 he had the song "Automóvel" classified at Globo's last International Song Festival. Thus, he performs for the first time at a major national festival. He even attended two Faculties, Communication and Music, both incomplete. In 1974, in partnership with his childhood friend and Mongolian partner, he wrote his first musical play, "João haste Nome", staged in 1975, at Teatro Martins Pena, in Brasília. In 1976, the show is re-enacted, directed this time by Hugo Rodas, a Uruguayan choreographer who would have great influence on Oswaldo's theater work. This second montage is presented in Rio DE Janeiro, where it is assisted by renowned theater critic Yan Mishalsky, who compares the group to the old minstrels who, in the Middle Ages, raced from city to city, only with their instruments, their robes and his voice, to tell and sing stories to audiences, in the squares. Mishalsky calls the group "The New Minstrels", a title that would accompany Oswaldo for a long time. In 1975, he signed his first contract with a record company - Som Livre - releasing his first compact, "Sem Mandamentos". In 1976, at the invitation of Hermínio Belo DE Carvalho, Oswaldo performed, alongside Marlui Miranda and Vital Lima, the 1st show of unknown artists in the "Seis e Meia" series, in Rio DE Janeiro. Then he returned to live in Rio, where he continued to perform shows almost uninterrupted. Still enchanted by the theater, he continues to write musical shows, in parallel to the shows, now starting to direct them. In 1977, he released his first LP, "Trilhas", independent, by invitation and produced by Frank Justo Acker. In the following year, he was invited to record his 1st LP by WEA by a label - "Poeta Maldito, Moleque Vadio". "Trilhas was a record that we cannot exactly consider a release. We were 20 years old and were in season at the Teatro DA Aliança Francesa in Tijuca, in Rio. Franque Justo Arquer, who is a sound technician, put that huge recorder on and left it running. We spent the whole night playing: me, Madá, Amadeu Salles on the clarinet, Alan on the acoustic bass and Mongol on the guitar. The album didn't even have a mix, it was recorded directly. 300 copies were made, sold in a musical we were making. the master of it and the record was absolutely lost. Trilhas has the poem Half that I later rewrote on the album Ao Vivo. " "I was then invited to record for WEA. I recorded Poeta Maldito .... Moleque Vadio. Produced by Gastão Dalamoni, it was a record we made with an orchestra, a record with a certain conservative tendency and a lot of MPB. I wrote 3 or 4 arrangements and Luis Cláudio Ramos wrote the others. The best-known song on this record was Léo and Bia, but the song that most people ask for is Without power without fear, which later entered some of my pieces, but which I never rewrote. the album is Quem Há DE Dizer, there is also Fruta Orvalhada that I like a lot and later rewrote on the album Branco. Poeta was a record that almost didn't sell, which made the label think about letting me go. It was even interesting, because I had composed Mandolins and registered and classified the music at the extinct TV TUPI festival. I had such low morale at the record company, that I won only half of a single, leaving the other side with a composer called João Boa Morte, who had also been classified at the festival. " In 1979, it broke out at the extinct TV Tupi festival, with the song "Bandolins", in 3rd place. The following year, he won 1st place at the Globo MPB-80 festival with "Agonia", by Mongol. From there, he goes on national tours, plays in big theaters, enters the media. Oswaldo's level changes. Still in 80, he released his 2nd album through WEA - "Oswaldo Montenegro", achieving, with this, his first gold album. "The album that followed, Oswaldo Montenegro, included Bandolins. The album that most people identify as being my face, perhaps because it was so successful. I don't know if I feel that. There's a quote from Mário Quintana where he talks that "people think they are phases and actually are faces." So, this phase of my record, was and is identified as my true face. I don't know if that is the case. This record has an interesting thing: an aggressive lyricism. lyricism is one of the sides of my work that causes the most rejection, that is, along with success, rejection also came in. My favorite songs on this album are Bandolins and Por Brilho, the one that I like most of all my songs. I wrote "Por Brilho" on the day I parted ways with Madá. We were 20 years old, separated and became great friends; that has been more than 20 years. "