Transamazonica, by Gibão (aka Téo Azevedo), is a remarkable-sounding record and a serious curiosity. It has many of the sonic hallmarks of a Tropicalia record, was published on the primarily-forró label Copacabana but, lyrically, is a celebration of the government Transamazonica project rather than a leftist condemnation. The Trans-Amazonian highway was to connect the northeastern Brazilian states through the Amazon and to other South American countries like Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The highway construction continues today, 48 years later, with only portions of the road being paved. This is due to a series of financial crises in Brazil and the engineering challenges associated with traversing the muddy amazon.
Gibão - Transamazonica from compacto - Copacabana (1971)
Revivendo has been reissuing early Brazilian music since the 1980s. Much of the music from the was only released on 78rpm singles. Some of the songs from this CD compilation, Samba Da Minha Terra, have appeared on scattered LP and CD reissues, but a fair portion appears here for the first and only time.
Grupo "X" never appeared on vinyl or CD compilations, possibly because they were only together for a short time. However, their output was prolific. According to Dicioáario MPB, Grupo "X" released a 26 78rpm singles in three years, 1936, 1937 and 1938, before splitting up. The liner notes indicate that there was a second phase of Grupo "X," but discographies do not list additional recordings. The group seemed to be primarily higher education students studying to be accountants, dentists and veterinarians in São Paulo. Despite music for most members seemingly being secondary to other careers, Grupo "X" held their own against the big groups: Quatro Ases e Um Coringa, Bando Da Lua (who became Carmen Miranda's backing group) and Anjos Do Inferno, also appearing on the CD compilation Samba Da Minha Terra from 1992.
Lembrando A Bahia is a rolicking samba from 1937. Bravo to Revivendo for assembling this amazing music that would otherwise be lost to the world.
Grupo "X" - Lembrando A Bahia (samba) - Columbia 78rpm (1937) from Samba Da Minha Terra - Revivendo (1992)
I have been running Forró LP Gringo for nearly 8 years, and this was one of the first releases that I featured in 2012. I became interested in forró in the mid-2000's and stumbled on this through an eBay search a few years later. Almost no one sounded like Ary Lobo and few could match the quality of his records in the 1950s. Although Forró De Piancó begins in a typical Luiz Gonzaga style, as soon as the verse kicks in, the future has arrived.
