“I asked, ‘What if Jesus was a man of color?’ and that’s when everything hit the fan!”, says Tony Tornado, one Brazil’s most important soul singers

Note from BBT:

Topics

1. Tony Tornado (Antonio Viana Gomes, born May 26, 1930)
2. My intro to Tornado, life, cafetão, career
3. Whiteness, god and Jesus Christ
4. Black Brazilians should sing only happy samba songs
5. Influence of American Soul music in Brazil

Actor-singer Tony Tornado: “Would you still love Jesus if he was a man of color?”

One time, I was on stage, singing a song called “Deus Negro”.

“My faith does not modify or change, but I cannot remain silent. My question needs an answer. Can someone give it to me?”

That’s when the ish hit the fan.

“Would you have this same love for him if Jesus were a man of color?”

“Jesus, a man of color? Are you crazy?” Bla bla bla.

Then the church got in it, then everyone got in on this. “The black guy is a communist.” A colonel once said, ‘Why? A black communist? I’ve never seen it, what is that? Wow, what’s up with that? Why don’t you sing samba, man? Sing samba, like everyone else” and so on.

I only said those things because it was an opportunity for me to speak. Because it was when I had the opportunity to speak, because I had a larger audience. Not that we demanded that the dances be black, but the type of music we presented was music that identified more with black people.

I have no right to keep this to myself, understand? The thing that I knew, which was the thing of, you know, not to start something, but of acceptance, of affirmation as a black person. None of this mulatto, none of this colored citizen, none of this marrom bombom.

Note from BBT:

• Ray Antenon was born in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, and is one of the survivors of the Jim Jones’ massacre
• In 1957, he went to the Middle East to take part in the Suez Canal war between Egypt and Israel.
• He’s lived in a number of countries such as North Korea, Angola, the former Czechoslovakia, Honduras, Denmark and the United States, before he returned to Brazil. While in the US, he lived in Harlem in New York, where he actually worked as a pimp. Tony says he wasn’t proud of the job, but it’s the work he could find at the time.
• Soul-Funk, Civil Rights, Tim  Maia

Early 70s photo of Tony Tornado

Album cover of one of Tony Tornado’s early 70s self-titled album

Tony Tornado in a performance with group Trio Ternura

Tony onstage with popular singer Elis Regina

Tony with then wife Arlete Salles

Tony onstage in recent years

Tornado remembering being arresting after performance with Elis Regina

Tony celebrates his 93rd birthday on May 26, 2023