Capicua, Carlos Tê and Luís de Freitas Branco will jointly comment on José Mário Branco’s album “Times change, wills change” at the Coliseu do Porto on Thursday, as part of the launch of the book “A revolução antes da Revolução”.
The Coliseu Porto Ageas explained today in a statement that Capicua, Carlos Tê and Luís de Freitas Branco, the author of the book, will talk about “the cultural phenomena that preceded the Carnation Revolution”, at a meeting that will be free to attend.
In the new book, Luís de Freitas Branco makes “an exhaustive survey of the year 1971, which changed Portuguese popular music”, with the publication of emblematic albums by names such as José Mário Branco, Sérgio Godinho, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Carlos Paredes and José Afonso.
1971 was the year that gave Portuguese music and the revolution the signature song “Grândola, Vila Morena”.
In an interview with the Lusa news agency on April 13, Luís de Freitas Branco argued that this year, which marks the 50th anniversary of April 25, 1974, we should celebrate “all the richness of Portuguese music, […] all the repertoire that contributed to the overthrow of the dictatorship”.
“It wasn’t just José Afonso, José Mário Branco and Sérgio Godinho, who are obviously unavoidable names in the book,” said the author of “A revolução antes da Revolução”. “The celebration of April 25, in my opinion, should also be done with rock, pop, jazz and light music, which also contributed, in the same way, to overthrowing not only the dictatorship, but also customs,” said the music critic, communications consultant and music science master’s student, in an interview with Lusa news agency.
“The regime was hanging by a thread and the inspired breath of Portuguese popular music was the soundtrack for decisive transformations,” says the Coliseu’s presentation of this collective listening.
“1971 was the year of the musical coup, with the publication of emblematic albums by José Mário Branco, Sérgio Godinho, Adriano Correia de Oliveira and Carlos Paredes, but also by Duo Ouro Negro, Tonicha, Amália Rodrigues or Marco Paulo, the year of the first Cascais Jazz and the mythical Vilar de Mouros Festival,” points out the introductory text of Carlos Vaz Marques’ book “The Revolution before the Revolution”, published by Zigurate.
In this piece of research, Luís Freitas Branco makes “a rigorous, exhaustive and largely surprising survey that documents the way in which Portuguese popular music opened the door to the cultural, social and political climate that sparked the ‘clean start’ day that changed Portugal 50 years ago,” he says.
In his interview with Lusa, Freitas Branco also said that he believed that the rise of the extreme right would lead to “a new generation of protest songs”.
“I believe that the rise of Chega, I have no doubt about it, will trigger a new generation of protest songs of combat, but also of anger, discouragement and sadness,” said the book’s author to Lusa news agency, when asked about the possibility of a resurgence of more interventionist music following the results of the legislative elections.
Luís de Freitas Branco recalled that this has already been visible, “for a year or two now, in the songs that are appearing about the housing crisis”, along the lines of names like Gisela João and Capicua, without forgetting names like A Garota Não, Luís Varatojo, Eu.Clides, although protest in song has always been present, as it was during the ‘troika’ years, with projects like Deolinda and the song “Parva que sou”, which became an anthem of the time.
In the year that marks the 50th anniversary of April 25, the Coliseu do Porto, the venue that hosted Humberto Delgado in 1958, several rallies against the dictatorship and the last concert of José Afonso’s career, is joining in the celebrations of the Carnation Revolution with various initiatives throughout the year.
April 23 will be dedicated to discussing freedom in humor from the last 50 years to the present day and on April 28, the Promenade Concerts invite families to listen to “Songs of Freedom”, with the Espinho Jazz Orchestra and the voices of Marta Ren and JP Simões singing titles by José Afonso, Sérgio Godinho, Nina Simone or Sam Cooke.
Admission is free, subject to prior collection of a ticket, from March 27 at 1pm at the Coliseum box office, until the time of the debate, and capacity is subject to space limitations.
