Marinês - Sem Vergonheira from Canção Da Fé - CBS 1972

Marinês - Sem Vergonheira from Canção Da Fé - CBS 1972

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As forró matured, the rules for the genre became more strict. Jackson do Pandeiro and Genival Lacerda would break rules, but most groups, especially in the 70s, were fairly strict about instrumentation and song form. Marinês' material was more varied. She recorded a lot of material written by people outside of the family of forró writers. Antônio Carlos e Jocáfi were an accomplished singer / songwriter team, well known for a variety of border-busting MPB hits, including “Você Abusou,” famously recorded as “Fais comme l'oiseau” by Michel Fugain Et Big Bazar. Sem Vergonheira, also written by Carlos e Jocáfi, is not as well known outside of Brazil. It was first recorded by Os Incríveis in 1971. Their interpretation reminds me of soft pop like Harpers Bizarre with fluffy Sergio Mendes grooves. Marinês' version is cooking with gas.

Incríveis - Sem Vergonheira from 1910 - RCA 1971

Os Incríveis - Sem Vergonheira from 1910 - RCA 1971

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Marinês enjoys the warm glow of Luiz Gonzaga

Jackson do Pandeiro e Almira – O Balanço Vai from Coisas Nossas - Philips 1965

Jackson do Pandeiro e Almira – O Balanço Vai from Coisas Nossas - Philips 1965

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This week, I am featuring a ditty from Jackson do Pandeiro's short-lived samba period. Jackson mixed samba and a number of other Brazilian styles in his music throughout his career, but he did it in a big way in the mid-60s. Collectors in Brazil say that E Vamos Nós from 1964 and Coisas Nossas from 1965 are his rarest LPs. 

It's a mystery why these LPs are so rare. A collector friend speculated that Philips saw these releases as an experiment, because of the stylistic change from forró to samba, so fewer copies were pressed. It's also likely that Jackson's sales were in decline. He may have been was losing favor with Philips, because his next 2 LPs were released on Continental and Cantagalo before closing the decade and his time at Philips with Aqui Tô Eu. Before his comeback in 1972, Jackson do Pandeiro voiced frustrations about how apathetic radio and the public recently seemed to be towards his music.

As usual, Jackson's music was always glimmering despite personal and career issues. O Balanço Vai (Álvaro Castilho / Jackson do Pandeiro / Sebastião Martins) was one of many highlights from Coisas Nossas. The beautiful bass piano and the stall in the chorus are knockout.

Jackson & Almira with the band that would become Borborema

Camarão feat Risoleide Alves - Filha Do Norte from Na Toca Do Camarao - Itamaraty 1978

Camarão & Seu Acordeon (vocals by Risoleide Alves) – Filha Do Norte from Na Toca do Camarão - Itamaraty 1978

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Filha Do Norte (Camarão – Cabo França) is a wonderfully strange and haunting song, reminiscent of spooky reverb-heavy North American girl group sounds from the 50s and 60s. Soft female vocals are atypical for forró, a genre dominated by powerful and commanding male and female singers. Because most forró artists played by the rules of the genre in terms of instrumentation and arrangement, it's refreshing to hear records like Filha Do Norte, which deviate from the norm successfully. Mestre Camarão (camarão means shrimp) had a long career and is still recording and performing, but Risoleide Alves, the guest vocalist on Na Toca do Camarão, is a mystery. I have been unable to find evidence of a recording career beyond this LP. Perhaps, like her ghostly vocals, she drifted magically into the night after her Camarão sessions.

a recent photo of Mestre Camarão

Zé Gonzaga - O Baile da Tartaruga from Viva o Rei do Baião - CBS 1971

Zé Gonzaga - O Baile da Tartaruga from Viva o Rei do Baião - CBS 1971

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Trying to describe the music of forró to a non-Brazilian is like trying to translate a word from another language that is not directly translatable.

Writers have tried describing forró music by making interesting, albeit shaky, comparisons to more familiar genres. If I were to imagine a music that sounded like a mix of common descriptors like ska, zydeco and polka, which forró has been compared to, it wouldn't sound much like forró. 

A zydeco or a Parisian valse-musette accordion player could not play forró without serious study. It would be like an Irish fiddle player joining the London Symphony Orchestra. The way forró grooves as a musical language is as distinct as English is from Portuguese.

The melodies make forró familiar, but the differences in beat and instrumentation make the dish. It's uniquely built from a hybrid of European and African cultural music, like many genres in North America, but forró is a distinct speicies.

O Baile da Tartaruga (Jafet / Osmar Safety / Augusto Mesquita) - The Dance Of The Turtle - is the first forró tune that I have ever heard that actually reminds me of zydeco or Cajun music. There is something about the distorted rhythmic accordion and the beat that is reminiscent. O Baile da Tartaruga is one of the most unhinged and wild forró recordings ever. The song must have been a big hit for Zé Gonzaga, because he recorded at least 3 versions. This version from 1971 is my favorite.

Zé Gonzaga from forroemvinil

Genival Lacerda - Ralador De Côco (O bom) (1974) Tropicana

Genival Lacerda - Ralador De Côco (O bom) (1974) Tropicana

Ralador De Côco (O bom) is a pedal-to-the-metal, throbbing, turbocharged forró côco monster. It’s relentless. It’s breathless. Not only is it Genival Lacerda's greatest album, it’s one of the greatest forró albums ever recorded. It’s also a very difficult LP to find.

Genival Lacerda - Ralador De Côco (mono forroemvinil & stereo forrolpgringo transfer versions) from Ralador De Côco (O bom) (1974) Tropicana  

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Genival Lacerda - Maria Nega (forrolpgringo stereo transfer version) from Ralador De Côco (O bom) (1974) Tropicana 

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The rarity of forró..

Most forró albums are pretty rare. Collectors and dealers speculate, based on available stock of used LPs, rumors, collector demand and perhaps industry insider information, that average major label pressings ranged from 500 to 2000 copies. It’s anyone’s guess how many records private labels pressed. Luiz Gonzaga probably had substantially larger pressings, but he was the great exception.

Forró records were probably played at parties or casually around homes, with varying degrees of care. Quite a few LPs were probably thrown away over the years. Most excellent / mint copies that I've acquired came from liquidated radio station libraries. Finding these records can be exceedingly difficult, especially outside of Brazil. Like Jackson do Pandeiro's O Dono Do Forró, Genival Lacerda’s Ralador De Côco (O bom) was ridiculously hard to track down. This is slightly odd, because Genival (and Jackson, for that matter) was a popular and well known artist back then. Tropicana was a pretty big label for forró. It was distributed by CBS. You’d think that the pressing size would have been generous and copies would be fairly common, but it took 4 years of hunting to find a copy of the LP.  *Thank you Joel Stones of Tropicalia In Furs for your generous help!

Something Sounds Odd with this LP....

I first downloaded Ralador De Côco (O bom) in 2009 from a great blog called forroemvinil. After 4 years of listening to an MP3 dub, I put the LP on the turntable and I was surprised to hear loud accordion and flute coming through the speakers.  After a little tinkering with the stereo, I realized that the version on forroemvinil, which is what I have been listening to for FOUR YEARS, featured the left channel in both the left and right speakers.  This means the right half of the stereo image was gone in the forroemvinil transfer.  

So, in 2013, I got both an album that I knew and loved and something that sounded brand new. Although it’s nice to hear the album properly, the incorrect transfer, which featured almost nothing but percussion, cavaquinho and vocals has a certain seductive and reduced power of it's own.

You can really hear how distinctive the difference is with the forroemvinil transfer vs. my new transfer below. I actually prefer the forroemvinil mix for certain songs because of the rawness and energy, primarily thanks to the economy of the instrumentation.

Genival Lacerda - Celina & Desafio (forrolpgringo stereo LP mix transfers) from Ralador De Côco (O bom) (1974) Tropicana  

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Genival Lacerda - Celina & Desafio (mono double left channel forroemvinil mix transfers) from Ralador De Côco (O bom) (1974) Tropicana  

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Genival The Great...

Genival sounded fiery and masterful on Ralador De Côco (O bom). Like the Beatles slamming through the recording of Please Please Me after 100s of gigs and years of experience, 20 years of recording and road work made Lacerda a master. Not everything catches fire for an artist, but when it does, the world is lucky enough to get a record like this one.

Lacerda’s songs tended to sound faster and more hyper than any other forró artist. Genival’s voice sounded close the point of frying and cracking throughout the album. The songs are like a live-in-the-studio greatest hits with entirely new material. The tunes are immediate, wild and even epic. Genival’s Ralador De Côco (O bom) caught fire with the right songs and band in the right studio at the right moment. It’s by far his best album and greatest artistic achievement.

Genival the great... Genival Lacerda strikes a pose for Ralador De Côco (O bom) 1974

Ary Lobo - Deixa A Onda Passar & O Vendedor De Sururú from Quem é o Campeão? - RCA 1966

Ary Lobo - Deixa A Onda Passar from Quem é o Campeão? - RCA 1966

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Ary Lobo - O Vendedor De Sururú from Quem é o Campeão? - RCA 1966

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This week, we re-enter the wonderful world of Ary Lobo with a super rare LP, this time from 1966. My previous Ary Lobo post featured a song from Ary’s first full length LP, Último Pau De Arara (in the short-lived 10” format), from 1958. Although songs from that LP have appeared on CD and LP compilations, it has never been reissued in its entirety. I may be mistaken, because Ary’s catalog is so fragmented, but songs from Quem é o Campeão? have never been compiled or reissued at any time.

Like Jackson do Pandeiro, Ary Lobo had the ability to stretch his talent beyond basic forró and baião.  Deixa A Onda Passar (labeled ‘samba’ on the back sleeve - written by Assumpção Corrêa & José Lima) & O Vendedor De Sururú (labeled ‘sambaião’ on the back sleeve - written by Jaime Silva & Neuza Teixeira) were pleasant surprises when I first heard them because the sound leaned towards jazz and samba. The distortion on Lobo's voice is more noticeable on this album, although it was common on his records. It stands out on Quem é o Campeão?, especially on O Vendedor De Sururú, especially as the song builds. Soul distorts microphones.


LPs from Brazil in the 50s and 60s often labeled the genre of each song next to the song title on the back of the LP sleeve. The description of sambaião, for O Vendedor De Sururú, seemed to suggest that Ary was testing the waters with a new hybrid musical mash up of samba and baião. Regardless of what the music was labeled as, both of these songs were exceptional examples of prime, sophisticated Brazilian music from 1966.  

Quem é o Campeão? was Ary Lobo’s last RCA LP. Ary Lobo recorded 9 LPs and a number of 78s and 45s (compactos) for RCA between ‘58 (possibly before) - ‘66. Although he recorded for lots of other labels until 1980, his most collectible work is his early period. Currently, there is not an available discography (discografia) containing a complete list of his 78 and 45 rpm (compacto) releases.

I am baffled that 5 of the 9 RCA LPs were reissued on CD and 4 were not. The gaps are not chronological: 1958, 1960, 1964 and 1966. Are the tapes missing?  Did RCA consider these albums less important? Lobo’s artistic prowess remained intact, so it seems unlikely that these releases were considered unworthy based on artistic grounds. Perhaps one day, an archivist will be able to snoop around the RCA library and get some answers. Who knows? If my Portuguese improves, maybe I will do it. 

 

Ary Lobo -Quem é o Campeão? - 1966: Calm and cool on his last RCA LP cover.

Luiz Gonzaga - Daquele Jeito - 1974, Odeon / EMI

Luiz Gonzaga - Sangue De Nordestino from Daquele Jeito - 1974, Odeon / EMI

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Luiz Gonzaga - Retrato De Um Forró from Daquele Jeito - 1974, Odeon / EMI

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Luiz Gonzaga - E Sem Querer from Daquele Jeito - 1974, Odeon / EMI

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Luiz Gonzaga was 62 years old when he recorded the LP Daquele Jeito in 1974. Gonzaga sounded fiery, energetic, youthful, fun and vital.  How many rock acts with 62 year olds from North America or Europe can we say the same thing about? I can't think of one. Many forró artists recorded better albums in middle age than in their "prime." Although I am not versed in the cultural biases (or lack thereof) towards age in Brazil, I can say that the purpose and origins of forró music are distinctly different than rock, which is probably why older forró artists maintained vitality at ages when rock musicians were considered over-the-hill. There are other types of North American and European music with older, respected artists like jazz, blues, vocal pop, folk or country, but forró shares a certain wild spirit and melodic structure that seems most closely related to rock.

Forró is dance music, stemming from a long tradition of weekend barn dances and social gatherings that began before the turn of the 20th Century. Gonzaga was instrumental in bringing it to the masses in the 1940s. Although some forró can be lyrically provocative with double entendre, it is enjoyed by people of all ages in Brazil. The music isn't exclusionary. Although rock has a similar energy and is also loved by people of all ages, the music seems to be eternally tied to its forever young, rebellious roots from its earliest incarnation in the 1950s. Rock has gotten more age-ist, elitist, angry and exclusionary over the years. Most popular rock music these days isn't particularly fun. If a rock band is fun, it is usually scorned for it. The purpose of forró is to get people dancing, courting and having fun. The rock world has a Spartan habit of glorifying and encouraging early death, as if this is the rule for energetic and vital music. Forró is proof that artists who make lively music don't have to fade away gracefully. 

Daquele Jeito may be Luiz Gonzaga's artistic peak. His brief vacation from RCA Records in 1973 & 1974, which had been his home since the 1940s, gave the artist a chance to work in different studios with new engineers, producers and songwriters. EMI/Odeon was an excellent match. Luiz Gonzaga 1973 (featured in my first forrolpgringo blog entry) and Daquele Jeito (1974) are fantastic records. Sadly, these were his only 2 for the label. RCA must have been comfortable label, because he headed back to them after 1974. Gonzaga made good records after 1974, but nothing that really matched the quality of his EMI / Odeon recordings.

I am a big fan of the EMI sound from the 60s and the 70s. Studios were standardized, so they same gear the Beatles were using in London was also used in EMI studios in Lagos, India or parts of Brazil. In short, anywhere that EMI's arm reached, which was virtually everywhere, you'd find EMI studios with the same recording equipment. The EMI sound added punch, but Gonzaga's performances and song selection were equally stellar.

Sangue De Nordestino, Retrato De Um Forró and E Sem Querer are knockout, show-stoppers from Daquele Jeito, arguably the last truly great LP from Luiz Gonzaga.

Luiz Gonzaga and Jr. (from http://www.revistacontinente.com.br/blog/?p=1105)