Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Vacation quiz
Can you win this contest?
 
What are these buildings?
The magazine is on vacation until mid-December.
While the editor is whiling her hours away on a beach a good distance from home, you can enter this non-musical contest by looking over the two buildings in the photos and posting the answers to the quiz in the comment tool (if you’re shy, you may send the answers via e-mail).
1. Identify the buildings
2. Name their locations
Bonus points given if you can also provide:
3. The name of each building’s architect
4. The year each building was constructed
As always, a good musical prize is promised to the first person who sends the correct answer.
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11:13
 
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
The globetrotting Romeu Silva
The saxophonist and his band in France.
 The prominent bandleader Romeu Silva (1893–1958) began as a saxophone player. As an 18-year old postal clerk in 1911, he played in the orchestra of the legendary rancho Ameno Resedá. The same year he joined the orchestra of the Sociedade Dançante Carnavalesca Ninho do Amor, whose director of harmony was the tombonist-composer Álvaro Sandim. In 1913, Romeu Silva followed Sandim to the rancho Flor do Abacate.
By the early 1920s, Silva was composing some tunes. Among the recordings made by the Oito Batutas in Buenos Aires are Silva’s maxixe “Tricolor” and his maxixe-samba “Si Papae Souber!” In 1923, following a stint in Eduardo Souto’s orchestra, Romeu Silva formed his own Jazz Band Sul-Americano. This group played in balls, cabarets, and in the lobby of the Cine Palais. In 1924, the band began recording for the Odeon label, with a repertoire that comprised sambas, maxixes, and frevos, but also American foxtrots and Argentine tangos. Their first recordings appear to have been these:
Título: Cock-tail
Gênero: Fox-trot
Intérprete: Jazz Band Sul-Americano Romeu Silva
Gravadora: Odeon
Número: 122754
Título: Cherry
Gênero: Fox-trot
Intérprete: Jazz Band Sul-Americano Romeu Silva
Gravadora: Odeon
Número: 122755
 Among their early recordings (Odeon 122786) is the maxixe “Lolote ‘Estrilando’” by Mário Silva, who was most likely Romeu’s brother, for he was a longtime member of the band and bore a striking resemblance to the leader (see photo to the right).
During this period, one of the band’s musicians was the young pianist Ary Barroso, still an impoverished law student and yet to make his name as the most celebrated Brazilian songwriter of his time. In 1956, Ary would describe his experience in O Jornal:
Depois, galguei o cimo de minha carreira, integrando a famosa Jazz Band Sul-Americana, de Romeu Silva. Era a orquestra da alta-roda. Tocávamos nos principais clubes da cidade: Country Club, Fluminense, América, Botafogo, Jóquei Clube, Tijuca, Guanabara e outros. Quando Romeu levou sua orquestra para a Europa, desliguei-me do conjunto. Fui tocar em Poços de Caldas, no Bar do Ponto, do Nico.
Later I climbed to the apex of my career, joining the famous Jazz Band Sul-Americana of Romeu Silva. It was the high-society orchestra. We played in the principal clubs of the city [Rio de Janeiro]: Country Club, Fluminense, América, Botafogo, Jóquei Clube, Tijuca, Guanabara, and others. When Romeu took his orchestra to Europe, I left the band and went to play in Poços de Caldas [Minas Gerais], at Nico’s Bar do Ponto.
The Dicionário Cravo Albin da MPB reports that in January 1926, sponsored by the Brazilian government, the Romeu Silva band toured Europe, playing mostly Brazilian genres to publicize their country’s music. . Among the musicians who traveled to Europe were Fernando (guitar), Mário Silva (trumpet), Bibiano “Bibi” Miranda (drums), Luiz Lopes (bass sax), and All Pratt (alto sax).
In Lisbon the band played at the Teatro Trindade, going on to the Politeama, the Monumental, and Maxim’s, in addition to various nightclub gigs. They were successful enough to have been invited to perform at the presidential palace. Appearances in other Portuguese cities followed: Figueira da Foz, Porto, Braga, Estoril, and Coimbra. In Spain the band passed through Madrid, Barcelona, Vigo, Bilbao, and San Sebastian, always with great success. King Alfonso XII invited Romeu Silva to an event for the Spanish aristocracy. Then on to Paris, where the band played at the salon of the Baron de Rothschild, Maison Lafite (owned by the Rothschilds), and Château Rambouillet (the French President’s summer residence).
The Dicionário da MPB appears to have based its information on an article (undated but believed to have been published in the mid-1930s) in the Rio de Janeiro newspaper A Noite, which in turn relied on Romeu Silva’s own letters to the newspaper. Along the way, some details were mangled, such as the report that the band had played at the “baile do Pétit le Blanc” (actually, it was le Bal des Petits Lits Blancs, an important society charity ball held at the Paris Opéra). The band also appeared at the inauguration of the night races at Longchamps and, at the invitation of then president Albert Lebrun, at the annual ball of Sureté Génerale, proving to be the great revelation of the event.
 The band is said to have accompanied Josephine Baker, and the singer’s biographer, Ean Wood, mentions Romeu Silva once:
In the autumn of 1931, Paris Qui Remue closed. As Mistinguett was to be the star of the Casino’s next revue, Josephine employed herself by setting off on tour with a band of jazz musicians. She named them The 16 Baker Boys. Their leader was tenor saxophonist Romeo Silva, and among them were trumpeter Léon Jacobs, who has been her bandleader at Chez Joséphine, alto saxophonist Joe Hayman, who had come with her to Paris as part of the Claude Hopkins band for La Revue Negre, and the Argentinian guitarist and composer Oscar Alemán. Wood does not mention his source, nor does he tell us how long Silva was involved with the Baker Boys. However, it has been established that various members of the Romeu Silva band sat in with Edmond Mahieux’s Melodic-Jazz du Casino de Paris on over a dozen of the singer’s recordings in 1930, 1931, and 1932, including “La Petite Tonkinoise.” The Silva band members participating in the Baker recordings were Mario Silva (trumpet), Romeu Silva (tenor sax), Luiz Lopez da Silva (bass sax), and Bibiano Miranda de Abreu (drums). The guitarist in these sessions was none other than Oscar Alemán.
From Paris, the Romeu Silva band excursion continued to Belgium, Switzerland, England, Italy, and Germany.
The success in Europe led to further international tours. In 1932, Romeu Silva left for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles with the Brazilian Olympic Band. In 1935 he returned to Brazil, bringing along several American bandmembers, including Booker Pittman (sax & clarinet) and the crooner Louis Cole. For the next two years, the band played at the Cassino Atlântico. Then, says the Dicionário da MPB, it accompanied Carmen Miranda and Bando da Lua on a one-year tour of Argentina. This part is highly questionable, since Carmen’s Argentine tour with Bando da Lua took place in 1934, she doesn’t appear to have gone to that country in 1937, and in 1938 she went with her sister Aurora, but not for a year.
Whether the Jazz Band Sul-Americano accompanied Carmen Miranda on her 1938 tour remains to be established, but there’s ample evidence of another tour the band took earlier, quite undocumented in the Dicionário. In 1937, the band went to France, most likely to perform at the Paris World’s Fair (Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne). While there, they settled in at the famous Shéhérazade dance hall—the same one managed by the Bahian dancer Duque, where Os Batutas had played in 1922. The Shéhérazade name is visible in the publicity photo below, circulated on the occasion of the band’s appearance in Nîmes, an ancient Roman city in the south of France, among whose landmarks is a feature familiar to every carioca.
Orquestra Sul-Americana Brasileira in Nîmes
(photo courtesy of Anthony Baldwin)
Billed as Orchestre da Sylva du Shéhérazade de Paris, the band was the attraction at the Bal de la Presse, which took place on Mardi Gras, 9 February 1937. The event was a masked costume ball and spectacle organized by the Nîmes Press Association as a benefit for the anti-tuberculosis campaign, which was financed by the sale of the souvenir stamp seen on the photo. This is the very same photo that Romeu Silva sent to A Noite.
Anthony Baldwin, who sent me this scan, endeavored to read the musicians’ names from the photo and came up with the following, which I amended with names provided by A Noite and published by Rafael Velloso in his Master’s thesis O Saxofone no Choro. From left: Heriberto Rico [flute, clarinet, and saxophone—either the brother of Filiberto Rico, Cuban musician and leader of Rico’s Creole Band or Filiberto himself under a different name]; Elia [?] Lopes [possibly Luiz Lopes, cavaquinho & baritone sax]; ---ano Mu--n- [most likely Bibiando Miranda de Abreu, guitar, drums, and dancer]; Francisco Marti [piano]; Romeu Silva; Fernando ----- [most likely Fernando de Albuquerque, principal vocalist, banjo, guitar, and cavaquinho]; Henri Plembans [possibly Henrique Planares, souzaphone and trombone]; and Mário Silva [trumpet].
In 1939, Romeu Silva was on the move again, as his orchestra was selected to appear in the Brazilian pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. This time he had several stars under his baton, including Noel Rosa’s partner Vadico (piano), Zaccarias (sax & clarinet), and Zezinho, later known as Zé Carioca (guitar). The band was in New York from June until November, participating in a Brazilian music festival that included among its headliners the baritone Cândido Botelho (who had performed the new samba-exaltação “Aquarela do Brasil” in the musical revue Joujoux e Balangandãs that very June) and the pianist Artur Rubinstein. Upon their return to Rio, the band began to play at the Feira de Amostras, and in 1941 they moved to Cassino da Urca, the most glittering showcase in the city. There they remained until 1946, when general Eurico Gaspar Dutra’s government outlawed gambling and all the casinos were shut down. Suddenly out of work, Romeu was forced to disband his orchestra and become a public servant. He died completely forgotten in 1958.
In 1955, a few years before Romeu’s death, Ary Barroso recollected the former bandleader in O Jornal:
Alto, forte, moreno. Cabelos de ondas pequeninas. Andava ereto e superior. Dirigia a melhor jazz band do seu tempo (1924). Exigia “linha” dos músicos. Tocava (mal) saxofone tenor. Era chamado para abrilhantar os mais elegantes bailes da cidade de São Paulo. Era o único que ficava de pé. Os outros músicos, sentados. Quando passava pelo salão uma dama bonita, ele fazia um muxoxozinho na palheta do saxofone e que soava, mais ou menos, como um beijo. Esteve nos Estados Unidos e na Europa. Hoje, como está diferente! Nem sombra daquele galã. Refiro-me a Romeu Silva, diretor da ex-Jazz Band Sul-Americana.
Tall, strong, dark. Tightly curled hair. He always walked erect and superior. He directed the best jazz band of his time (1924). Demanded “posture” from his musicians. He played tenor saxophone (badly). He was the one they would call to liven up the most elegant balls in São Paulo. He was the only one who would remain standing [on stage]. The other musicians sat. When a beautiful lady crossed the salon, he would blow gently with pursed lips on the mouthpiece, sounding more or less like a kiss. He has been to the United States and to Europe. How different he is today! Not a shadow of the fomer gallant. I refer to Romeu Silva, director of the ex-Jazz Band Sul-Americana.
And there’s more. Read it here.
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10:45
Monday, November 17, 2003
Tudo de Bom
Mark Weinstein & Richard Boukas
dig into Hermeto’s Calendário do Som.
Hermeto Pascoal was born on 22 June 1936. On his 60th birthday, he resolved to compose one tune a day for the next year. Between 23 June 1996 and 22 June 1997, Hermeto wrote 366 tunes in various genres—all comprising at least 16 bars. The collection was published in 2000 as Calendário do Som.
Thirteen of the Calendário songs were recently recorded by jazz flutist Mark Weinstein and vocalist-guitarist Richard Boukas, who also arranged.
The rhythm section is composed of Nilson Matta (bass), Paulo Braga (drums), and Vanderlei Pereira, (percussion).
You can listen to 2-minute samples of six tunes (never previously recorded) here.
Mark Weinstein & Richard Boukas: Tudo de Bom
(LKC Productions; 2003)
01. Song #81, Bossa Nova
02. Song #10, Choro
03. Song #47, Bossa Nova
04. Song #5, Valsa/Gaurania
05. Song #153, Samba
06. Song #1, Valsa/Marcha Rancho
07. Song #152, Choro
08. Song #23, Baião
09. Song #30, Choro
10. Song #15, Valsa
11. Song #2, Maxixe
12. Song #31, Valsa
13. Song #29, Baião
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13:07
Friday, November 07, 2003
A portrait of the artist as a young man
Ary Barroso in Poços de Caldas.
Ary Barroso the band pianist in Poços de Caldas, MG
(photo: Museu Histórico e Geográfico de Poços de Caldas)
Ary Barroso was born 100 years ago today. In Brazil, they’re commemorating the event with concerts and tribute discs. The year 2003 has been declared O Ano de Ary Barroso.
What better time to look in on the composer when he was taking the earliest paces in his career?
At the end of 1925, the 22-year old Ary—then a law student—fell in love with 13-year old Yvonne Arantes, whose mother ran a pension on Rua Silva Manoel in Rio de Janeiro. This pension was our protagonist’s address for a while.
Having already frittered away his considerable inheritance, Ary was eking out a living as a pianist in dance orchestras, a profession that didn’t meet with the girlfriend’s parents’ approval. In early 1926, with his finances at low ebb, Ary was forced to take a year off from law school and withdrew from Rio de Janeiro to his hometown of Ubá, in Minas Gerais.
In August 1926, Ary secured a gig as band pianist at the nightclub Ao Ponto in the spa town Poços de Caldas, MG. His contract was to have ended in November, but on his 23rd birthday he was still there, away from Rio and his loved one. Later that month he got a week off and went to the capital, where he and Yvonne became formally engaged. Then it was back to Minas until mid-May 1927.
Ary Barroso and Nico Duarte, owner of Ao Ponto
The prolonged absence didn’t sit well with the young fiancée, who complained regularly and at one point ceased writing altogether. Ary was plunged into a black depression, which might have inspired this song:
Por Tua Causa
Por tua causa, meu bem
Vou me acabar
Por teu amor, ó morena
Vou me matar
Eu já lhe disse
Pois então você não vê
Que eu padeço neste mundo
Só por muito lhe querer
Minha morena
Isto é muita ingratidão
Pois não sente o sofrimento
De meu pibre coração
Por tua causa
Vou-me embora pro Pará
Eu lhe juro, ó ingrata
Nunca mais hei de voltar
The song, which remains unpublished, was dedicated “aos amigos Lafaiete Silva e João Tomás.” Lafaiete Silva was the band’s saxofonist (second from the right in the large photo) and a friend in need. It was he who undertook to write Yvonne unbeknownst to Ary, with the happy result of a resumed correspondence between the lovers.
How the story ended is told here.
= = =
My thanks to the distinguished journalist Luís Nassif, a Poços de Caldas native, who sent me the previously unpublished photo, from the collection of the Museu Histórico e Geográfico de Poços de Caldas.
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01:00
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
A wake-up call
This is your chance to become an activist.
Villa-Lobos & Zé Espinguela (right) during a Sôdade do
Cordão rehearsal at Espinguela’s house, 1940.
(photo courtesy of Ermelinda A. Paz)
This article will make no sense unless you’ve read Stalking Stokowski.
On 11 September 2003, I published in these pages an item titled Survivors. Under the subhead Maybe, one of these days, I listed the following tunes:
Tristeza (samba do morro de Cartola)
Cartola & pastoras da Mangueira
Afoché (candomblé de Zé Espinguela)
Zé Espinguela & Grupo do Pai Alufá
Samba do Urubu (variações de Pixinguinha)
Pixinguinha & conjunto regional de Donga
Apanhá Limão (samba de Jararaca)
Conjunto regional de Donga
Samba da Lua (batucada de Donga & David Nasser)
Conjunto regional de Donga
Quando uma Estrela Sorri (marcha-rancho de Donga, Villa-Lobos & David Nasser)
Conjunto regional de Donga
Primeiro Amor (samba do morro de Cartola & Aloísio Dias)
Cartola & pastoras da Mangueira
Meu Amor (samba do morro de Cartola & Aloísio Dias)
Cartola & pastoras da Mangueira
Nobody paid the slightest attention.
I waited a few days and announced a contest in a comment below the article, promising a prize to the first reader who would figure out what the list was about.
Nothing.
Then I offered an additional inducement, hinting that the prize would be really good. This finally enticed a lone contestant, who posted the correct answer in a comment (he received the CD Ary Amoroso with Elizeth Cardoso).
A little while later I hinted again. Same results.
You’d think that such momentous news as the one being offered would cause a ruckus in Brazilian music circles (and if not a ruckus, at least a brouhaha). But no. The whole episode passed utterly unnoticed.
It seems that a blunter approach is required.
Here it is.
Columbia Records (currently a Sony subsidiary), not only retains the original Native Brazilian Music recordings in its vault but has been sitting on eight additional never-released sides. Those are the titles you see above. They include the famous “Samba do Urubu” (or “Urubu Malandro”), which the newspaper O Globo singled out in its page-one reportage of 8 August 1940:
Then came the number that caused the greatest sensation of the night: the flute solo of Pixinguinha in Urubu Malandro. All present were enthusiastic, not only with the picturesque music but with the superb execution of Pixinguinha, to the point that one of the orchestra’s section leaders said, “That is one of the best flutists I’ve ever heard!”
Beside the Pixinguinha, there are three sambas written and performed by Cartola, a candomblé by Zé Espinguela (the Stokowski recordings abord the SS Uruguay are the only ones he ever made), and a number of tunes performed by Donga and his conjunto regional.
In keeping with past practices, the tracks are listed thus in Columbia’s records:
30162 TRISTEZA – Mangueira Chorus
30164 A FOCHE – Grupo Do Rae Aluja
30186 SAMBA DO URUBU – Regionale Orchestra
30187 APANHA LIMAO – Regionale Orchestra
30188 SAMBA DO LUA – Regionale Orchestra
30189 QUANDO UMA ESTRELA SORVI – Regionale Orchestra
30191 PRIMEIRO AMOR – Mangueira Chorus
30192 MEU AMOR – Mangueira Chorus
With these eight tracks added to the 16 released in 1940, Sony has enough material for a generously-sized CD. So why hasn’t it produced one?
Perhaps because nobody asked.
Want to be an activist on behalf of Brazilian music? Get out there and make some noise. Who knows? Someone just might be willing to listen.
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16:26
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Positive feedback
More! More!
E-mail from Blogger Forum:
Your site is ranked in Blogger Forum’s Top Ten Blog*Spot Sites for this week. Congrats and check it out at www.bloggerforum.com in the right-hand column.
Needless to say, I’m pleased as punch, but who would have thought there’d be such demand for coverage of Brazilian music in English?
Or should I thank the story on Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s O Amor Natural for this surge in popularity?
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16:52
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