The stained-glass windows, dim lighting, and tall ceilings created the perfect backdrop for a cozy December evening at Epiphany Center for the Arts. There, a nine-piece ensemble captivated attendees with the infectious groove of Brazilian funk and jazz.
The show Brazilian Funk Night combines “all of this Brazilian music with a funk groove and a lot of improvisation,” said Marcel Bonfim, the ensemble’s musical director and bassist. Bonfim is from São Paulo, Brazil, and has performed on stages such as the Chicago Jazz Festival and Jazz Showcase in the South Loop.
A year ago, Bonfim released his debut album, Farewell/Despedida, an ode to his immigration journey from Brazil to the United States. He created Brazilian Funk Night as a passion project, with the December show as the second iteration of the night. It all began with inspiration from one of Brazil’s most prolific bands from the ’70s, Banda Black Rio.
As part of the Fulton Street Collective in West Town, Bonfim took on the arduous task of transcribing Banda Black Rio’s debut album, Maria Fumaça. The twenty-nine-minute album, regarded by Rolling Stone Brazil as one of the 100 best Brazilian albums of all time, took famous Brazilian songs and infused them with sounds from samba, jazz, and funk, pioneering a new genre and inspiring musicians like Bonfim for generations to come.
“I did this whole album, the Banda Black Rio’s first album, from back to back, and it was very, very hard,” Bonfim said. “If you want to do it, you have to transcribe note by note, listening to the recording.”
Performing Maria Fumaça in its entirety at the Fulton Street Collective sparked a desire in Bonfim to keep the momentum going.
“The idea was, ‘Oh, this is so fun and so cool that we should do it more than once. Let’s keep doing it and expanding the repertoire,’” he said.
The first Brazilian Funk Night was in October. Among the audience was Drew Jensen, the director of entertainment at the Epiphany Center. After the performance, Jensen offered the space and the night to Bonfim.
“I thought it was really tight. I thought that the horns were amazing. And just hearing some of the music for the first time and those compositions is really fun,” Jensen said.
Bonfim kicked off the night by teasing the audience and describing what they were about to perform as taking Brazilian songs and putting “new clothes on them so they can look very funky.”
The December ensemble features Neal Alger on guitar, Casey Dahl on keyboard, Justin Kono on drums, Gerald Martinez on saxophone, Matt Kowalski on trombone, Bian Schwab on trumpet, Cassidy Page on vocals, and fellow Brasileiro Heitor Garcia on percussion.
Garcia is an instructor at the Old Town School of Folk Music and is from Belo, Horizonte, Brazil. Coincidentally, he hails from the same town as Jamil Jones, one of the bass players for Banda Black Rio.
Growing up in Brazil, Garcia says there was a scarcity in funk, pop, and rock vinyls as well as accessibility to North American instruments. Because of this, Brazilians were forced to create a new sound with Brazilian instruments like Brazilian Funk.
“The idea of implementing, or mixing Brazilian instruments with the music was…more of a necessity than an option,” Garcia said.
One of the instruments he played at the show was the cuíca, a friction drum typically used in Brazilian funk music. The cuíca creates a squeaky, high-pitched sound that is produced by rubbing a cloth attached to the inside of the drum. Garcia noted that the majority of Brazilian percussion instruments trace their origins to Africa. The cuíca used to be made in a square shape with natural skin and a bamboo stick, Garcia explained, but due to modernization, the instrument is now made of metal.
For Bonfim, it was important that the percussionist was also of Brazilian origin. “This is something that I made sure to do—hire someone that is a Brazilian and knows all the Brazilian language and rhythms,” he said.
“When I come in with the percussions, when I add the percussions, I don’t just add the percussions,” Garcia said. “I make it sound Brazilian, because that’s how I learned how to play.”
Garcia says there’s more to just playing music and more to the instruments, and it all boils down to feeling and taking your listeners on a journey to a destination.
“When I picked up that three triangle and I played on that song, I did not just play a triangle,” Garcia said. “I played to build the groove, to make sure that every single note of that groove had a certain flexibility that allows the music to flow in one specific direction.”
Garcia’s approach to music set the tone for the evening, emphasizing intention and emotion as Cassidy Page sang in Portuguese. The sounds of the ensemble filled the intimate space, where couples, families, and friends settled into comfortable seating (and drank plenty of vinho), creating a warm and vibrant atmosphere for around eighty attendees.
“Hearing the applause from people and people’s reaction, I think everybody just really dug it,” Jensen said.
Outside of the ensemble, the musicians are friends and play across Chicago, from jam sessions at Bernice’s Tavern in Bridgeport to Uptown’s infamous cocktail lounge, the Green Mill. This relationship and camaraderie allows them to perform seamlessly.
“We got together to practice, to be very, very honest, once, and that’s it,” Bonfim said through giggles.
That cohesion, professionalism, and passion emanates from their performance, which can transport anyone to their own personal heaven of rhythms and melodies, making it almost impossible to not wiggle in your seat.
The energy in the room at the December show was palpable, as their tight-knit chemistry brought the music to life. It was clear that this was more than just a performance; it was a celebration of their friendship, shared history, and love for the music.
“My goal would [be to] make this regular, like once a month, and make an environment where people could come over and party and dance, listening to some funky music,” Bonfim said.
Jensen said the Epiphany Center is ready to host the Brazilian Funk Night again and hopefully a date is set in the near future.
“Everybody is putting a lot of their time and their talent into it, in respect to me and in respect to the music, too,” Bonfim said. “I feel very grateful for their generosity. At the same time, I feel the responsibility to make this as good and as pleasant as possible for everybody.”
For Garcia, performing is essential to him and for the survival of music.
“I have a belief that music is something that you do not retain,” he said. “You have to let it go; you learn and you pass it on.”
Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales is a Mexican American independent journalist from Belmont Cragin who is passionate about covering communities of color with a social justice lens. She is a senior editor at the Weekly.