Echoes of the Northeast: Luiz Gonzaga and the Soundscape of Música Nordestina

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Notes

1 Gonzaga also created a stage persona evoking a northeastern backlands matuto (country hick) through the use of a thick northeastern linguistic dialect and the adoption of a stylized uniform topped by a chapeu de couro (typical leather hat of northeastern cowboys). For a discussion of Gonzaga’s stage persona, see Loveless (2012: 282-284). 

2 In reference to the Northeast, a caboclo is typically understood as a poor brown-skinned mestizo from the rural areas of the interior comprising primarily a mixture of Amerindian and Portuguese (and to a lesser degree African) heritage. Caboclo culture of the sertão has been both disparaged as backward and romanticized as perhaps the most pristine folkloric source of Brazil’s national identity.

3 Parts of this interview appear on Luiz Gonzaga’s LP recording O Rei volta pra casa (RCA Victor 1030568).

4 In a study of rezas-de-defuntos (prayers for the deceased) based on his fieldwork carried out in Caruaru, Pernambuco in 1952, Guerra-Peixe notes that he could only locate female rezadeiras to sing for him. See Guerra-Peixe (1968).

5 Rural dance parties in the Northeast are frequently referred to as “sambas.”

6 For information on the cavalo-marinho in the coastal area of Pernambuco, see Murphy (2006: 71-86).

7 Cantoria is a tradition of improvising and singing poetic verses in desafios (song duels) accompanied by instruments such as the viola, rabeca, ganzá (shaker), or pandeiro.

8 An annotated 6-CD box set of these important ethnographic recordings was published in 2006 and is available for purchase online.

9 From the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, Luiz Gonzaga became Brazil’s brightest popular music star as his northeastern-styled songs achieved national commercial success that rivaled the popularity of samba.

10 In the 1930s-1940s, regional groups were frequently employed as studio back-up bands for popular singers and instrumentalists. These groups were adept at improvisation and emphasized plucked and strummed string instruments (violão de sete, violão, cavaquinho, bandolim), flute, and the Brazilian-style tambourine (pandeiro). For information on the conjunto regional format and its relationship to the choro and Brazil’s recording and broadcast industry, see Livingston-Isenhour and Garcia (2005, 80-107).

11 The multiple commercial releases and re-recordings of Gonzaga’s pieces and later anthologies and box set retrospectives such as Luiz Gonzaga: 50 anos de Chão are ambiguous and misleading about the “original recordings” they purport to include. Close listening to original 78 rpm recordings reveals that many of the early examples from the 1940s were re-recorded in the 1950s with additional instruments added (especially the zabumba and triangle). Such was the case when Vira e mexe was re-recorded in 1950 (RCA Victor 3748a).

12 See for instance the photo of Gonzaga’s first trio with Catamilho (zabumba) and Zequinha (triangle) in Dreyfus (1996: 154). In the photo, Gonzaga holds his modern keyboard accordion while dressed in chapeu de couro and northeastern-style leather sandals. He is flanked by Catamilho (holding an industrialized zabumba) and Zequinho (with a shiny steel triangle) both dressed in natty “smokings” (tuxedos).

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Larry Crook

Larry Crook is a professor of music and area head of Musicology/Ethnomusicology at the University of Florida where he specializes in musical traditions from Brazil, the Caribbean, and Africa. His publications include Black Brazil: Culture, Identity, and Social Mobilization (1999) and Brazilian Music: Northeastern Traditions and the Heartbeat of a Modern Nation (2005). A percussionist, he is founder of the Jacaré Brazil music ensemble at UF’s School of Music.