Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda (OCO)
Gig Seeker Pro

Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda (OCO)

| SELF

| SELF
Band World World

Calendar

Music

Press


"Big Bands, Old Sounds and a Look Into One Artist’s Archives"

ORQUESTRA CONTEMPORâNEA DE OLINDA

This remarkable new cross-generational big band comes from the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil. For nearly 20 years, that region — particularly Recife, its port city — has been worth watching: it’s a place where the strong old local rhythms like ciranda and maracatu mesh naturally with hip-hop and rock. With 12 pieces, including tuba, trombone, saxophones, violin, percussion and voices, the band compounds those earlier mixtures with Afrobeat and ska. On its remarkable self-titled first album (released by Som Livre Apresenta) you hear parade-samba rhythms, echoey guitar, brass and reed sections alternately booming and muted with jazz arrangements, the rustic scrape of a violin and anthemic choruses. It hasn’t been picked up for American distribution. But for now you can hear some of the band’s songs in compressed form on Youtube and Myspace, or buy a copy of the CD through somlivreapresenta.com.br. - The New York Times


"Big Bands, Old Sounds and a Look Into One Artist’s Archives"

ORQUESTRA CONTEMPORâNEA DE OLINDA

This remarkable new cross-generational big band comes from the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil. For nearly 20 years, that region — particularly Recife, its port city — has been worth watching: it’s a place where the strong old local rhythms like ciranda and maracatu mesh naturally with hip-hop and rock. With 12 pieces, including tuba, trombone, saxophones, violin, percussion and voices, the band compounds those earlier mixtures with Afrobeat and ska. On its remarkable self-titled first album (released by Som Livre Apresenta) you hear parade-samba rhythms, echoey guitar, brass and reed sections alternately booming and muted with jazz arrangements, the rustic scrape of a violin and anthemic choruses. It hasn’t been picked up for American distribution. But for now you can hear some of the band’s songs in compressed form on Youtube and Myspace, or buy a copy of the CD through somlivreapresenta.com.br. - The New York Times


"Rock band and tradicional brass. marching from brazil broadway"

It’s been a while since a band from Pernambuco, the state in the northeastern promontory of Brazil, made a deep impression in the United States. People will tell you about the singer Chico Science, who died in 1997, and his fantastic band, Nação Zumbi. They’re still missed. Their aggressive, guitar-and-drum-centric Brazilian rock burst with sound and imagery about the complexity of Brazilian cultural identity, about limited resources and technological curiosity. It also sounded good on a beach.
But those old heads from the ’90s generally only know about it because Chico Science’s records, released worldwide by Sony Latin, made their way into our market, and because the band toured our major cities. The Pernambuco scene, once incredibly promising, has since grown murkier for North Americans. Brazilian small-release CDs are hard to come by, and it’s rarer now to see a Pernambucan band make a northern invasion.
A new and encouraging sign, though, comes from Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda, which played its first American gig on Thursday at Lincoln Center’s Rubinstein Atrium. It’s a contemporary rock band collided with a traditional brass band, with drum rhythms leavening the mixture. It’s joyous and unpretentious and it gets over like crazy.
Olinda, just outside of Recife, has busy local artisans and an intense, small-scale carnival tradition; it’s obsessed with folklore as living tradition. The ten-piece Orquestra furthers that relationship between very old and very new. The guitarist Juliano Holanda, with his fuzzed-out Fender Telecaster, and the singer and percussionist Tiné, with his notched stick and scraper, were both doing the same thing: scratching out percussive sounds. Likewise the tubaist Alex Santana and the electric bassist Hugo Gila, bumping out the low end. Likewise the conga and military-drum percussionist Gilú and the trap-set drummer Rapha B, making the music swing, slow and fast.
On Thursday the Orquestra played its own local sounds and rhythms, particularly frevo — frenetic brass-band music — as well as maracatu, the stately Afro-Brazilian beat. It also played “O Pato” (“The Duck”) — made famous 50 years ago by the bossa nova singer João Gilberto — which was counterintuitively cool: a huge version, booming with horn punches, of a quiet, dryly funny song. And it got into Jamaican rhythm, including a ska version of the James Bond theme, borrowed from the Skatalites.
Rubinstein Atrium isn’t very friendly to the sound of the drum. It’s long and narrow, with very high ceilings. But the band figured out a few good ways to use the room. At one point, Maciel Salú — the deeper-voiced and more traditional of the band’s two singers — belted out an aboio, a calling-song of cattle herders, with Tiné adding light harmony; it sounded passed down through centuries, and filled up the space. And at the end, in an all-out frevo, the band marched off the stage, through the crowd and out to Broadway, where an overflow crowd had stood watching through the open doors for an hour and a half. Olinda has a few things in common with New Orleans, where this band heads next week. Something tells me they’ll do well there.
Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda performs Saturday at S.O.B.’s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston, South Village; sobs.com, (866) 777-8932.

- The New York Times


"Rock band and tradicional brass. marching from brazil broadway"

It’s been a while since a band from Pernambuco, the state in the northeastern promontory of Brazil, made a deep impression in the United States. People will tell you about the singer Chico Science, who died in 1997, and his fantastic band, Nação Zumbi. They’re still missed. Their aggressive, guitar-and-drum-centric Brazilian rock burst with sound and imagery about the complexity of Brazilian cultural identity, about limited resources and technological curiosity. It also sounded good on a beach.
But those old heads from the ’90s generally only know about it because Chico Science’s records, released worldwide by Sony Latin, made their way into our market, and because the band toured our major cities. The Pernambuco scene, once incredibly promising, has since grown murkier for North Americans. Brazilian small-release CDs are hard to come by, and it’s rarer now to see a Pernambucan band make a northern invasion.
A new and encouraging sign, though, comes from Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda, which played its first American gig on Thursday at Lincoln Center’s Rubinstein Atrium. It’s a contemporary rock band collided with a traditional brass band, with drum rhythms leavening the mixture. It’s joyous and unpretentious and it gets over like crazy.
Olinda, just outside of Recife, has busy local artisans and an intense, small-scale carnival tradition; it’s obsessed with folklore as living tradition. The ten-piece Orquestra furthers that relationship between very old and very new. The guitarist Juliano Holanda, with his fuzzed-out Fender Telecaster, and the singer and percussionist Tiné, with his notched stick and scraper, were both doing the same thing: scratching out percussive sounds. Likewise the tubaist Alex Santana and the electric bassist Hugo Gila, bumping out the low end. Likewise the conga and military-drum percussionist Gilú and the trap-set drummer Rapha B, making the music swing, slow and fast.
On Thursday the Orquestra played its own local sounds and rhythms, particularly frevo — frenetic brass-band music — as well as maracatu, the stately Afro-Brazilian beat. It also played “O Pato” (“The Duck”) — made famous 50 years ago by the bossa nova singer João Gilberto — which was counterintuitively cool: a huge version, booming with horn punches, of a quiet, dryly funny song. And it got into Jamaican rhythm, including a ska version of the James Bond theme, borrowed from the Skatalites.
Rubinstein Atrium isn’t very friendly to the sound of the drum. It’s long and narrow, with very high ceilings. But the band figured out a few good ways to use the room. At one point, Maciel Salú — the deeper-voiced and more traditional of the band’s two singers — belted out an aboio, a calling-song of cattle herders, with Tiné adding light harmony; it sounded passed down through centuries, and filled up the space. And at the end, in an all-out frevo, the band marched off the stage, through the crowd and out to Broadway, where an overflow crowd had stood watching through the open doors for an hour and a half. Olinda has a few things in common with New Orleans, where this band heads next week. Something tells me they’ll do well there.
Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda performs Saturday at S.O.B.’s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston, South Village; sobs.com, (866) 777-8932.

- The New York Times


Discography

1) Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda (2008)
2) Pra Ficar (2012)

Photos

Bio

Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda (OCO) from the meeting between the traditional musicians of frevo from Grêmio Musical Henrique Dias (since 1954) and expressive names of the new generation of musicians from Pernambuco (Northeast Brazil), after Manguebeat.

In five years of existence, the band has received a lot of attention.

In 2008, the OCO released its first album that was named after the band. For it, the OCO was nominated for the Brazilian Music Awards (2009) and the Latin Grammy (2010). O Globo chose the launching tour show the Best Show of the Year (2008).

- Album and show recommended by the New York Times.

In 2012, the OCO released "Pra Ficar", produced by Arto Lindsay (USA).

At the release show, the Carmo Square (Olinda) was crowded by 15,000 fans. In the first month after the launch, 10,000 downloads. Almost 16,000 people at the Orquestra’s Facebook Page. $400,000 in the spontaneous media. The Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda makes music that talks to Brazil.

On Stage: Porto Musical (PE), Fundição Progresso (RJ), Ibirapuera Auditorium (SP), Circuito SESC SP, Circuito
Caixa Opinião (POA),Abril pro Rock Festival (PE), Mimo Festival(PE), Rec Beat Festival (PE), Marco Zero (PE),

Lincoln Center (NY), Heineken Festival(UK), Delta Festival (Portugal), Transatlantic Festival (Miami), GlobalFest (USA) SOB’s New York, Kennedy Center (Washington), Barbican Centre (UK)

“IT’S VIBRANT, ORIGINAL” . (Arto Lindsay, producer of the “Pra ficar” album of the OCO.

>>> WOMEX Samurai,
WOMEX is our priority. Tickets and accomodation are already guaranteed by a prize won at a Government of Pernambuco contest. In 2011, OCO was selected by WOMEX Samurai, but we didn't get support for buying the tickets.