Sao Paulo
Inside Chorão, the singersongwriter who became Charlie Brown Jr. One of the biggest bands in the history of Brazilian rock, they fit many personalities. Alexandre Magno Abrão, the man behind the persona who died ten years ago, was a reflection of his own contradictions.
This is how he is portrayed in the documentary Chorão: Marginal Alado, a compilation of approximately 700 hours of footage from touring, studio recordings, stage performances, TV shows and backstage moments captured by Jerri Rossato Lima, who worked with the band. For those who haven’t watched Charlie Brown Jr.’s meteoric rise live, this is the most comprehensive document on his leader.
Chorão was capable of composing the sweetest ballads, whether talking about love or philosophizing about the meaning of life, while writing the dirtiest lyrics in mainstream Brazilian music between the late 1990s and early next decade. He was like that in real life too, an aggressive and arrogant person who could also be the most loving of friends, the most romantic of lovers.
Throughout his career he starred in famous fights with João Gordo of Ratos de Porão, Marcelo Camelo of Los Hermanos and the members of Charlie Brown Jr. when they all left the band. At the same time, he helped fans and staff financially and will be remembered even by his enemies as a generous person with a big heart.
Tenacious, demanding, and detailoriented, he took the front line of all of Charlie Brown Jr.’s projects and also acted as the manager and boss for everything to do with the group. He was also a bit sloppy and even ran out of money to fuel his own car.
In a video made famous on YouTube, Chorão spears Champignon, the talented and agile bassist from the band’s original lineup who later left and rejoined Charlie Brown Jr. Despite the public scolding, it cannot be said that the relationship between the two was not close to that of brothers or that there was no love between them. By the way, Champignon shot himself in the head just six months after Chorão’s death.
In “Marginal Alado”, João Gordo describes Chorão as a person who was “everybody now”. Indeed, that was what his music reflected.
From the first album Charlie Brown Jr. was a mix of rock, hardcore and punk with several other genres, from rap to reggae, through compositions from pop rock to guitar. Everything moved towards the intensity that was inherent in Chorão, always an inexhaustible source of energy and intensity.
The band’s sound was also a product of the movements taking place in the 1990s: Planet Hemp, Chorão’s noted influence since the early days of Charlie Brown Jr., had paved the way for a compositional approach that combined guitars, bass and drums with heavy Rock mixed direct rhymes about everyday life on the streets.
It was a sound inspired by heavy and swinging music from California, with Suicidal Tendencies being the band that was the biggest reference for Chorão. If Planet Hemp had brought heavy rock to skateboarding, it had been the heat and Brazilian beaches, Charlie Brown Jr. deepened that connection.
From the start, in the late 1990s, the band had songs about headbanging and smoking a joint on a quiet late afternoon. Both from 2000, “Zóio de Lula” was a reggae tune to a lethargic Saturday at the beach, while “Rubão, o Dono do Mundo” was tuckedin rock guided by the ragged voice of Chorão.
In the lyrics he embodied the bon vivant Malandro on the fringes of a capitalist society, echoing from Bezerra da Silva to Racionai’s MCs, but without the sharp poetics of these two. “The fact that I have a ‘marginal’ tattoo on my arm doesn’t mean I’m a marginalized person who does a lot of tapes who robs others,” he says at a show featured by the documentary. “It means I’m on the sidelines on a lot of things I think are hypocritical and lying. Money buys many people, but it doesn’t buy everything. I want you to understand that we can have the best life is the basic things.”
When he was tough and selfpossessed on stage and setting fire to the audience he dominated, he showed himself weak in the lyrics and faced his limitations and frustrations with a cutting sincerity that could both bring him closer to the fans and make him sound too prosaic and vulgar for an intellectual elite.
Deliberately antiestablishment, he sang that he hated fancy people and didn’t wear shoes, right at a time when rock was being phagocytosed by the system. While the 1990s were marked by experimentation and sonic daring, the 2000s marked the moment when rock particularly the giants of the 1980s embraced acoustic panels and guitars to sound more palatable to the media and the general public. No wonder bands like Titãs, Capital Inicial and Kid Abelha were making more money than ever before.
By the time he recorded his MTV Acoustic in 2003, Charlie Brown Jr. was already considered one of Brazil’s biggest rock bands, and was also informally known for having the liveliest show in the country. Its franchise volume was the opposite of what its fellow rockers did and not coincidentally one of the most remembered to this day.
The rule was to aim for clean and honest sounds, fill the songs with orchestra and rely on ballads, and Charlie Brown Jr. did everything backwards. Riding a skateboard, swearing and yelling into the mic, Chorão called on rap icons like Marcelo D2, Negra Li and RZO, as well as salacious and irreverent rocker Marcelo Nova for a fast, aggressive and energetic show without the distorted guitars.
Loved and hated, Chorão triumphed because he was authentic and knew how to transform not only his ego, but also his fears and inner contradictions into art. He wasn’t exactly underestimated as he was nationally known and had a legion of fans, and not entirely understood as he was considered a second rate songwriter with loud music.
He died ten years ago in a process of selfdestruction that was as intense as his approach to art. “Not overly complicated, but not overly easy either,” as he sang on the song “Champagne and Holy Water,” in which he defines his life as a Spike Lee movie.