Jota Fonseca's legacy is mixed. He was lucky that his early 60s productions were fabulous tunes that sounded stellar. Jota was unlucky that most of his work was only released on 78rpm, meaning that his presence on vinyl, a much more long-lived format, is minimal. That said, he ended up on at least one compacto and LP compilation. Also, a fair number of Jota Fonseca's 78s survived, meaning that he is better off than Carlos Galindo, who has all but vanished. Meu Norte Venceu, written by Sebastião Do Rojão, is a rolicking rojão from a great double-sided 78rpm single.
Jota Fonseca - Meu Norte Venceu (rojão) from RGE 78rpm (1961)
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.
You can find threads of Brazilian rhythms in every form of music. Samba and forró instrumentally, rhythmically and melodically intermingle. Macumba, a religion primarily practiced in South America with African roots, often uses the rhythms of batucada and batuque. Some call Macumba voodoo, black magic or witchcraft, although these labels can be pejorative. There is plenty of information available about the religion online. There are a number of stars of batucada that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s, primarily Sussú, J.B. De Carvalho and João Da Baiana. Jackson Do Pandeiro and mainstream Brazilian stars like Bando Da Lua also recorded songs using the rhythms of batucada. Like samba and forró, the music is distinctive and mesmerizing.
João Da Baiana - Batuques E Pontos De Macumba - Odeon (1957)
Pai Orixá was originally released as a 78rpm single on Copacabana in 1957. Os Donos Do Ritmo is a 10" (10 polegadas) LP featuring Pai Orixá and seven other 78rpm sides. It is one of three Jackson Do Pandeiro 10" LPs released in the 1950s, along with his self-titled debut (1955) and Forró Do Jackson (1956). Os Donos Do Ritmo is the scarcest of the three releases, although Jackson Do Pandeiro was still extremely popular at the time. It is possible that Copacabana pressed fewer copies because Jackson moved to Columbia records in the late 1950s and the label was giving him less of a push. Pai Orixá is listed as batuque, or batucada, which is the specific type of rhythm used in the song. Labeling songs by rhythmic style was very common in Brazilian music through the 1960s.
Jackson Do Pandeiro - Os Donos Do Ritmo - Copacabana (1958)
Estourou Do Norte, recorded by Dora Lopes in 1971, is a killer. There were several compactos of this song released, including a standard double sider in a stock sleeve and the EP featured here with a nifty picture sleeve. The number of forró records seemed to explode in the 1970s, but the production and instrumentation was usually often fixed and traditional. This is fine, but the songwriting and recording had to be razor sharp or the records would sound average. The addition of the horn section to Estourou Do Norte immediately grabs the listener, along with the punchy mix and wonderful performance by Dora Lopes.
Dora Lopes - Estourou Do Norte from compacto EP - Continental (1971)
