José Mauro
Obnoxius

Obnoxius is a Latin word with multiple meanings. It might seem idle to delve into the thoughts of José Mauro and Ana Maria Bahiana, but considering the historical period in which the piece was crafted, it's an effort worth making.

"Subject, exposed to danger," suggest the dictionaries, and it seems exactly so. José Mauro was a person exposed to danger because, in 1970, Brazil was experiencing one of the darkest periods in its history: the Vacio Cultural, the suspension of certain constitutional guarantees, and the tight control of censorship over any form of artistic expression, including music.

Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque de Hollanda are just a few among the many exiles who scattered across Europe. Not José Mauro.

The reaction to the state of affairs produced one of the most experimental avant-gardes in the South American country, Tropicalismo, and supported a genuine movement devoted to Brazilian Popular Music, meaning the forms of folk and traditional Brazilian music mixed with bossa nova and European rock and pop.

Obnoxius is, therefore, a work that contains the communicative urgency stemming from the precariousness of things, the melancholy typical of souls crushed by the weight of vanished freedoms, the hope of witnessing the dawn of something new.

The album opens with overdriven trumpets and José's declaration of intent: "Ana Maria Bahiana and I believe the album deserves to be listened to."

Nothing truer. The eponymous opening track encapsulates all the characteristics of the work: almost avant-garde orchestration (thanks to Lindolfo Gaya and producer Roberto Davarin, who also handled the publication), Afro-Brazilian percussion, samba, jazz, and psychedelia that blend wonderfully, and above all, José's voice that brings to mind Nick Drake and Chico Buarque.

Memó¢ria is a masterpiece: atonal violins blend with Mauro's guitar arpeggio while Ana Maria recites a Κύριε ἐλέησον that sends shivers down your spine, all while the orchestra plunges us into an emotional vortex. Ponto de chamada is the desperate cry of a man proclaiming to be alive and seeking a way out, expressed by the wonderful samba-jazz that concludes the track, an anthem to freedom, joy of human existence.

Following is As Aventuras Sentimentais de Espiroqueta Camargo where once again José's voice, laden with humanity and compassion for poor Espiroqueta Camargo's story, can be appreciated. Listen to the farewell song that concludes the track, and you won't be able not to be moved.

Talismã, the talisman, is what's needed to navigate the turbulent waters of contemporaneity, and I let its music suggest the itinerary that Meu Capitão must follow to reach the destination. Canção da Casa Iluminada is another episode of dazzling beauty and melancholy where guitar, strings, and winds describe a scene laden with mystery, fascinating in its psychedelic mists.

Apocalipse is the clash between evil, o Senhor da Guerra, and good, Miguel Arcanjo, and thus percussion and guitar, representing chaos, begin a battle against the strings and winds that, in their humble majesty, put up a valiant resistance. The track once again expresses discomfort towards a bleak, gray present, apparently without the possibility of redemption.

The samba-jazz loaded with saudade in Exaltação e Lamento do Último is the fitting conclusion of a work that, at the time, went almost unnoticed despite its dazzling beauty.

It might seem like a fate similar to what history has reserved for many other beautiful records, but it is not so. José Mauro, after the album's release, simply disappeared, something that, in fact, prevented adequate promotion.

But where did José go? The web doesn’t offer any solutions regarding this, but someone has shown interest in his case and has tried to investigate (https://www.dm.com.br/cultura/2016/02/a-suposta-morte-de-jose-mauro/).

Car accident, as many say? Roberto Davarin would have known, yet it is precisely the latter who tells us that the talented musician seemed to have vanished into thin air.

A victim of his ideas, arrested, tortured, and finally disappeared by the military dictatorship? Or simply still alive, uninterested in letting us know that yes, in the end, as much as obnoxius, he managed to survive.