Mara do Nascimento

É bom ouvir música boa. Música é o melhor caminho para uma vida tranqüila, principalmente quando ela vem em forma de beleza. Mara do Nascimento estava escondida do público que a ama, envolvida em projetos generosos mas afastada do que nela era suavidade e poesia, acordes que nos embalavam no rumo da felicidade. Ói ela aí outra vez, madura, plena de conhecimento, caminhando estradas que para nós são novas mas para ela são naturais. Músicos e músicas que encontramos neste CD são esplêndidos. Mara domina com serenidade as trilhas que inventa. Deusa do som, Mara me encanta.
Fernando Brant
A violonista e compositora apresenta em seu recente CD um repertório de bom gosto, através de suas melodias intuitivas e harmonias mineiras. Recebi uma delicada homenagem de Mara neste álbum, com a música “Aqui Horta”, na qual fiquei bastante lisonjeado. Esta artista que bem representa a música instrumental de Minas merece todo o reconhecimento do público e da crítica.
Toninho Horta
Te conheci compositora e hoje te ouço uma maravilhosa instrumentista. Parabéns pelo lindo disco.
Também estão de parabéns os músicos de BH pela assinatura e som do CD. Na comemoração de seus 32 anos de carreira gostaria de te dizer o seguinte: “Leva anos prá se virar uma estrela da noite pro dia”.
Beijos de seu fã.
Gilson Peranzzetta
Mara dos nascimentos.
Mulher é mesmo assim. Cheia de nascimentos pela vida afora.
A Mara, então, extrapola. Já pariu filhos, projetos, shows, mega eventos, pratos deliciosos e canções. Tudo junto, tudo safra do mesmo coração, ainda que para cada coisa o coração fosse acordado diferente.
O seu encanto pela música, por exemplo, passa por um começo tão delicado que só poderia dar no que deu: um repertório de composições afinadíssimas com o que a vida tem de mais sutil.
É verdade. Ela começou a gostar de compor quando aprendeu a fazer um som com gominhas de borracha esticadas em caixa de papelão. Lá pelos seus cinco anos, ela já sabia ouvir, no barulhinho artesanal do blém blém blém, um grito implícito da alma. Aí foi só crescendo. Mudou de cordas, mudou de violão, mas perseverou no dom, puxando pra fora as frases musicais que lhe pediam vida até se transformar no que é hoje - uma das poucas mulheres mineiras que compõem música instrumental de qualidade.
Não espere de mim, você que lê estas palavras, um elogio derramado ao trabalho musical da Mara. Não o farei. Somos amigas há milênios e ela jamais me perdoaria a leviandade impressa no encarte.
Mas posso dizer a você que a música da Mara me comove demais. Na mesma proporção em que me comovem certas coisas que não têm explicação, tipo ao andar distraída pela rua esbarrar de repente no clarão da lua.
Ângela Santoro
With Indian, Negro, English and French ancestors, MARA DO NASCIMENTO is a quintessential Brazilian, born in the capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, with her father from Diamantina and mother from Abaeté of the same state. She started listening to and making music with her three siblings, in serenades and family reunions. At 14 she began composing and participating in festivals. By the mid-1970s she formed half of an unbeatable duo at Minas Gerais festivals with Marcus Vianna.
Her first album was recorded in 1981, "A Todos Vocês," together with Flávio Fontenelle and Gilson Peranzzetta, mixing instrumental themes and songs. She definitively opted for music without words on the LP "Instrumental" of 1982, receiving rich and ample praise from national press.
In the wake of the impeached President Collor financial crisis, Mara was forced to make a living at other activities. She owned a bar, a bakery and auto paintshop at one time. She worked as a publicist, programmer and producer for Rádio Geraes and Rádio Inconfidência FM, Brasileiríssima and ended up specializing in production of events and cultural projects.
Self-taught at the beginning, she later took classes with José Lucena Vaz and Noé Lourenço. Among her main influences, she cites Egberto Gismonti, Milton Nascimento, Toninho Horta and Wagner Tiso, João Bosco and the Caymmi family. "And even the wind,” says Mara.
She likes samba, choro, blues, ballads, jazz. Although a vegetarian, her music has a traditional Mineira flavor of torresmo, couve and feijão tropeiro. She is a gourmet and doesn’t let a glass of fine wine go to waste. At home she makes jellies, chutneys and sauces with ingredients as secret and flavorful as her music.
She has worked on the songs found in "Maroca" for fifteen years and can be found at an ideal moment of her career, stable and ready to lead it to new places, professionally and cautious, but without losing the emotion.
Mara commands, from her guitar, a team of top of the line musicians. Among them are bassists Ezequiel Lima, Kiko Mitre and Ivan Corrêa; electric guitarists Toninho Horta, Juarez Moreira and Weber Lopes; keyboardists Clóvis Aguiar and Ricardo Fiúza; Sérgio Silva and Paulinho Santos (Uakti) on percussion; the drums of Esdras Ferreira (Neném); the winds of Maurinho Rodrigues, Chico Amaral, Cleber Alves and Wagner Mayer. And on the song "Assim Me Despeço" a string quartet consisting of Firmino Cavazza (cello), Carlos Aleixo (viola), José Augusto and Elias Martins (violins).
KIKO FERREIRA
COMMENTARIES
It’s good to hear good music. Music is the best way to lead a tranquil life, especially when it comes in the form of beauty. Mara do Nascimento was hidden from the public she loves, involved in generous projects but kept apart from the smoothness and poetry within her, chords that envelop us in happiness. But, hey, there she is again, mature, full of wisdom, walking down the roads that are new to us, but natural for her. The musicians found on this CD are brilliant. Mara serenely dominates the trails she blazes. Goddess of sound, Mara enchants me.
Fernando Brant
The guitarist and composer introduces in her recent CD a repertoire of good taste, through intuitive melodies and Mineira harmonies. I received a discrete honor from Mara on this album, with the song “Aqui Horta,” which greatly flattered me. This artist that presents so well the instrumental music of Minas Gerais deserves all the public and critical recognition she can receive.
Toninho Horta
Mara dos nascimentos. (of the births)
A woman is this. Full of births throughout life.
Mara, thus, goes beyond. She has given birth to children, projects, shows, mega-events, delicious dishes, and songs. All together, all harvest of the same heart, but for each thing, a heart tuned a bit differently.
Her enchantment with music, for example, comes from a beginning so delicate that it could only create what it did: a repertoire of perfectly balanced compositions about the subtlest things in life.
It’s true. She started to like composing when she learned that rubber bands stretched over a cardboard box could make a sound. Even then, at around five years old, she knew how to hear, in the handicraft sound of bling, bling, bling, a integral cry of the soul. From there she kept on growing, changing chords, changing guitars, but persevering in her talent, drawing forth the musical phrases that asked her for life, until she was finally transformed into what she is today, one of the few Mineira women who compose instrumental music of great quality.
Don’t expect from me, you who are reading these words, praise poured out over the musical work of Mara. I will not do it. She and I are friends for millennia, and she’d never forgive the flippant way I wrote for the CD liner notes.
But, I can tell you that Mara’s music moves me amazingly.
It moves me in the same way that certain unexplainable things move me, like walking distracted along the street and suddenly being struck by the brilliance of the moon.
Ângela Santoro
I met you as a composer and now hear you as a wonderful instrumentalist. Congratulations on this lovely album. The musicians of B.H. that also participated in creating the sound of this CD deserve congratulations. To celebrate the 32 years of your career I wish to tell you the following: “It takes years to become an overnight success.” Beijos from your fan,
Gilson Peranzzetta