Uakti (band) - History

History

The group's leader, Marco Antônio Guimarães, studied music at the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Salvador. There he met and took classes with Walter Smetak, who passed on to him his passion for constructing musical instruments. In the years following his training, Marco Antônio played cello with the São Paulo and Minas Gerais symphony orchestras. During the same period he constructed, in the basement of his house, various instruments out of PVC, wood, and metal. In order to have musicians to play these instruments, in 1978 Guimarães had the idea of bringing together some of his colleagues from the Orquestra Sinfônica de Belo Horizonte, to meet at the Foundation for Artistic Education of Belo Horizonte. Various musicians took part; among them were the percussionists Paulo Sérgio Santos and Décio de Souza Ramos, the flutist Artur Andrés Ribeiro, and the cellist Cláudio Luz do Val. These musicians learned how to play the instruments, and the group Uakti was formed. Marco Antônio Guimarães became the principal composer and arranger, although all the participants frequently contributed their own compositions.

The group's first recording was of their participation in the soundtrack of the 1979 film Cabaré Mineiro. The score was composed by Tavinho Moura. Through Tavinho, Uakti made contact with musicians in the Clube da Esquina movement. In 1980 they played on Milton Nascimento's album Sentinela and made their first public performance at the museum in Pampulha. Their first album, Uakti - Oficina Instrumental, appeared the following year, as a consequence of the popularity they had acquired through their performances with Nascimento. With the deparature of the cellist Cláudio Luz, the guitarist Bento Menezes joined the group, staying until 1984, when they recorded their third album, Tudo e Todas as Coisas. Starting with this album, they began to use traditional instruments less and less frequently.

In the period between 1981 and 1987 they established themselves in Brazil and took part in another recording by Milton Nascimento, Ânima. Their first international tour took place in Spain. In 1987 they took part in the album Brazil with the US jazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer. During a show in the United States, the singer Paul Simon got to know their music, and invited them to play on his 1989 album The Rhythm of the Saints. During this recording, the US composer Philip Glass, who was in Brazil, went to visit Simon and heard Uakti play. This resulted in a contract to record five albums with his Point Music label. The fifth album, MAPA, released in 1992, was a homage to the music of Marco Antonio Pena Araújo, a friend of the members of the group who had died in 1986 (the name MAPA is an acronym of the letters in his name).

The international recognition that the group gained resulted in much more work: Uakti travelled to Japan and various countries in Europe. Grupo Corpo, the acclaimed Minas Gerais dance theatre group, commissioned several original compositions by Marco Antônio Guimarães: A lenda, recorded on MAPA, Bach, which he released as a solo effort, and I Ching and 21 which became Uakti albums in 1994 and 1997, respectively.

In 1993 Philip Glass was also commissioned by Grupo Corpo to produce a composition for a ballet. Glass then chose Uakti to perform his composition, Águas da Amazônia - Sete ou oito peças para um balé. The arrangement was done by Marco Antônio Guimarães, who adapted the work to Uakti's instruments; this was the first time that Glass's music was arranged by another composer. The recording of this music was released in 1999, under the contract with Point Music. In 2004 Glass invited Uakti to collaborate again, this time on the Orion project. The city of Athens, as part of the 2004 pre-Olympic celebrations, commissioned Glass to do a series of open-air shows. Uakti took part, playing Glass's compositions.

In 1994 Uakti joined Stewart Copeland as he headlined an international tour, "Stewart Copeland and the Rhythmatists", in support of an album and video based on Stewart's experience in Africa. The tour roster featured Stewart Copeland performing with a diverse group of international musicians including: Percussion de Guinnea, a leading drum group from Africa; VINX, who recently toured with Sting; and Ray Lema, an original performer on the Rhythmatist album and video.

Starting in 1998, Uakti recorded fewer original compositions and concentrated on adaptations of classical music and of Brazilian popular songs. The soundtrack of the 1998 film Kenoma, by Eliana Caffé, used mostly compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos. In 2000 they recorded an album of popular songs with the choral group Tabinha, from Minas Gerais. In 2002, they released the CD Clássicos, containing solely classical arrangements, and in 2005 they explored popular Brazilan themes in the CD Oiapok XUI, which, in addition to various popular Brazilian dance themes, contained four variations of Tom Jobim's Águas de Março.

Uakti frequently took part in projects with other artists. Besides the already-mentioned Milton Nascimento, Paul Simon and Manhattan Transfer, they worked with Ney Matogrosso, Maria Bethânia, and Zélia Duncan. They also performed in the show Dança das Marés, directed by Ivaldo Bertazzo, Ihú - Todos os Sons, which presented indigenous themes collected and adapted by Marlui Miranda. Their song "Trilobita" was used in the closing credits of the Rush in Rio DVD.