“O Dinheiro é a Desgraça do Mundo”: conversamos com o mestre Hermeto Pascoal (por

Daniel Corrêa 07/06/2019)

https://www.tenhomaisdiscosqueamigos.com/2019/06/07/hermeto-pascoal-entrevista/

Ele é conhecido como o mago ou o bruxo e é basicamente isso mesmo. O que Hermeto
Pascoal faz com sua música é magia. Com a ideia de uma musicalidade livre, as canções do
lendário músico alagoano parece que fazem parte da natureza, como uma extensão do
ambiente onde são criados.

Esse show vai poder ser visto no Rio Montreux Jazz Festival e por isso, mandamos algumas
perguntas para ele que nos respondeu por áudio em seu jeitinho de poucas palavras e muita
poesia e bom humor.

Confira nosso breve papo depois de registros dele tocando na matriz do festival, na Suíça.

TMDQA: Você é um artista que sempre me pareceu muito inquieto, buscando sempre algo
novo, buscando surpreender. Essa reinvenção e elemento de surpresa é parte do seu
processo criativo?

Hermeto: Você fez uma pergunta muito afirmativa, muito inteligente. E é verdade tudo isso.
Eu me considero 100% intuitivo.

TMDQA: Desde 2008, você tem uma postura muito diferente em relação a direitos autorais,
deixando suas músicas livres para chegarem a mais pessoas. Essa seria uma busca para uma
música livre de verdade, não só na parte musical?

Hermeto: O dinheiro é a desgraça do mundo. Quem ganha mais parece que tá com um
câncer da alma. E eu não quero entrar nessa. Nunca quis desistir de muita coisa para ganhar
muito dinheiro dinheiro. Sempre me pareceu que seria o dinheiro que iria me ganhar. Eu não
recebo direito autoral. Ele sempre ficava na mão de quem deveria me pagar e não chegava
em mim. Aí quando algum coitadinho queria gravar, cobravam mil reais. Por isso eu liberei a
gravação. O que quiserem gravar meu, é só gravar. Se precisar assinar algo, eu assino
também.

TMDQA: Você vai se apresentar no Rio Montreux. Você acha que esse tipo de evento pode
abrir novas portas aqui no Rio?

Hermeto: Deus quando fez o mundo, deixou muitas portas abertas para quem quer evoluir.
Um festival desses é uma oportunidade para quem tem o que apresentar, mas o público é
maior que os artistas, eles querem sentir e curtir. É nossa função entregar algo para o
público. E confia em mim pois eu sou doutor, Doutor Hermeto! (risos)

Nota: Hermeto está se referindo ao título de Doutor Honoris Causa que recebeu do New
England Conservatory, nos Estados Unidos.

TMDQA: E o que você está preparando de surpresas para esse show?

Hermeto: Sempre faço assim, eu não premedito nada. Eu não preparo nada, com
antecedência. Até pra comida é assim. Teve um tempo atrás que fui fazer uma pipoca e não
tinha me preparado e quase taquei fogo na casa! (risos) Eu subo no palco para eu mesmo me
surpreender.

TMDQA: Você é um daqueles artistas que sempre pareceram vislumbrar o amanhã. Como
você vê a música brasileira hoje e, para você, o que nos aguarda para o futuro?

Hermeto: O futuro só a Deus pertence e eu não tenho mais tempo pra isso. Uso o passado de
alicerce e sigo firme no presente. O Brasil tem muitos músicos bons. Eu acabei de gravar um
disco com uma banda que acho que 20 anos atrás não encontraria. Temos muitos bons
músicos.

TRANSLATION:

“Money Is The World’s Disgrace” – in conversation with Hermeto Pascoal (by Daniel Corrêa
- 07/06/2019

He's known as the wizard or the sorcerer and that's basically it. What Hermeto Pascoal does
with his music is magic. With the idea of a free musicality, the songs of the legendary
musician from Alagoas seem to be part of nature, as an extension of the environment in
which they were created.

You’ll be able to see him at the Rio Montreux Jazz Festival and for that reason, we sent some
questions to him, and he answered us via audio in his way of few words and a lot of poetry
and good humor.

TMDQA: You are an artist who always seemed to me very restless, always looking for
something new, looking to surprise. Is this reinvention and element of surprise part of your
creative process?

Hermeto: You asked a very positive, very intelligent question. And it's all true. I consider
myself 100% intuitive.

TMDQA: Since 2008, you've taken a very different stance on copyright, making your music
free, to reach more people. Is this the idea?

Hermeto: Money is the disgrace of the world. Whoever earns more seems to have cancer of
the soul. And I don't want to get into that. I never wanted to give up a lot to earn a lot of
money. It always seemed to me that the money would earn me. I don't get copyright. It was
always in the hands of those who should pay me and it didn't reach me. Then when some
poor chap wanted to record, they charged a thousand reais. So I released the recording.
Whenever you want to record my things, just record them. If I need to sign something, I'll
sign it too.
TMDQA: You will be performing at the Rio Montreux festival. Do you think this type of event
can open new doors here in Rio?

Hermeto: When God made the world, he left many doors open for those who want to
evolve. A festival like this is an opportunity for those who have something to present, but the
audience is bigger than the artists, they want to feel and enjoy. It's our job to deliver
something to the audience. And trust me because I'm a doctor, Doctor Hermeto! (laughter)
Note: Hermeto is referring to the title of Doctor Honoris Causa he received from the New
England Conservatory, in the United States.

TMDQA: And what surprises are you preparing for this show?

Hermeto: I always do this, I dont premeditate anything. I don't prepare anything in advance.
Even for food, it's like that. There was a while ago that I went to make some popcorn and I
hadn't prepared myself and I almost set the house on fire! (laughs) I go up on stage to
surprise myself.

TMDQA: You are one of those artists who always seemed to glimpse tomorrow. How do you
see Brazilian music today and, for you, what awaits us for the future?

Hermeto: The future belongs only to God and I dont have time for that anymore. I use the
past as a foundation and stand firm in the present. Brazil has many good musicians. I just
recorded an album with a band that I don't think 20 years ago would have found. We have a
lot of good musicians.

_______________________________________________________________________

A fan’s footnote:

a)The reference to Hermeto nearly buring down his son’s apartment (where he now lives) in
an accident is worrying. Several thousand of Hermeto’s manuscripts are kept there and his
son Fabio refuses to allow anyone to make a digital safety copy (to guard against an
accident). God alone knows why – its madness! If there was a fire the entire archive would be
lost to the world.

b) Hermeto says that anyone who wants to record any of his compositions is free to do so.
However in reality the three archive holders who control the three separate Hermeto sheets
archives consistently refuse to give free (or virtually any) access to them to the public. Who
knows why...maybe its down to “control-freakery”, or its the “exclusive gate-keeper
mentality” at play. Or they might like people playing “suck-up” to them to get access. Most
associations/forums/museums/institutes etc (dedicated to celebrating certain
musicians/composers/artists) give the public access to their archives. And the making of
digital safety copies is an absolute “given” with any museum/institute. But this doesn’t
happen with Hermeto. Once in a blue moon, a free folio is put out, though considering
Hermeto’s written over 9,000 comps, its just a drop in the ocean. The sad reality of the
situation is that if musicians want to play certain Hermeto compositions they have to
transcribe them themselves. That’s no easy ask though, as Hermeto’s chords can be
complicated. There’s around 800 Hermeto compositions mostly freely available online,
including the excellent Calendario book, but even so, that’s less than 10% of his catalogue.

c) Even though Hermeto says he is not interested in “money” etc (which he is no doubt
absolutely sincere about) his management have in recent years encouraged him to do
commercial deals with multi-national companies like Budweiser and Puma. Probably
Hermeto is just happy to have a funded-platform on which to work (and there’s a long
history of multi-nationals using the arts to whitewash their reputations) but its a bit strange
to see this play-out with Hermeto, given what he’s said before. Absolutely no criticism of
Hermeto is intended by this observation; musicians have to earn a living like everyone else - I
figure these “commercial” deals are solely down to his management. Budweiser actually
have quite a special history of getting involved with good independent soul music in North
America. They entered into some important hook-ups with Radio Stations, mainly in Texas in
the 1980’s and ran some great soul music competitions under that umbrella. A lot of good
independent modern soul singles were released on the Budweiser label in the 80s. So I
suppose there’s no need to be “holier than thou” on this issue. In fact a lot of the great
composers in history like Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Purcell etc worked (at stages of their careers)
for the various princes, dukes and royal courts of their time; money-influenced relationships
have been around forever (in the sense of composers taking the royals’ money and doing
what was required of them in return).

d) Also on the topic of Hermeto saying “whenever you want to record my things, just record
them” another impediment has arisen in the last few years. Hermeto’s son, Fabio, has
apparently sent out 2000 of Hermeto’s sheets (in batches of approx 50 sheets for each
person) to certain musicians he knows. No copies were made of any of the sheets. Musicians
are no different to the rest of us (in terms of character traits etc), and the majority of them
wiill not share these private-presents, so these Hermeto sheets are now very likely lost to the
world. A lot of musicians like to have some “exclusive” repertoire that no one else has and
won’t share their private gifts. They like to use the sheets-gifts to show-off how much
Hermeto thinks of them. But nearly all of them refuse to share these sheets freely. Given
Hermeto’s generous philosophy of “sharing” and saying he wants his music available to all,
it’s depressing to see this selfish attitude. A lot of Hermeto’s inner circle of musicians have
other sheets of his which they will not share. Seems like Hermeto doesn’t concern himself
with any of this; his pre-occupation is simply to compose and make music. What happens to
his work is down to other people.

e) Another suprising and alarming development (in relation to Hermeto’s publicly-stated

“anti-money” position) is the private auctioning-off of his composition notebooks by his
management. Apparently a few months ago, a Japanese bidder paid US$1k for a notebook of
100 sheets. Thankfully that notebook was videod and posted on YT but if more of Hermeto’s
manuscripts are auctioned-off like this (without being videod and made available for free
online), then there’s a real risk that most of Hermeto’s remarkable compositional legacy will
be lost to the world forever.