Luiz Gonzaga was the first forró artist that I explored. His work was available for free on the, now seemingly defunct, official website in the mid-2000s. RCA also released a comprehensive remastered reissue series of most of his work as well.
Luiz Gonzaga produced a lot of work in his lifetime. Gonzaga was a strong singles artist in the 1940s. When the format became popular, Gonzaga mainly produced LPs. The early releases were collections of singles. Xamego was not. Xamego was the first album of his career that was not released as a 10", but the new 12" format that would become the standard for the subsequent 30 years.
Some Gonzaga albums plod a bit with too many xotés and bum tracks, but even iffy albums usually have a few good numbers. One thing Luiz Gonzaga was exceptional at doing was pulling out an ace track during flagging periods. His Odeon albums in the 70s may be the most energetic tracks ever recorded by an older artist.
 |
| Luiz Gonzaga - Xamego - RCA (1958) |
No comments:
Post a Comment