Cultural Turn in 2010
Stage St. John (photo: Cyrus Hiruma)
Sao Paulo - 15 and 16/05
Cyrus Hiruma
The Cultural Turn in 2010 was marked by eclecticism. Wagering on various cultural trends and offer the public a variety of events, an excellent initiative of the Municipality of São Paulo.
Music, film, poetry, photography, theater, visual arts, martial arts and acrobatics. Fun and knowledge for all tastes. There was even room for the "Nerd Dimension" on Roosevelt Square in the presence of themed shows (Star Wars, Star Trek), games, RPGs and comics.
In the musical diversity of styles sound was also essential to high quality attractions, events that aroused the curiosity and others of dubious origin as well.
Experimental and innovative
Hermeto Pascoal (Photo: Ciro Hiruma)
The stage of the Boulevard St. John opened the night with category: Hermeto Pascoal took his innovative and experimental music to the general public, accompanied by a great band. Their paraphernalia gathered sound that would be unusual for another musician, but usually in their presentations: kettle, instrument made of bottles, the use of a variety of percussion objects. They applauded the beautiful stage futuristic dome-shaped, but with poor lighting.
Airto Moreira and the American Booker T. were other highlights on the Boulevard.
A stage for great performances
The structure established in the Plaza Julio Prestes had the largest dimensions and features (sound and lighting), for this reason was the right choice for some of the best shows.
Zelia Duncan is a singer in constant evolution. In recent years, this growth has accelerated with the CD At Taste of Gesture (2009) and his participation in the mutants. Indeed, the closing song was a great version of "Ando Meio Off", the band of brothers Baptista. The singer showed a perfect mastery of his space onstage charisma and an intense, accompanied by an exciting band that followed his pace.
Next, the stage of the singer Julio Prestes received Heaven, one of the revelations of the MPB. His music combines unique fashion a number of influences: Latin rhythms, light touch and a techno-electronic keyboard that reproduces the tone of the Hammond organ that made the audience back to the late 1960s, fully psychedelic. Despite all this fusion sound to work very well, the show became a bit tiresome from a certain point.
Vernon Reid (Living Colour)
And it came to the American band Living Colour show that continues in top form. The show started with a classic band, "Type", and ended with another, "Elvis is Dead", which was critical of consumerism around the king of rock to a tribute, complete with a snippet of "Hound Dog" , success of Presley. Singer Corey Glover fraternized with the public, through the crowd and showed a lot of energy. Vernon Reid (guitar), Doug Wimbish (bass) and Will Calhoun (drums) joined a remarkable desire to play a brilliant exercise of skill and talent. One of the best moments of the Cultural Turn, despite the technical problems that have undermined the sound quality.
Past or present?
A trend in this edition of Cultural Turn was the presence of musicians who worked alongside big names deceased. The presentation of the Grande Mothers Re: Invented yielded good results, counted with three former members of the group of Frank Zappa, Napoleon Murphy Brock (vocals, tenor sax, flute), Roy Estrada (bass, vocals) and Don Preston (piano, keyboards , synthesizers, vocals). A proposed friendly, ironic and humorous that followed the footsteps of his mentor. The repertoire, classics like "Peaches in Regalia", "Montana" and "Little House I Used To Live In."
In the opposite direction, Big Brother and the Holding Co., A band that followed Janis Joplin. Despite the effort and good presence of singer Sophia Ramos, the proposal did not work well, was more nostalgia cover band parading in vain. There was no "Summertime" that could withstand the failure of the late singer.
But if it comes to cover, sorry it was supposed to listen to ABBA, who did not bring even a member of the original quartet. Present were mere supporting cast, led by guitarist Janne Schaffer and saxophonist Ulf Andersson. Pure deception. The very organization of the Cultural Turn revealed they were deceived by the show business. Such facts can not be repeated because they end up compromising the quality of the event.
For everyone
The track of Santa Iphigenia, dedicated to electronic music, maintained a loyal following even in the morning. Not so with the stage of independent artists in st. Casper Libero, not the small enthusiastic audience at most attractions. Many chose to dance on the outside and there was a brief principle of turmoil.
Since the stage of Vieira de Carvalho received a good number of fans to follow popular attractions like Sidney Magal, Jerry Adriani, Wanderléa Vanusa and was received with anticipation after the fiasco of the National Anthem . The singer has won many plaudits, despite not keep the same breath of the past, but managed to keep a reasonable vocal power.
Rock 'n' roll yeah, not dirt!
As the organization had promised, had a greater number of chemical toilets over the last year and the garbage collection service has been strengthened.
Pitty (Photo: Ciro Hiruma)
But on the morning of 16, who ventured into the show the singer Pitty, on stage at the rock, he found an immense amount of garbage scattered in the region. There was everything, including pools of questionable content and a very unpleasant aroma in certain points. Bathrooms without conditions of use have been crammed into some side streets.
In the afternoon, the neighborhood of av. St. John had a very best, the cleaning staff does a good job of recovery.
Arnaldo Antunes began his show during the sunset. And who stole the show was guitarist Edgard Scandurra (Ira!), which became the center of attention with his creative riffs and solos.
The show of the Titans was a real retrospective of his career. They were big hits in the repertoire that the public has learned to enjoy during all these years: "SonÃfera Island," the first album, through "Police," "Nowhere," "Flowers," "Dinosaur Head," "Fun" . Finally, an excellent music selection.
The brief appearance of Arnaldo Antunes had been expected, the musicians played with renewed vitality and the public returned to the same extent, with much enthusiasm.
Changes in the Cultural Turn
To avoid the inconvenience of last year, where access roads were crowded with pedestrians, the solution was to enlarge the area of ​​events, setting the stage and taking advantage of more spaces in various units of the CEU and the SESC, and other centers of culture.
The region of the center, in particular, is very benefited the functioning of the tube for 24 hours. Greatly facilitated the movement of the public.
Security for the regulars was massive in the main access roads of the events, but it was not enough to cover all regions. The Cracolândia, near the stage Júlio Prestes, was well guarded on the perimeter, but he did not know the city center and went inside the place, especially the side streets, lived moments of apprehension and fear. The same happened at points near the Cathedral Square and Broad St. Benedict.
For the Cultural Turn next year, should remain important issues such as increasing the number of attractions, cultural eclecticism and ease of access to events. The security needs a better distribution and the conditions of hygiene and cleanliness have yet to be reviewed.
But the balance is clearly positive and the trend is that the space for culture is increasingly close to the public.
See photos of the Cultural Turn on Flickr.
