Clube da Esquina (album)

Clube da Esquina (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈklubi dɐjsˈkinɐ], in English "Corner Club") is a 1972 double studio album produced by the gathering of Brazilian musicians by the eponymous musical movement, led by singers and composers Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, to whom the album is credited. In this way, it became Milton Nascimento's fifth studio album and the first by Lô Borges, who would later pursue a solo career with his own works.

Conceived at a time of political tension in dictatorial Brazil, it has attracted attention for its committed compositions and miscellany of sounds. The album was released in Brazil in 1972 on double LP by EMI-Odeon and remastered in 1994 on CD by EMI Hemisphere. The cover, photographed by Carlos da Silva Assunção Filho, better known as Cafi, despite popular belief, the album cover does not depict Milton and Lô as children. It shows two boys, Cacau and Tonho, on a dirt road near Nova Friburgo, in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro, close to where Milton's adoptive parents lived.

After its release, Clube da Esquina was met with generally positive reviews from specialized critics, with the majority praising the quality of its songs, the cohesive union between the disparate styles of the two performers and their vocals. The album was nominated in the Discoteca Básica [pt] podcast, being voted first in the 500 greatest albums of Brazilian music and nominated in the Brazilian Rolling Stone magazine, making it seventh in the 100 greatest albums of Brazilian music.

When Lô Borges was just ten years old, his mother asked him to go and buy eggs and milk. Instead of using the elevator, since he lived in a building on the 17th floor, he went downstairs as he liked to slide down the banisters. When he got to the street, Lô saw a young man in his twenties playing the guitar, Milton Nascimento. Fascinated by the music, Lô approached him, and there began a connection. Milton started going to Lô's house to teach him how to play the guitar and compose, creating songs together.

The Clube da Esquina musical movement emerged from the strong friendship between Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges and their brothers with the same surname; Marilton Borges [pt] and Márcio Borges [pt], on the corner of Divinópolis and Paraisópolis streets, in the Belo Horizonte neighborhood of Santa Tereza, during the 1960s. This friendship began in 1963, when Milton moved to the capital to study and work. He had left Três Pontas, his hometown, where he played in the band W's Boys with pianist Wagner Tiso; with Marilton, he performed at night in the group Evolusamba. While composing and playing with his friends, his talent began to stand out, leading him to recognition after winning the Brazilian Popular Music Festivals and having one of his songs, "Canção do sal", recorded by the then-emerging Elis Regina. He was also a member of the Brazilian Popular Music Festival.

During this period, the members of the future Clube da Esquina were deeply influenced by different musical strands, one of the main ones being the Beatles and Chopin. The melodic, harmonic and structural innovations of the English quartet inspired Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges and their partners to explore new musical combinations. Just as the Beatles mixed rock with classical music and elements of global cultures, Clube da Esquina sought to integrate Brazilian rhythms, jazz and MPB into their compositions.

Clube da Esquina was recorded in Mar Azul, a corner of Piratininga beach, a seaside resort in Niterói, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in November 1971, in a studio with only two channels. The recording was marked by an intense collaboration between the musicians, with lots of improvisation and experimentation, Márcio Borges and Fernando Brant worked on the lyrics, while musicians like Toninho Horta developed musical ideas. The idea of a double album initially faced resistance from the label, but Milton’s determination and support from key figures at Odeon ensured its release.

The musicians alternated between roles, with Beto Guedes being the most active in the production of the album, playing 17 out of the 21 tracks, switching between bass and drums. According to him, he considered his vocal participation in "Nada Será Como Antes" a significant moment in his early career. Orchestrations were handled primarily by Eumir Deodato and Wagner Tiso. The album was recorded using analog techniques, with one channel dedicated to vocals and the other to instruments. This required a high level of precision, as any mistake meant restarting the recording from the beginning.

Clube da Esquina incorporated guitars and keyboards into its music, reflecting the influence of rock and psychedelic music. The song "Para Lennon e McCartney" [pt] from the 1970 album Milton acknowledges the Beatles and the connection between youth in the "Third World" and the Anglo-Saxon counterculture. Taking almost a year to be recorded and produced due to technical and production problems, the release of the album was not easy, as the military dictatorship in Brazil imposed various restrictions on cultural production. Lô Borges says that "the dictatorship was one of the worst moments we lived, but we were able to keep focus on art, songs [and] the making of the album". Márcio says that, after the composition of Clube da Esquina, Milton and Lô began to compose more and more, to the point where they seemed, in the poet's words, "a kind of hybrid, homogeneous, autochthonous entity, made up of two heads, four hands and two guitars". After the experience of Clube da Esquina, Lô Borges pursued a solo career.

The title Clube da Esquina (lit. 'corner club')alludes to the meeting place for a friendship between musicians located on the corner of Divinópolis and Paraisópolis streets, in the Santa Tereza neighborhood of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. The origin of the name came from a dialogue when a friend with better financial means mentioned going to a party at a club, to which someone responded: "No, our club is right here, it's the Clube da Esquina". This club was where Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, the Borges brothers and other artists from Minas Gerais met to share ideas, play music, for conversations and celebrations, particularly on weekend nights, with Lô Borges frequently playing the guitar there.

The cover represents Antônio Carlos Rosa de Oliveira, or Cacau, and José Antônio Rimes, or Tonho, as children on a dirt road near Nova Friburgo, close to where Milton Nascimento's adoptive parents lived. Taken from inside a car, it was believed that the boys on the album cover were Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges as children. For the photographer who conceived it, Carlos da Silva Assunção Filho, better known as Cafi, from Recife, the album cover represented "the rurality of Clube da Esquina". Ronaldo Bastos says that "[the] photo was the following: We were in a little car, on a road like that, and there were two boys standing there. I stopped the car and said, I don't know if it was me or Cafi who said: 'Photograph this'. And he did, from the window, from inside the beetle; we took the picture and drove off. It was another photo of those photos we made—which then turned [into] a cover".

The duo in the photograph, spent four decades unaware that they were on the Clube da Esquina cover. In 2012, the two found out about the photo through the Brazilian newspaper Estado de Minas. The article was about the 40th anniversary of the album and found them to recreate the cover with Cacau and Tonho, now adults. Since then, they have been asking for R$500,000 in court for hedonic damages and misuse of the image. The photographer of the cover died at the beginning of 2019. At first instance, in September 2023, the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice ruled in favor of Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, the singers who had become defendants in the lawsuit filed by Cacau and Tonho over the album cover.

Clube da Esquina consists of 21 tracks that address themes such as friendship, liberty and youth. Music critics have noticed it's unique fusion of musical styles, being characterized as a MPB, baroque pop and folk recording. It has also been described for having rock, psychedelia, bossa nova and jazz fusion influences. Andy Beta of Pitchfork compared it to Western classics like Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. The opening track, "Tudo que Você Podia Ser", presents a narrative of resignation in the face of military oppression. The lyrics depict a young individual who, instead of resisting authoritarian rule, chooses to conform and abandon their aspirations. The song's themes reflect the broader sociopolitical climate of Brazil under dictatorship, where censorship and repression stifled dissent. "Cais" is a melancholic and introspective composition by Milton Nascimento and Ronaldo Bastos. The song explores themes of solitude, the lyrics suggest a metaphorical harbor as a place of emotional refuge, contrasting the desire for freedom with an inherent sense of isolation.

"O Trem Azul" by Lô Borges is a track loaded with symbolism and existential questioning. The song begins with a simple guitar accompanying letters that evoke reflection and inner search, dealing with questions of identity and the relationship of the individual with the world and nature. Critics notice that the mention of a "blue train" ("trem azul" in Portuguese) can be interpreted in various ways, serving as a symbol that invites multiple readings. It may represent a personal and introspective journey or, alternatively, a reference to everyday life, with the word "trem" ('train') used as slang in Minas Gerais for any object. both "Saídas e Bandeiras Nº 1" and "Saídas e Bandeiras Nº 2" deal with the idea of ​​displacement and search, both physical and symbolic. The letter suggests a desire to leave, explore new territories and find something valuable, evident in lines like: "Subir novas montanhas, diamantes procurar" ('Climb new mountains, search for diamonds').

Clube da Esquina was met with mostly positive acclaim from various music critics. Álvaro Neder, writing for AllMusic, hailed Clube da Esquina as "a must-have", praising its rich orchestrations by Eumir Deodato and Wagner Tiso under the direction of Paulo Moura. He noticed the album's deep connection to the mineiros musical collective, featuring artists like Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, and Toninho Horta, and noted that it "covers a great number of Clube da Esquina hits", including "Tudo Que Você Podia Ser", "Cais", and "O Trem Azul", all supported by "some of the best musicians in Brazil". Andy Beta from Pitchfork, described Clube Da Esquina as "one of the most ambitious albums in Brazilian music history", highlighting its "uplifting and mystifying" qualities.

The album was voted the seventh best Brazilian album of all time in a list published by the Brazilian Rolling Stone magazine. In September 2012, it was voted the second best Brazilian album in history by the audience of Eldorado FM radio, the Estadão.com portal and Caderno C2+Música (the latter two belonging to the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper). In 2022, the album was voted the Greatest Brazilian Album of All Time by the Discoteca Básica [pt] podcast, which listened to 162 experts. In 2024, the album was ranked ninth by the Paste magazine on its list of the 300 greatest albums of all time. Spin ranked the album 19th in its list of the 50 best albums of 1972.

According to Márcio Borges, at the time of its release, the specialized critics did not evaluate the album positively: "Naturally, the critics were horrible. They wanted to compare [Milton] with Caetano and Chico Buarque, they didn't understand any of the inter-racial, international, interplanetary ecumenism proposed by [Milton]'s timeless dissonances. They despised Chopin's findings and the Beatlemaniac zeal of the boy Lô". In 2017, rapper Djonga used the album cover as a reference for the cover of his debut album, Heresia, but instead of the children, we see the rapper himself on the cover. In 2018, the book Milton Nascimento e Lô Borges – Clube da Esquina, written by Paulo Thiago de Mello was released, telling the backstage and historical context of the album.

All songs performed by Milton Nascimento or Lô Borges.

The process of creating Clube da Esquina attributes the following credits:

• Milton Nascimento – lead vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4–7, 9, 11, 13–18, 20, 21), acoustic guitar (tracks 2, 4, 7, 11, 13–15, 17, 21), piano (tracks 2, 5, 16), backing vocals (tracks 10, 12, 19),
• Lô Borges – acoustic guitar (tracks 1, 10), rhythm guitar (tracks 3, 19), electric guitar (tracks 9, 11), lead vocals (tracks 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 19), backing vocals (tracks 3, 8, 19), additional vocals (tracks 17, 20), percussion (tracks 4, 13, 15, ), surdo (track 6), piano (tracks 8, 12)
• Wagner Tiso – orchestral arrangements, organ (tracks 1–3, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17–19, 21), piano (tracks 6, 7, 9, 13, 14, 20, 21), electric piano (track 17), backing vocals (track 10)
• Eumir Deodato – orchestral arrangements
• Beto Guedes – bass (tracks 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 15, 21), lead vocals (track 15), backing vocals (tracks 3, 8, 10, 12, 19), twelve-string guitar (track 5), percussion (tracks 6, 7, 13, 18), electric guitar (tracks 7, 17, 19, 20), carillon bells (track 9)
• Rubinho – congas (track 1), drums (tracks 4, 5, 7–9, 12, 15, 17–19, 21), percussion (track 13)
• Robertinho Silva – drums (track 1, 3, 6, 11, 13, 14, 20), percussion (track 2, 6, 7, 9, 17, 18, 21), backing vocals (track 10)
• Tavito – twelve-string guitar (track 1), electric guitar (tracks 6, 8, 12, 18, 20), acoustic guitar (tracks 7, 9), backing vocals (track 9), percussion (track 14),
• Toninho Horta – electric guitar (tracks 1, 3, 21), percussion (tracks 2, 4, 15, 17, 18), bass (tracks 5, 7, 19, 20), acoustic guitar (track 6), backing vocals (tracks 3, 8, 10)
• Luiz Alves – caxixi (track 1), acoustic bass (tracks 2, 5, 7), bass (tracks 6, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 21), percussion (tracks 6, 7, 9, 21)
• Nelson Angelo – electric guitar (tracks 4, 8, 11, 12, 15), percussion (tracks 7, 9, 18), surdo (track 13), piano (track 15)
• Paulinho Braga – percussion (track 9)
• Luiz Gonzaga Jr. – backing vocals (track 10)
• Alaide Costa – lead vocals (track 13)

• Paulo Moura – conducting
• Jorge Teixeira, Nivaldo Duarte and Zilmar de Araújo – recording engineering
• Cafi – photography and layout
• Lindolfo Gaya – musical direction
• Juvena Pereira – photography
• Milton Miranda – production direction
• Milton Nascimento – music supervision

• Borges, Márcio (1996). Os sonhos não envelhecem: histórias do Clube da Esquina (in Portuguese). Brasil: Geração Editorial. p. 358. ISBN 9788586028441.
• Mello, Paulo Thiago de (2020). Milton Nascimento e Lô Borges - Clube da Esquina (in Portuguese). Brasil: Editora Cobogó (published 21 April 2020). p. 128. ISBN 9786556910024.

• Clube da Esquina at Discogs.
• Clube da Esquina at the Instituto Memória Musical Brasileira.