LP’s front cover. The art is a reproduction of the archway that Nicolas Flamel built for his wife’s tomb at the Holy Innocents' Cemetery, Paris, in 1407. In addition to some illustrations from Flamel’s Book of Hieroglyphic Figures, published in 1612.
In the bottom left corner is written the first sentence of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus: “It is true without untruth, certain and most true”.
LP’s back cover. At upper left corner, a engraving of Hermes Trismegistus by Pierre Mussard (1675).
The year was 1974 and Jorge Ben Jor transmuted the ancient secrets of alchemy into music.
Jorge Duílio Lima Meneses was born on Rio de Janeiro, in March 22, 1939, son of a white Brazilian stevedore and an amateur artist of Ethiopian origin — where does the ‘Ben’ come from. Despite his deep connection with favela’s black **culture, Jorge had a pretty suburban childhood. As a teenager, he attended São José Seminary, a traditional school of theology and philosophy where he learned Latin, Gregorian Chant, and dived into the Thomas Aquinas’ summas, despite not having followed the priesthood. He also came close to becoming a professional football player, joining CR Flamengo's youth team and scoring many goals, but fate had other plans.
Jorge has played percussion since he was a child, influenced by his father who used to took him to watch the Salgueiro’s samba parades. But it was with the acoustic guitar, a birthday gift from his mother, that he found his calling.
He start playing at the legendary Beco das Garrafas, a dead-end street on Copacabana that housed some of the first bossa nova nightclubs of Rio de Janeiro. There, in 1963, Jorge Ben Jor — at the time, just Jorge Ben — went up on stage and played ‘Mas, que nada’ to a small audience, which included an executive from Philips Records.
Jorge Ben Jor, by late 1960s.
In that same year, he released his debut album, Samba Esquema Novo, which became an instant hit. The title, something like “samba new deal”, perfectly captures his groundbreaking sound. At time, there was a split in Brazilian music: the “conservative” Bossa Nova movement aimed for an authentically Brazilian sound, while the “colonized” Jovem Guarda drew heavy influence from North American rock 'n roll — remember, it was the verge of the **1964 military coup** and the political nerves were inflamed in the whole country. Yet, Jorge’s innovative guitar style managed to bridge the gap, resonating with both movements and earning unanimous praise from critics and public.
Jorge Ben Jor at a record session , 1972.
Over ten years, his's music became bolder, free of lyrical metrics and Africanized. He collaborated with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Os Mutantes during the Tropicália movement, while also became an activist for Black civil rights alongside Trio Mocotó. It was with them that he recorded a impressive trilogy of quintessential MPB albums: Jorge Ben (1969), **Fôrça Bruta (1970) and **Negro é Lindo (1971).
So, by the year of 1973, Jorge Ben Jor already had nine studio albums, tons of records sold, national devotion and, most importantly, confidence to do whatever he want.
It was in 1973 that Jorge traveled to France to took part in the Midem Festival, in Cannes, but decided stick around a bit longer. At time he was reading The Mystery of the Cathedrals, written by a mysterious 20th century French alchemist known only by his pseudonym **Fulcanelli. In that book, the unknow master decodes 700 years of mystical symbolism embedded in Gothic Cathedrals of Europe — and what better place to read that than Paris?
The thing is, Jorge has been an alchemy enthusiast since he was very young. Something that comes both from his seminarian days but also from his grandfather, who was member of a Rosicrucian Order.
“When I was a child, I used to read my grandpa’s book, who was a Rose-Cross, and I began to admire how they [the alchemists] saw the world, their perseverance in their work. Even as a little boy, I felt connected to the hermetic arts, though I didn’t really know what they meant. When I was in Paris, I start to research about alchemy. Walking around the Latin Quarter looking for esoteric books […] In Europe it’s easy to find that kind of information, right? When I discovered that music also had a place in hermetic art, I wanted to do a musical alchemy.” Jorge Ben Jor in an interview for Ele Ela Magazine, 1976.
Thus, Jorge Ben Jor already had the references and the skills to compose an esoteric work, all he needed was a spark of inspiration. And this gift came near Christmas. After a few months living well-acquainted with la ville lumière, Jorge was visited by his close friend Gilberto Gil, whom he took to lunch at a restaurant located in what is probably the oldest house in Paris.
After the lunch, they went for a walk around the historical place, originally owned by a 13th century wealthy bookseller named Nicolas Flamel, said to be a great alchemist who supposedly finally synthesized the philosopher's stone and achieved immortality. It was there, alone in a room away from the main hall, that something happened:
Auberge Nicolas Flamel in Paris, France, 2018.
“As incredible as it may seem, Gil saw something there that I also saw, just the two of us, at Nicolas Flamel’s house. Later, I asked him: ‘Gil, did you see what I saw?’. He said: ‘I saw, did you?’ […] I won't tell what, but we saw something there… But beautiful, not ugly. Something beautiful.” Jorge Ben Jor in an interview for Trip Magazine, 2009.
In a 2020 interview by telephone, after a lot of insistence from the journalist, Jorge implied that they may had seen Flamel in person, but leave it there without giving too many details. Neither Ben Jor nor Gil ever disclosed what exactly they saw that day.
Whatever it was, inspired Jorge Ben Jor so intensely that, those who met him during this period, saw the man compose as if he were psychographing something coming from above. Jorge’s main source, however, has already been available on the earthly plane for at least a thousand years: the Emerald Tablet, a foundational text in Islamic and European alchemy attributed to the legendary Hermes Trismegistus. This **Hellenistic** figure, often depicted as a philosopher, a priest, a king — or even as all three —, is said to have revealed the divine mysteries and synthesized into a universal philosophy, recording it on a tablet made of emerald.
This alchemical and philosophical treatise, composed of just fifteen aphorisms, has guided some of history's most brilliant minds. From Aristotles to Isaac Newton, from the widow’s boyfriend, Nicolas Flamel — who supposedly spent his life decoding it, successfully — to the young and gifted Jorge Ben Jor, now tasked with re-illuminating its wisdom.
Jorge Ben Jor, 1974.
In less than six months, recorded “live in studio” over just two days, it was completed what Jorge himself regards as the most important album of his career. A 33⅓ RPM compendium where he perform a true musical alchemy procedure: mixing heroes, muses, saints, and scoundrels; samba, rock, football, philosophy, and malandragem. Everything seamlessly soulmalgamated and encoded into amorphous lyrics and transcendent melodies.
A treatise that translates the Universal Philosophy into music, entitled A Tábua de Esmeralda.