Diplomacia

Listening to Diplomacia (Diplomacy) is finding that pain can transmute into a delicate work of samba. I can’t recall a samba album as enticing for its delicacy and minimalism (in the best sense of the term) as is Diplomacia, a 1998 posthumous anthology of the singer, composer, and percussionist from Bahia’s Salvador, Batatinha (1924-1997). Produced by Caetano Veloso’s nephew, J. Velloso, the album is proof that Batatinha’s size in the music industry has been too modest for his talent: to make the combination of low-profile samba music and existential depth sound right. The title track’s melancholic flute and dense lyrics, saying  “I struggle for some comfort, my body is almost dead, but I can still sing” can feel as paralyzing as it does redeeming. “Foguete Particular” (Private Spacecraft) sounds almost futuristic, as the lyrical subject travels to space (“Departing from my street, I go to the moon. I saw the fear, the color of cold, and the beauty of darkness”) accompanied by the elegance of a bossa nova-like musical arrangement.