Adriana Calcanhotto has been singing for 30 years. Errante is her tenth studio album. She has always managed to combine popularity with aesthetic and poetic research. Much less known in our latitudes than the Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil of the previous generation, Adriana Calcanhotto is revered in her country. His contribution is completely original.
Adriana Calcanhotto is first and foremost a woman on the guitar who tells stories. She knows how to play perfectly with the sound of the Portuguese language – moreover, she gives songwriting lessons at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.
With each album, the lady manages to transform her musical dress. On Errante, the brass section, percussion, guitars and keyboards, magnify these songs with surprising arrangements. All Brazilian genres merge or juxtapose: samba, bossa nova, maxixe, funk, rock or even impulses of experimental jazz on the last piece, Nômade. But it all fits perfectly.
With Marisa Monte, who we will soon be able to see at the Montreal Jazz Festival, and Ana Carolina, Adriana Calcanhotto embodies a generation of Brazilian women who are more autonomous and independent than their predecessors.
She is also an LGBTQ activist, which is not always evident in a country like Brazil. Today in her fifties, Adriana Calcanhotto keeps in touch with the following generations. In 2019, with Nada Ficou No Lugar, she invited young Brazilian artists to reinterpret her songs. Interesting musical dialogue.
Errante brings us into the inner world of Madame Calcanhotto, who is very rich in reflections on people and Brazil. You don’t get bored for a second even if you don’t understand the language.