Julinho Clube creates endless nights around Lua Nova

The gate next to a black wall with three phrases saying “do better than perfect”, “think back” and “heart less, heart more” is surrounded by a neighborhood of sleepy houses despite being a few blocks from the ‘circle of fire’ from Villa Maddalena .

So close and so far from the fervor of a more intense and youthful bohemia, its entrance is almost silent and gloomy and about to reveal so many possibilities. After all, what happens in the next few hours after you walk through the glass front door may be all a handful of good songs can do – from comfort to ecstasy – but nothing one expects to live there, late at night. From Sunday to Monday.

There must be only one reason why Julinho Clube has made the kind of resistance, and accommodation, to dreams almost lost in São Paulo’s music circles.

For 25 years, Julinho ran his salon without the ambitions of a businessman – which he says it is not – and with the inviolable passions of a musician of the night. 120 square meter lounge with low ceiling and lazy light cooled by antique fans and decorated with guitars, banjos, pictures of saints, mirrors and portraits of artists. “I wanted to keep what I’ve been living at night for 45 years,” he says. “People feel like they’re in a time predicament.”

Even in the midst of other times bankruptcies, Giulinho passed 100% of the cover fees to the musicians, did not cling to the sounds of screaming for a certain profit and faithfully followed three or four rules that put him on 20,000 kilometers of blocks. Next door: Whoever sits in your circle singing and playing knows what to do. Here, her story intersects with that of Lua Nova Musical Sarau.

Although it is open all the time, except on Mondays, and has equally special nights, on Sundays the house bar, which black Americans might call the musical joint of the US southwest, becomes even more charming.

From 10pm, the oval table is set in front of the dance floor and next to the clients – all on the same level and roughly mixed – played by the musicians under the guidance of the 5,000-song guitarist, Paulinho Grassmann, one of the creators of Lua Nova for 16 years along with the percussionist Bré Rosário.

With drummer Ivan Alves and guitarist Rodrigo de Oliveira, as well as other guest instrumentalists, Paulinho controls the flow of “soup” from a very good sound and music that creates a kind of emotional impact, making the night reborn in every handful of songs.

The opening is seamless and can be done with old devotions by Zé Caetano or by the core of the singers who have been in Lua since the beginning, when it all began at Bar do Toninho. Mara Tapxure, Vânia Passos, and Eliane “Lilica” Utrera have always loved working more on the finer details of the soul-carrying repertoire at night, without backed by pylon invitations.

“We tried to keep it, but ended up misdiagnosing rheumatism. People went to listen, now they want to dance,” Mara and Lilika say. So, in this session, starting at 10 p.m., you can still hear the Rio Amazonas, by Dori Cayemi; Coco do Coco, by Gwenga and Alder Blanc; Moon Water, by Javan; Or “Asho” by Dante Ozette and Louis Tatit. Nothing, and that’s the fun thing about work, which is sung in other circles.

An endless night. But time passes with doses of cachaça with pepper or ginger served between portions of crazy meat and the night, in fact, turns. Musicians who migrate to Lua Nova can then arrive after completing their shows. Guitarist Yamandy Costa recalls when he met Rhoda: “The guys were high standard,” he said.

“I was a little upset, but I knew I had to keep the distinction there.” Guitarist Toniño Horta also does not forget “His Night on the Moon”. “I’ve never seen it anywhere, where people take turns at a table, in this mood, looking at each other to play like that.” Grassmann, who kept the project alive in Julinho for six years after visiting more than 15 bars with him, talks about his great feelings. “That’s when (Uruguayan) Jorge Drexler sang Al Otro Lado Del Rio. I never forgot that.”

Anyway, the stars are different, and around 10:30 p.m. singer Kaka Lima can lift everyone up to Clube da Esquina, then singer Karine Telles pulls them off their feet and drags them A Violeira or in a terreiro in Seu Balancê. With luck, Kitu Yang, Thiago K, Patrícia Bastos, Renato Braz and Julinho himself arrived to make the end of the night the start at 3am on Monday.

Information from the newspaper. State of Sao Paulo.