Recife Carnival pays homage to Chico Science and Lia de Itamaracá

“Everyone makes the circle spin.” Lia de Itamaracá's statement, in

interview

for almost eight years, it translates not only the idea of ​​the traditional game that projected the Pernambuco artist worldwide, but also the culture of the biggest street carnival in Brazil, where innovation and history join hands. Symbols of this diversity, Chico Science and the queen of ciranda are honored at Recife 2024 carnival.

Maria Madalena Correia do Nascimento, was born in Itamaracá, and early on let herself be led by the percussive beat and the circular ballet, which resembles the movement of the sea around the island. Even in a family with no musical tradition, she started performing at the age of 12, but it was only at 54 that music led her to an artistic career and Maria gave way to Lia.

It was 1998, more than twenty years after a failed attempt to commercialize her music, Lia materialized on the stage of the Pernambuco festival April by Rock, the cultural diversity that makes up the Brazilian repertoire and imagination. From then on, he stopped performing a chorus of a composition by Teca Calazans, to gain the stage and the taste, first of Brazilians, and then of various parts of the world.

In France, the melodic trance of his voice came to be classified as trance music and in the United States she ascended the altar of divas. But the recognition that fills her most with pride is the one that comes from the land itself and arrives in time: “I feel very happy to receive this living honor. This is very important to me! Let's move the boat forward, steady strong and with all the revelry!”, She speaks with all the vigor of her 80 years, and that she is already immortal, as a Living Heritage of Pernambuco.

Tradition of frevo and maracatu

The same immortality achieved by Chico Science, when he revolutionized the musical scene by incorporating the tradition of frevo and maracatu, into the urbanity of hip hop It's from rock n Roll, bringing together debates on social issues. He created the Manguebeat movement, bringing universal icons to mangrove culture, “a satellite dish stuck in the mud”.

Born in Olinda, Francisco de Assis França, the youngest of four children, lived his childhood in the popular neighborhood of Rio Doce, where, through the streets, he came into contact with the traditional and popular music of Pernambuco. Since his teens, he has participated in hip hop movements through dance. He was influenced by funk and soul icons, such as James Brown and Charlie Wright, when, at the age of 20, together with Lúcio Maia he created the band Orla Orbe, the beginnings of the mangue movement.

There were bands on Bom Tom Rádio and Loustal that gained strength through meetings with other musicians and thinkers. Many of the creations and compositions took place in sister Goretti's apartment, in the Graças neighborhood, north of Recife, close to the Capiberibe River. There, they listened to music, wrote and debated ideas.

At the age of 25, he discovered the Afro group Lamento Negro, in the neighborhood of Peixinhos, a suburb of Olinda. An art and education movement, organized by Osmair José Maia and Gilmar, known as Bola 8, which brought together young people in percussion workshops, instrument making, capoeira classes, Afro dance and performing arts.

The band Loustal & Lamento Negro appeared there, which in its first show launched the “Manifesto dos Caranguejos com Cérebro”, a promotional material that brought the image of a satellite dish in the mangrove and explained “the objective was to engender an energetic circuit, capable of to connect the good vibes of the mangroves with the global network of circulation of pop concepts.”

The group played with several musicians who participated in the creative scene at the time, but was mainly formed by Science (vocals), Lúcio Maia (guitar), Dengue (bass), Toca Ogan (percussion), Gilmar Bola 8, Jorge Du Peixe and Gira (alfaias – larger drums), and Canhoto (snare). Soon, the band changed its name to Chico Science and Nação Zumbi.

In five years, he recorded two albums “Da Lama ao Caos” and Afrociberdelia, classified among the best in Brazilian music, played in several countries in Europe, in the United States and throughout Brazil.

Science went far beyond “modernizing the past”, it questioned the human relationship with nature, contested social differences, disseminated rhythms, created art, fashion and cinema from mangrove culture. He was recognized as one of the most important artists in Brazilian music.

Chico died, aged 30, on the eve of Carnival, on the road between Recife and Olinda, after the seat belt in the car he was driving failed in the collision against a pole. That year, he would climb, for the first time, in an electric trio, with the aim of contesting, once again, the cultural massification that took over the momo party in the 90s.