Walter Damasceno - Confusão No Baile from CBS 78rpm (1962)

Everything that Walter Damasceno ever recorded was killer, so go find it all. The LP is killer. The compactos are killer. The 78s are killer. This particular 78rpm is quite interesting, because it is one of the first Abdias productions for CBS. 78rpm records lingered longer in Brazil than in other territories. By 1964, they were gone. Shellac from the late 50s and early 60s sound excellent. Some of the great gaps in full forró collections exist in this period, because so few of these 78s survived.  

Walter Damasceno - Confusão No Baile from CBS 78rpm (1962)

 

Walter Damasceno - Maria Do Amparo (baião) from Columbia 78rpm (1950s)

Walter Damasceno and Ary Lobo represented an interesting era in Northeastern Brazilian music. Compared to some of the softer baião singers who recorded middle-of-the-road music, Damasceno and Lobo sounded modern and vital. The United States had a similar period in the 1950s. 50s pop had a marshmallow quality until what we now call rhythm and blues and upbeat country and western helped shape a new vitality for the music. While Ary Lobo's career continued until his death in 1980, Damasceno disappeared in the early 1960s.

Both Damasceno and Lobo lived through a time when the 78rpm was fading and vinyl was on the rise. Damasceno's 78s seem to be rarer than Lobos from this period, depending on the label. Odeon 78s are nearly impossible to find, but most appeared on his lone Odeon LP. He has a short stack of 78s on Columbia and a rare one on CBS. 

Damasceno and Lobo also recorded songs listed as rojão (the a side of this 78), but this does not seem to be a distinct rhythmic form. Songs weren't usually listed this way after the early 1960s. Rojão may simply be slang for upbeat baião or forró tunes.

The tuba sounds amazing. 

Walter Damasceno - Maria Do Amparo (baião) from Columbia 78rpm (1950s)

Walter Damasceno - Po De Mico from Bossa ai é mato - Odeon (1959)

I am aware of two big Odeon artists that released great 78rpm records in the 1950s and were lucky enough to get vinyl reissues in the 1960s, Saci and Walter Damasceno. Damasceno's LP, for some reason, seems to have been pressed in larger quantities and is much easier to find. Although Saci is revered by collectors, song-for-song, I would say that Damasceno has a far stronger catalog. Po De Mico, like songs by Ary Lobo and Saci, sounds like modern forró. There is not a trace of tame, middle class vocal group stylings or more reserved baião that dominated the 1940s and early 1950s. This is all-out, balls to the wall forró.

Damasceno's final 78rpm record was on CBS. This is his scarcest record because it was never reissued on vinyl. It will feature here in the coming years.

Walter Damasceno - Po De Mico from bossa ai é mato - Odeon (1959)

Walter Damasceno - E O Treco Pego (rojão) from Columbia 78rpm (1950s)

In the 1950s, remarkable breakthroughs were being made with magnetic tape. This vastly improved the quality of recordings. Walter Damasceno, along with Jackson do Pandeiro, Ary Lobo, Luiz Wanderley, Jair Alves and a number of other artists greatly benefitted from these advancements. Unfortunately, Brazil was a slower to adopt vinyl than the United States and Europe. As a result, there are quite a few artists classified as baião (later forró) who have songs lost to time because they were recorded on 78rpm shellac.

78rpm's are fragile and not many have survived. Very few 78rpm's were exported. Walter Damasceno recorded an LP and several compactos, so he is luckier than someone like Carlos Galindo, who was released exclusively on 78rpm. 

However, Damasceno's catalog contains 78rpm releases that are much more difficult to locate than his vinyl and were never compiled. The surge of interest in vintage forró in the last 10 years hopefully means that some of this rare music will be preserved. Unfortunately, with the music business being decimated by downloading, it is unlikely that this music will be professionally archived.

On a lighter note, forró is one of the few genres that effectively uses tuba as a bass instrument. Jackson do Pandeiro was fond of the instrument and used it quite a bit on his horn heavy tracks. Props to Damasceno or his production team for an inspired choice!

Walter Damasceno - E O Treco Pego (rojão) from Columbia 78rpm (1950s)

Walter Damasceno - Fum Fum & Parada Dura from Esse Norte É De Morte compacto duplo - Parlophone Portugal (1958)

This is the second Walter Damasceno EP to be featured on this blog. Damasceno released a two compacto duplos, an LP and a number of rare 78 rpm singles with exclusive material in Brazil. The first EP, Não Bula Comigo, was a Brazilian pressing on the Odeon label. The EP below, Esse Norte É De Morte, was issued on Odeon in Brazil and Parlophone in Portugal. You can compare the covers below. Although both versions are rare, the Portuguese pressing gives folks living outside of Brazil a better shot at owning this compacto duplo. The Portuguese sleeve for Esse Norte É De Morte was recycled for a few releases, including an EP by João Gilberto. The music is brilliant and fits in nicely with other well produced artists from the late 50s and early 60s, like Gordurinha, Luiz Wanderley and Tonico Do Juazeiro. 

Walter Damasceno - Fum Fum from Esse Norte É De Morte compacto duplo - Parlophone Portugal (1958)

Walter Damasceno - Parada Dura from Esse Norte É De Morte compacto duplo - Parlophone Portugal (1958)

Walter Damasceno - Esse Norte É De Morte - Parlophone Portugal (1958)

Walter Damasceno -Esse Norte É De Morte Brazilian compacto duplo sleeve - image from pedrosorongo.blogspot.com

Update: Here are a few more examples of the economical recycling of the Portuguese sleeve for releases of Trio Irakitan and Alvarenga e Ranchinho.

Walter Damasceno - Cabra Medroso & Matei Sete Gatos from Não Bula Comigo - Odeon (1958 - 1960)

Walter Damasceno - Cabra Medroso & Matei Sete Gatos from Não Bula Comigo - Odeon (1958)

Walter Damasceno was part of the 2nd wave of forró stars that cropped in the 1950s, which included Jackson do Pandeiro, Ary Lobo, Jair Alves, Marinés and Luiz Wanderley. Although they weren't the first stars to rise in Luiz Gonzaga's wake, artists from this new wave took the genre into uncharted territory and ultimately established the sound of 70s forró. Damasceno's career seems to have been brief and limited to one LP and two compactos (EPs). Considering how strong these releases were, it's a shame that his career was so short.

Walter Damasceno - Cabra Medroso from Não Bula Comigo - Odeon (1958)


Walter Damasceno - Matei Sete Gatos from Não Bula Comigo - Odeon (1958)

Walter Damasceno - Não Bula Comigo - Odeon (1958)