I’ve been listening to some random radio shows from Brazil and I’ve heard an array of songs. Below are three of them.
Here’s a classic ‘marcha’ (Carnival song) from 1930 that put Carmen Miranda in the spotlight, called Pra Você Gostar de Mim (aka “Taí”). By the end of 1930, the Brazilian newspaper O País called Carmen “the best Brazilian singer” (even though she’s Portuguese). The cover below is by Marina de la Riva.
Below is a song called Natureza (Nature) by Xangai whose real name is Eugênio Avelino. Xangai is a violinist and singer-songwriter from southern Bahia and received his nickname from his father’s ice-cream shop of the same name. The song is quite long but pretty good (even if the lyrics are by another person).
The last one is called Amigo é Casa (A Friend is a House) and is sung by Zélia Duncan and Simone. A good one to send to a best friend.
“A very rare document. This is the only segment left out of the Brazilian film “Banana da Terra” (1939). This is the first time Carmen Miranda* ever appeared wearing a Bahiana outfit in a movie. Americans hadn’t “discovered” her as yet. The routine from the film is shorter, this one hasn’t been edited. Enjoy!”
* – Carmen Miranda was actually Portuguese, not Brazilian.
What does a Bahian woman have? Written by Dorival Caymmi
What does a Bahian woman have?
Does she have silk twine? She does (she does)
Does she have gold earrings? She does (she does)
Does she have gold chains? She does (she does)
Does she have fabric from the coast? She does (she does)
Dissecting the song
The importance of outward appearance and decorative costume are taken as the signifiers of a woman who carries the cargo of a rich cultural heritage - golden earrings and necklaces, a silk torçal, decorated sandals and cloth from the coast of Guinea. This in itself is revelatory of the ways in which popular culture and everyday practices were co-opted by artists to elaborate an image of the “typical” Bahian woman, who, as exemplified in this song, was seen to encompass all that was tropical and exotic about the African heritage of Bahian cultural markers. The celebration of the Bahian woman is also significant in this song, in that we are shown how the dress of the Bahian is complemented by the importance of her dancing ability - “no one’s as graceful as she / how well she moves her hips!” The question “what does the baiana have?” is answerable in that she has the rich cultural legacies of African heritage, in her dress, as well as her ability to dance. The boundaries of Afro-Brazilian culture are set out within a framework of female characteristics of beauty, performance and show, which allow her to participate both within the enclosure of Afro-Brazilian tradition (“Só vai no Bonfim quem tem” - only those with “it” can go to the feast of Bonfim), and because the song is sung by a white Carmen Miranda, also within the national culture of the celebration of diversity. In this sense, the Afro-Brazilian traditions are seen as capsules of culture both within and separate from the national culture. In celebrating the difference of the Bahian woman, and especially her beauty and sensuality, Miranda acts as the marker of these cultural boundaries, but as with “Mamãe Eu Quero”, Miranda’s performance of this song, as a white woman dressed as a black woman, and singing from the point of view of a white male, transgresses the boundaries between all these opposing subjectivities, and opens up the spaces between them. In this way, Carmen Miranda helped both to outline, and question the cultural boundaries set out within the dominant patriarchal ideology.” – Source
Dorival Caymmi ( April 30, 1914 – August 16, 2008 ) was considered to be one of the most important songwriters in Brazilian popular music. The son of an Italian immigrant and a black Bahian woman, he had a distinctive style of his own and was the writer of many classic songs. The sambas, such as O Samba Da Minha Terra, have become standards of Música Popular Brasileira. He also wrote ballads celebrating the fearless fishermen of Bahia, including Promessa de Pescador and O Vento.
Although his songs celebrate the people of Bahia and he himself is enshrined in the popular Brazilian imagination as the archetypal Bahian, he moved to Rio de Janeiro to find fame in the 1930s and never moved back to Bahia.
He became a contemporary and sometimes rival of composer Ary Barroso and enjoyed a lifelong friendship with Bahian author Jorge Amado. Dorival Caymmi first achieved success in the late 1930s with Carmen Miranda, for whom he composed O Que é Que a Baiana Tem? (video below) He recorded for five decades, both singing solo with his own guitar accompaniment, and backed by bands and orchestras. In the 1960s many of his songs were covered by bossa nova pioneer João Gilberto, and he collaborated with Antonio Carlos Jobim. Among the many musicians heavily influenced by Dorival Caymmi are Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.
Plus the song ‘Vatapá’ which he wrote, which was featured in the film Dona Flor & Her Two Husbands
