Jackson Do Pandeiro - Chiclete Com Banana (video clip)

Jackson Do Pandeiro - Chiclete Com Banana (live)I wish that more of this clip was available! This is an excerpt from a BBC4 documentary about Brazilian music. Chiclete Com Banana (Chewing Gum With Banana), written in 1959 by Gordurinha and Almira Castilho and later famously covered by Gilberto Gil, is Jackson's most famous song, but most live performances currently on the web do not do Jackson or the song justice. This one absolutely does.

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Jackson do Pandeiro - The king testifies.

Elias Alves - Luar Do Meu Sertao & Coco No Sereno from Adeus Guanabara - Tropicana 1973

Elias Alves - Luar Do Meu Sertao & Coco No Sereno from Adeus Guanabara - Tropicana 1973

Elias made his first appearance on forróLPgringo with an appearance on a Fontana compilation called O Fino Da Roça vol.4.  He recorded 2 rare solo LPs in the early 1970s.  The general consensus is that pressing size was probably limited to roughly 500 copies per LPs.  Like many forró LPs, not every track was a killer... but Elias Alves always had a few essentials on every release.

Elias Alves - Luar Do Meu Sertao from Adeus Guanabara - Tropicana 1973

Click on the video above to play the song.

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Elias Alves - Coco No Sereno from Adeus Guanabara - Tropicana 1973

Click on the video above to play the song.

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Elias Alves is ready for a canoe.

Zé Fernandes – Não Interessa Não from No Forró do Mané Vito - Sinter

Zé Fernandes – Não Interessa Não from No Forró do Mané Vito - Sinter

Zé Fernandes is a bit of a mystery. As far as I am aware, he only released 2 albums. The first was a 10" from 1957. It is unclear when No Forró do Mané Vito came out, but it's a safe guess that it was released in the late 50s or very early in the 1960s. No Forró do Mané Vito is the favorite forró album by a collector friend of mine with a vast collection and exemplary taste. I can understand why he loves it. The vocals are excellent and the production is drenched in mysterious clap-backed delay, reminiscent of some of my favorite early kitchen-sink rock n' roll and ska records. Zé Fernandes last appeared on LP in 1962. After that, he sailed into the unknown. Perhaps he is still knocking out audiences in Pernambuco dance halls or spinning ghostly sounds on lost ships in the lower Atlantic.

Who was Zé Fernandes?

Gilvan Chaves – Vovó Sabina from Encantos do Nordeste - Columbia 1958

Gilvan Chaves – Vovó Sabina from Encantos do Nordeste - Columbia 1958

Forró is typically upbeat, catchy dance music from the northeast of Brazil. Like any popular genre, forró has sub-genres and branches that defy pure categorization. Elomar, Xangai, Jackson do Pandeiro, Carmélia Alves and Borrachinha are a few of the artists that followed, created and broke the rules, inventing haunted northeastern folk mixed with forró.

In 1958, when forró wasn't the strict genre it became later, Gilvan Chaves created his classic LP: Encantos do Nordeste. The album shares similarities to Vinicius Des Moraes / Baden Powell's Os Afro Sambas and Zélia Barbosa's Sertão e Favelas, but Encantos do Nordeste is far less known and celebrated.  The album has a hypnotizing quality. Songs flow like a single piece, with Chaves breaking into story between songs with minimal accompaniment. Incantations... Enchantments.... Charms of the Northeast... indeed.

Click on the video above to play the song.

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Gilvan Chaves shows off his masterpiece (thank you Felipe Batista for the photo)