Guitarist Marlene Souza Lima
Marlene was born in Rio de Janeiro, but grew up in Brasília when it became Brazil's new capital. Her father was a saxophonist and her mother a music lover so music has always been part of her life. Marlene says she grew up "listening to bossa nova, jazz and James Brown".
Regarding the music she was exposed to, she says "My parents have good taste for music". She started learning and practicing music on the 'violão'
(in
English an "acoustic guitar" or "Spanish guitar") with her sister Lubélia under the tutelage of two music professors, Francisco Carmo and Francisco Pincelão.
In 1984 Marlene entered the prestigious "School of Music of Brasilia" - an appraised public school of music in
Brazil - where she studied the violão with Professor Paulo André Tavares, a famous acoustic and
electric guitarist in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro. He is a teacher at Escola de Musica de Brasília (Brasília Music School) and plays at
different gigs in Brazil.
The School of Music of Brasilia also offered diverse "Courses of Summer" during which Marlene learned about harmony (how the chords work) from professor Ian Guest. During this time, she studied the violão under the erudite Brazilian classical guitarist Marco Pereira and one of Brazil’s most celebrated guitar composers and performers Paulo Bellanti. In 1985 Marlene began studying guitar from Brazilian guitarist, arranger and composer, Nelson Faria.
In the years following her studies, she performed in theaters, bars of Brasilia and Goiânia with several
instrumental groups, but notably with the "Loga'Ritmo" band, the "Maracatu Banda", and the big band "Popular Brasilia Orquestra". She noted that
the bands she played with generally followed the performances of popular singers and singing groups.
IIn 1992, Marlene met and began studying with a great person and musician, "Mestre
Curinga", She said, "He played with many famous Brazilian's musicians and
singers and recorded many albums with them". She said, "Mestre Curinga's
music sounds like magic" to her. Marlene said he died a year later, but she
said she feels that , "I had good luck to meet him before he died because he
was a very good teacher". She said that he taught her how to make her own
music, create her own compositions and develop her own improvisational
style.
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In 1994 Marlene came to the U.S. to study English at California State University, East Bay. She attended Cal State East Bay into 1995 before returning home.
While attending CalState Marlene played with some musicians from the Music
Departament's Improvisation class. She said they played some jazz
standards. In San Francisco she played at one of the Pier's. It was
not her "gig", she had gone to listen to the jazz music, but then
asked a guitarist if she could "play some music", he said yes, so I played.
It was one of her memorable experiences while in California. Upon returning to Brazil, Marlene continued to perform in many diverse places in the Brasilia capital.
In 1998 some teachers from the Berkley came to São Paulo-Brazil to hold auditions for
scholarships. Marlene said she was approved for one, but could not go because the
scholarship was only $1.000. The Berkley course cost way in excess of that.
She says she is is currently teaching "violão and guitar in its institute the 'Plant of Sounds
Course of Music.
Q&A…
DB: What type of music was played (generally) in
your house?
Marlene: In my house we usually listened
to instrumental music. Jazz, bossa nova, baião, choro, samba-canção and samba from school's samba.
Pop, rock and soul music played on the radio. In my house music was something important.
DB: What style of music do you like playing?
Marlene: I like to play instrumental music: jazz- John Scofield's music, Pat Metheny, James Moody, Charlie Parker, George Benson, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery to
practice or to enjoy. I also like to play Brazilian music like choro (a
generally instrumental kind of Brazilian music), frevo (rhythm like 'GELO Seco'), baião, samba and boss nova. My voice is on my guitar and so I
don't need lyrics (my voice is terrible to sing).
DB: Do you have recorded CD's or are you considering recording
and releasing one?
Marlene: I have not recorded my own CD yet. I want to record my first
CD next year.
DB: While you do not have a personal CD in release, are you featured
on any CD's by other musicians?
Marlene: I had some participations on Marcello Bernardes' CD (he is a Brazilian singer),
I am on the "Som AFRO Brasil" CD (sounds like African music). Also on two collectanea CD (an
album with different kinds of music and musicians). The first one with the "Som Afro Brasil" and the second one with the "Loga'Ritmo" (we recorded the music "Loga'Ritmo that you can hear on
my MySpace page).
DB: Can you explain what the "Sounds of Plants
Course of Music" is?
Marlene: The 'Usina de Sons' is a
music course open to the public. In it, people can learn how to play acoustic or
electric guitar. They are taught harmony, music theory and are offered the
opportunity to learn many musical styles. All the people are welcome no matter what age.
"I'm the "Usina de Sons" owner and I'm teaching too". The "Usina de
Sons" represents an old dream come to light for Marlene. She says, "I
teach there and like doing it very much. Overall, I like playing at shows. I love Music,
Music is my life".
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