"The Blues is the quintessence of everything good. It could travel for the whole galaxy."

Carlos Café: Ο Carioca de Blues

Carlos Café is a Brazilian Blues Rock guitarist, composer, arranger and teacher. Performs workshops on improvisation and blues guitar. Nowadays is getting harder and harder to listen to good music. However, with patience and some luck, we can find great songs played with feeling and style. Carioca Carlos Café is playing since the seventies. Despite played different styles he always searched for true music, no matter the style he played. He started playing Blues, then Rock and Fusion. In the early nineties he listened to Clapton´s record “From the Cradle”. After that experience he realized that he had to get back to his roots.

Since that moment he dedicated almost all his time to play the blues, but now, with all his knowledge, acquired in his many musical experiences. Shortly the first ideas were emerging. That´s the origin of the CD “Carlos Café & Os Mestres do Blues” (Carlos Café & Blues Masters). The project is a tribute to the musicians that more influenced him in his musical life. He wrote original arrangements to standards like Sweet home Chicago and Summertime and wrote original songs to Robert Johnson, BB King, Johnny Winter and Albert Collins. All of the songs have their own identity. The arrangements were written based on the emotion that the song transmits, like Carlos says: "the story that the song tells us”. Despite that, the CD has a very unique identity. Carlos summarizes: "The CD is a celebration of my maturity as a musician”.

The eleven tracks sound blues that came from the best references but with varied spices, like different accents of the same language. It´s hard to write about music, it´s easier to listen to this record and let your heart explain you what good music can do. Carlos Café is about to release his second solo CD, this time exploring blues style and classic rock, based on his extensive experience as a musician and composer. The name of his new CD is Bagagem Código Blues (Luggage Code Blues). 

Interview by Michael Limnios

When was your first desire to become involved in the music and what made you fall in love with the blues music?

I think those two things happened simultaneously. Blues music is the root of everything I like in music.

When I was a teenager, in the early seventies, I saw many TV shows of rock bands and some blues players. The bands or guitar players I like more were the players with a blues base, like Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Deep Purple, Zeppelin, Clapton, etc. Later on I bought my first guitar and experienced a very special state of mind when I played, a kind of deep concentration with lot of energy and, at the same time, peace. Since then I never wanted anything else.

Like I say to my students: we don´t choose to become a musician, the music chooses you. You can accept it or not.

What do you learn about yourself from the blues and what does the blues mean to you?

To be honest to myself. To play what I feel with no compromises.

"I think Bossa Nova and Blues have black music as a common root. They are 'orange and apple' but they feed you with the same kind of plenitude. With different vocabularies they transmit resembling feelings."

What experiences in your life make you a GOOD BLUESMAN?

It´s funny. When I first started to play the guitar I liked to play basically rock and blues. Later, when I started to study music, harmony, etc, I widened my horizons. I started playing fusion and compose soundtracks to theater plays. After many years playing a lot of different styles I´ve felt that I needed to go back to my roots, to the music that speaks directly from the heart. It happened about 15 years ago and my music started to make sense again. I´ve recovered an important part of myself.

How do you describe Carlos Café sound and progress, what characterize your music philosophy?

My music style is a mix of everything I heard and loved during my lifetime. It´s like a “Brazilian music mash”.

Like a good scotch whisky, the blues is the base of this mixture. My sound is always in progress. I like to explore new things, improve my tone from guitars and equipment. I always try to do the best to express myself.

My music philosophy could be defined by two words: simplicity and intensity.

Which is the most interesting period in your life? Which was the best and worst moment of your career?

Music for me is not a career, it´s essential, it´s my life. A career you can manage and plan a lot better than what occurs in music. At least to me. I think my most interesting period is the last 5 years, after I released my first CD. Everything in my life started to make sense again. Even the food tastes better. (no kidding)

The worst moment of my music was when I was not chosen to play in a band that I wanted very much. They were more experienced guys I´d love to work with them. I was very green in my 19 years old, and they didn´t want me. It was devastating. It took away my self-confidence and caused me many scars.  But it showed me I was not as good as I thought and forced me to study and develop myself. It was a very difficult period.

The best moment is always the last good gig. There is nothing like applause and see people moved by your music. I am a stage musician. Studio recording is only a necessary way of spread my music.

"Like I say to my students: we don´t choose to become a musician, the music chooses you. You can accept it or not."

Why did you think that the Blues music continues to generate such a devoted following?

Because it´s an essential music language. Everybody can understand and relate to it. The music itself is the most important element of the style. No matter the lyrics are in English or Portuguese, the message passes through if the person actually hears.

What’s the best jam you ever played in? What are some of the most memorable gigs you've had?

There were some great jams I played. Sometimes when we can gather musician friends and play just for fun, lot of fun. That´s how I´ve formed my current band, the Expresso Blues.

I think one of the most important gigs of my life was the first show of my first solo CD, in 2008. I was very nervous about become a solo artist and how people would answer to my work.

There were about 200 people in the theatre but, for me, the pressure was of a huge crowd.  They loved it.  It was a meaningful success.

Which meetings have been the most important experiences for you? What is the best advice ever given you?

I went to GIT (USA) in 1988. There I made contact with many important players like Steve Trovato, Allan Hinds and Kirk Smart. There was a colleague named K. Amano (Japanese), a very nice player. All of them influenced my playing in a way or another.

Ian Guest was the most important teacher I had. He helped me to “fill the gaps” in harmony and arrangement. Until then I was a semi- self taught musician. It was very hard to find a music school in Brazil not related to classical music those days. I´ve studied in his school from 1988 until 1993, I think. Now I teach guitar there.

The best advice given to me was to always play with my personal style, never try to emulate no one. It reinforced the belief and the attitude I already had.

"I wanted to go to the Chess Records studios on the day all the great guys show up. To see Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Little Walter, Howling Wolf, etc. When and where everything I love started."

Make an account of the case of the blues in Brazil. Which is the most interesting period in local blues scene?

The most important period of blues in Brazil was the early 90´s. Then some recording companies discovered that blues players could sell records. Since then the style has gained many followers.

Here in Rio de Janeiro, the scene is a little slow now. It´s mainly a touristic city. The civil authorities didn´t realize that they have to please every taste, not only show mainstream pop music, samba and nudity. It´s really a shame!

There are few places to play. I have to travel to other cities around. But I like it. Everywhere we go we are well received. It´s a very pleasant surprise to me to realize how different kind of people love the blues, even if was the first time they listen to it. Amazing!

What do you miss most nowadays from the old days of blues? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

I miss the freedom of being a precursor. Just to play what you want and love. Most people now have to relate you to a known label to understand what kind of music you make. It really pisses me of!

I hope the internet restore the power of being original, honest. We don´t have to follow any trend, it´s ridiculous!

What I fear the most is the invasion of pseudo-musicians armed with drum machines and computers who claim they are doing the music of the future. They can´t be right!

Why the Brazilians are so enamored with the blues? What are the lines that connect the Blues around the world?

I think I´ve already answered this question when I said the Blues is essential to everybody. The Blues is the quintessence of everything good. It could travel for the whole galaxy.

"Blues music is the root of everything I like in music."

From the musical and feeling point of view what are the similarities between Bossa Nova and Blues?

Both styles use a lot of dominant chords. Just kidding!

I think Bossa Nova and Blues have black music as a common root.

They are “orange and apple” but they feed you with the same kind of plenitude. With different vocabularies they transmit resembling feelings.

What mistakes in local blues scene would you wish to correct? Which memory makes you smile?

I wish the guys here explore more a Brazilian way of write and play the Blues. Not so many clichés.

When my daughter was about 12 years old, she helped me with a verse on a lyric I was writing to a theater play soundtrack. She was paying attention then she said the exact word I needed to complete the verse correctly. This soundtrack was the turning point on my musical life. I was writing lyrics again for the first time in more than a decade.

Let’s take a trip with a time machine, so where and why would you really wanna go for a whole day..?

I wanted to go to the Chess Records studios on the day all the great guys show up. To see Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Little Walter, Howling Wolf, etc. When and where everything I love started.

Carlos Cafe - official website