50 years of Clube da Esquina

Clube da Esquina, Milton Nascimento’s double album arranged by Eumir Deodato and Wagner Tiso and released in 1972, had little in common with the musical productions then emerging from the studios of Rio and São Paulo. Behind the famous cover showing two kids sitting on the side of a dirt road, a whole collective of musicians from Minas Gerais gathered, brought together by the ethereal-voiced singer-songwriter, and the Borges brothers. The goal was something universal. It wasn’t exactly a band; more a cultural group made up of friends who meet at the club on the corner (to translate the album’s title) where anything might happen...

The end result was 21 tracks that not only mix traditional rural music, Afro-Brazilian culture and popular celebrations with the pop of the Beatles, bossa, the progressive rock of the group Som Imaginário, sacred music, and improvised jazz, but also make the link with the Andalusian cante jondo of Camarón de la Isla. These Andean rhythms and protest songs were brought to life by the greatest voices in South America such as Mercedes Sosa and Violetta Para, giving voice to those who were subjected to onslaughts by military juntas. 

Unique in the history of MPB and a world music album before such a concept really existed, Clube da Esquina would open Brazilian ears to the sounds of Minas Gerais. The singer Clara Nunes, also from Minas Gerais, would add batuque and congado to her previously very Carioca samba. Star of Brazilian gaucha from the south of Brazil, Elis Regina, was seduced by Ronaldo Bastos and Fernando Brandt’s lyrics, immediately recording “Nada Sera Como Antes”, as well as several other compositions by Milton Nascimento. Nascimento also gave the group 14 bis its biggest hit with “Bola de Meia, Bola de Gude”. 

Today, despite the world having changed in myriad ways, artists such as Mônica Salmaso, Guinga, and Renato Braz continue to reproduce the spirit of the modern musical mosaic that is so particular to Clube da Esquina, keeping the doors of possibility open to new developments in Brazilian popular music.