Osvaldo Oliveira - Vendedor De Renda & Saudade do Ceará from Ê Cariri - CBS 1965

Osvaldo Oliveira - Vendedor De Renda from Ê Cariri - CBS 1965

Click on the video above to play the song.
iOS? click here: http://youtu.be/tl3PlEPRKnU

Osvaldo Oliveira - Saudade do Ceará  from Ê Cariri - CBS 1965

 

 Click on the video above to play the song.
iOS? click here: http://youtu.be/COYAM6hXtv8

According to forroemvinil, Osvaldo Oliveira began his recording career in the late 50s on radio shows and began recording slabs of 78rpm shellac shortly after. Outside of forroemvinil, there is very little biographical information about Mr. Oliveira online, which is strange considering that he had a substantial and interesting recording career, with at least 50 releases. Osvaldo Oliveira tore it up in the 60s, writing songs for himself and other artists like Jackson do Pandeiro.  Ê Cariri, along with Osvaldo's 2 other 60s LPs are rare and sought after forró albums. Stylistically, Vendedor De Renda and Saudade do Ceará are great examples of Osvaldo's tongue-twisting, coco de embolada phrasing.  As the 70s dawned, Oliveira generally left the forró style and became more of a balladeer. MP3s from vinyl sources are OK, but hopefully file quality will improve in the coming years. In an era when CD reissues are becoming more scarce, I am afraid that many recordings from artists like Oliveira will continue to sit in vaults and deteriorate until the original masters are not salvageable. Like many artists from the golden age of forró, Osvaldo Oliveira's music deserves to be preserved in the highest quality possible and heard by new generations of enthusiasts.

Osvaldo Oliveira today
photo by DJ FELIPE

Trio Nordestino – Dom Francisco, Dom Tomé - Corte O Bolo – Copacabana/Beverly 1980

Trio Nordestino – Dom Francisco, Dom Tomé - Corte O Bolo – Copacabana/Beverly 1980

Click on the video above to play the song.
iOS? click here: http://youtu.be/Xel9S_wsGoI

When I’ve explained my interest in collecting forró to hip Brazilian record collectors and dealers, I’ve gotten a variety of reactions.  From half, it’s mostly amusement, but occasionally people incredulously ask “Why?”  The other half, which often includes DJs and musicians, get a twinkle in their eye and tap their noses knowingly.

I can understand why the Brazilian Tropicalistas and performers like Chico Buarque are respectable and forró may seem clownish. Just look at the cover of Trio Nordestino’s LP Corte O Bolo!!! It looks like a kids birthday party.*  The band is draped in dreadful 70s polyester shirts, undersized Annie Oakley hats and massive scarves.  I have to admit, most forró artwork is totally atrocious, hilarious, grotesque, painfully unappealing and completely unfashionable.  It’s humbling when needle hits vinyl and the music is brilliantly rhythmic, cheeky, colorful, wildly melodic, complex and intoxicating.  Don’t judge a book by it’s cover and don’t judge an LP by it’s jacket.
 

Dom Francisco, Dom Tomé (by Assissão – Lindolfo Barbosa) is a light, juicy tune with a funky groove, gutsy singing and hypno-accordion.  The song was released in 1980 close to the end of the 3rd wave of forró, right before drum machines and 80s production destroyed the genre for a long while.  Interestingly, 70s disco accents sounded great with forró (electric bass and drum kits). Dom Francisco, Dom Tomé is a classic example of disco/funk-forró. Perhaps it was because disco and forró had the same function.  Both musics were designed to be funky and fill the dance floor.

*The party on the cover of Corte O Bolo was for Trio Nordestino’s 20th anniversary.  The vinyl LP in the video is a reissue on Beverly from 1991. The original LP came out on Copacabana in 1980.

Trio Nordestino (image from Som13)

Djalma Dias - Dono De Casa, Boa Noite - from Destaque - Som Livre 1973

Djalma Dias - Dono De Casa, Boa Noite - from Destaque - Som Livre 1973

Click on the video above to play the song.
iOS? click here: http://youtu.be/iy-0Y025J6E

Most tracks that I’ve posted so far (with the exception of Gilberto Gil and Nara Leão) have come from pure forró albums by artists that specialized in the northeastern sound. Djalma Dias was not one of those people. Djama primarily recorded MPB, samba, bossa-pop and Brazilianized American soul. Dono De Casa, Boa Noite (Vidal França) was an unusual song for Djalma. It had a northeast flavor, with other instruments common to Brazilian music but not forró, including cuíca (a drum that sounds like a high pitched, screaming monkey), a more chattery samba’d-up rhythm section and a casual vocal delivery. His records on Som Livre were excellent, and have just recently been reissued on CD in Japan. 

Djalma Dias