Did Ary Lobo know how great he was in his lifetime? Ary Lobo died in 1980. His reputation continues to grow and his records are valuable internationally, which was not true until the last 10 years. One spin of Cosme E O Damião and the reason is clear.
When I first heard Tropicalia, it sounded like some of the music was beamed in from another reality. The debt to international US and European 60s pop was clear, but the Brazilian elements were unfamiliar. As I learned about forró, samba and the multiple styles connected to those larger musical branches, the rhythmic key became clear. I was also interested to learn that there was also a moment in the 1950s with experimental cutting and pasting of those genres, predating Tropicalia, using similar orchestration. It is possible that Rogério Duprat and the Tropicalia composers were aware of people like Gilvan Chaves. Pastoril do "velho" Cebola is quite an odd tune, changing mid-stream with rhythm and tempo. This became a mainstay of Tom Zé's records just over a decade later.
Gilvan Chaves - O Sélo Da Qualidade - Mocambo (1956)
Clemilda has an impressive catalog of high quality forró albums. Clemilda got her start as the voice on late 60s Gerson Filho LPs until becoming a solo artist under her own name. Filho and Clemilda married in the mid-1960s. In this way, they were similar to Marinés and her accordionist husband, Abdias. Unusually, Clemilda and Filho were also fruitful collaborators, co-composing many songs on Clemilda LPs, including Forró De J Luna included here. Although her discographies are choppy and somewhat incomplete, her catalog in the late 60s and early 70s is abundant and well-recorded.
Clemilda - Forró De J Luna from Clemilda - Musicolor (1973)
