You know you’re a big deal when your opening acts are Brazil’s Minister of Culture and its Ambassador to China. Building on recent milestones like Brazil’s granting of visa-free entrance to Chinese tourists, Sino-Brazilian relations continue to warm through musical and cultural exchanges.

“Today’s performance is extra special, because it transcends the boundaries of music to celebrate the common ground of our two countries,” explained the Minister of Culture.

Once the bearded and curly-haired performer took the stage, all words and formalities evaporated. 

João Camarero’s acoustic guitar had the confident presence of a speaker who magnetically draws the listener towards them instead of shouting to get attention. A spider web of Latin arpeggios unrolled over invisible steps, climbing and stumbling, speeding up and slowing down, as if feeling its way through the physical darkness that fell over Beijing’s Blue Note. When the piece finished, the last notes lingered softly in the air like wisps of smoke from a blown out candle. The audience—largely a mix of Brazilian expats and Chinese guitar students accompanied by their parents—took a good few seconds to snap out of the trance and applaud. 

“Muito obrigado, xiexie!” young Camarero grinned before switching to English, the room’s lingua franca.  

The evening’s primary focus was the music of guitar legend Baden Powell. Camarero recalled how he was first captivated by a photo of Powell playing with his eyes closed. Watching Camerero himself play, I realized that the performer closing his eyes is not just concentrating, but showing the audience where his attention lies and inviting them to join him.

After a few more pieces by Powell, who hailed from the state of Rio, Camerero introduced us to music from Bahia.

“Bahia is another state of Brazil. But musically, it might as well be another planet.” 

Rather than elaborating on what the difference was, Camarero dove straight into a sequence of descending minor scales. Even happy, major-key runs ended in a growing sense of melancholy. I imagined these introspective musings coming from a steamy, windowless room deep in some isolated dungeon.

Camarero guided us through various states and time periods of Brazil. There were rhythmic suggestions of bossa nova, ragtime, and Afro-sambas. There were chords strummed harshly like the pounding of an anvil on rocks, and notes plucked so lightly that I thought I was only imagining them. The only sound to break the spell was the occasional clinking of wine glasses between tables of the Brazilian delegation in the front.

“You may think of Brazil as the country of football, but it’s also the country of guitar,” Camarero concluded. By this time, nobody needed convincing.

João Camarero让人着迷的魔力

你知道你有多牛吗？你的开场嘉宾是巴西文化部长和巴西驻华大使。继巴西最近对中国游客实行免签等一系列进展之后，中巴关系通过音乐和文化交流继续升温。

“我们今天的演出非常特别，它超越了音乐本身的范围，更是为了庆祝我们两国的共同之处，”文化部长解释道。

等那位留着胡子、卷发的小伙子一上台，所有的客套话和形式感就都消失了。

João Camarero的古典吉他有一种自信的气场，像是个很会讲故事的人，不用大声喊，就能把人牢牢吸引过去。拉丁风格的琶音像蛛网一样铺开，沿着看不见的台阶爬上去、绊一下、再加快、再放慢，好像在黑暗里摸索着往前走——当时北京的Blue Note里的灯光真的暗下来了。曲子结束的时候，最后几个音符轻轻飘在空气里，像吹灭蜡烛后升起的那缕烟。观众——大部分是巴西侨民，还有家长陪着来的中国吉他学生——愣了好几秒才回过神来，然后开始鼓掌。

“Muito obrigado，谢谢！”年轻的卡Camarero咧嘴一笑，然后换成英语——这是当晚大家通用的语言。

这场演出的重点是吉他大师Baden Powell的曲子。Camarero回忆起自己当初是怎么被一张Powell闭着眼弹吉他的照片吸引住的。看着Camarero本人弹，我才明白，演奏者闭上眼睛不光是为了集中精神，也是在告诉观众他的注意力在哪儿，并邀请大家一起走进去。

在弹了几首来自Rio州的Powell的曲子之后，Camarero带我们走进了Bahia的音乐。

“Bahia是巴西的另一个州。但在音乐上，它简直就像另一个星球。”

他没有多解释到底哪里不一样，而是直接弹起一串下行的小调音阶。就算是欢快的大调乐句，到最后也透出一股越来越浓的忧伤。我脑海里浮现出那种闷热、没窗户的小房间，像是某个偏僻地牢深处传来的沉思。

Camarero带着我们走过了巴西的好几个州和不同年代。音乐里时有波萨诺瓦、拉格泰姆和非洲-桑巴的节奏感。有的和弦扫得又重又猛，像铁锤砸在石头上；有的音又拨得那么轻，轻到我以为自己是在幻听。唯一能打断这种沉浸感的，只有前排巴西代表团桌上传来的偶尔碰杯声。

“你们可能觉得巴西就是足球之国，但它也是吉他的国度，”Camarero最后说道。到这时候，已经没人需要被说服了。