Carlinhos Brown - Biography
By J Poet
Carlinhos Brown is one of the most important drummer/percussionists and songwriters in modern Brazilian music. He’s written more than 300 hit songs for artists including Caetano Veloso, Marisa Monte, Gal Costa, Daniela Mercury, Daúde, and the heavy metal band Sepultura. Sérgio Mendes recorded five Brown tunes on his Grammy winning album Brasileiro (1992 A&M). Brown is also known for his ability to fuse Brazilian music with other international genres including hip-hop, reggae, and electronica without compromising his roots. He’s a superstar in Brazil, although his international profile is still fairly low-key.
Antonio Carlos Santos de Freitas was born in Salvador de Bahia in 1962 to a struggling working class family. He father followed candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion with a deep musical tradition. Brown started playing on pots and pans as a toddler. When he was a boy he met Osvaldo Alves da Silvia, known to locals as Pintado do Bongo (Bongo Master), who introduced him to the rhythms of candomblé. He was soon known for his percussive expertise. He took the name Brown from “Box” Brown, a slave who escaped from the American south by mailing himself to Philadelphia in a shipping crate. “Box” Brown became an abolitionist and a champion of black rights.
Brown turned pro at 17 and the time he was 18, was doing session work at WR studios in Bahia and learning how to produce. He became well known to musicians for the hit jingles he wrote and produced for various products; the spots featured a combination of beats generated by electronics and his own hand drumming. He joined Acordes Verdes, one of the first samba-reggae bands in 1984 and in 1985 Caetano Veloso hired him for lead percussion duties. Brown wrote the hit “Meia Lua Inteira” for Veloso’s album Estrangeiro (1989 WEA International), and “Visão de Cíclope” for Luís Caldas, his first Brazilian Top 10 tune. In the next few years, Brown became a famous Brazilian producer and songwriter and toured internationally with the bands of João Gilberto, Djavan, and João Bosco.
In 1992 Brown created Timbalada, a carnival music and drum troupe that combined candomblé, samba, reggae and other beats into their explosive sound. The band had more than 100 members, most of them poor kids from his old neighborhood. Their carnival appearances changed the drumming template for other samba schools and they released more than a dozen best selling albums including Cada Cabeça É Um Mundo (1995 Polygram Brazil), Timbalada Dance (1997 Polygram Brazil), Pense Minha Cor (1999 Universal International), Serviço De Animação Popular (2004 Candyall Brazil), the compilation Axe Bahia: O Melhor De Timbalada (2006 Universal International) and the live Timbalada ao Vivo (2008 Som Livre Brazil.)
Alfagamabetizado (1996 Blue Note) introduced Brown to the world. He sang, composed, and played most of the instruments with a bit of help from producers Wally Badarou and Arto Lindsay. The album’s social message had some American critics calling him the “Brazilian Bob Marley,” a disservice to both artists. He also contributed percussion to Sepultura’s Roots (1996 Roadrunner.) Omelete Man (1999 Blue Note) blended funk, pop, swing and Brazilian strains and cemented his place as a superstar in Brazil. Bahia do Mundo, Mito e Verdade (2001 Blue Note) was more Brazilian in feel, with rich layers of percussion, although there were still some rock and reggae influences.
In 2002 brown made a one off record with Arnaldo Antunes and Marisa Monte called Tribalistas (2003 Blue Note), a mostly acoustic celebration of Brazilian pop. It was nominated for four Latin Grammys - Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Brazilian Contemporary Pop Album, and Best Brazilian Song for “Já Sei Namorar.” The album won Brazilian Grammys for Best Album and Best Song, again for “Já Sei Namorar.”
Carlinhos Brown é Carlito Marrón (2003 Blue Note) was another hit, a fusion of Brazilian and Cuban music that went Gold in Spain. In 2004 he collaborated with DJ Dero on the double CD Candyall Beat (Vale), a high-energy club album released in Brazil on his own Candyall label. A Gente Ainda Não Sonhou ( 2007 Sony International) features his band mates from Tribalistas, Arnaldo Antunes and Marisa Monte, and showcases Brown’s electro fusion with hints of Cuban rumba, reggae, and funk.
