Tag: brazil

Hermes Aquino – Eu Quero Ser Teu Rei

Hermes Aquino – Eu Quero Ser Teu Rei

(Desencontro De Primavera, 1977)

Aquino spent eight years and his wife’s inheritance on L’Arca Amarela (the Yellow Ark), a studio which he built in the misty forest surrounding the Iguazu Falls in Western Brazil. He was never accepted by the local shamans and two sound engineers died mysteriously during the recording of the album from which this song is taken. Despite such trauma, the music is irresistibly joyful: the rhythm a squelchy funk dragged from the swamp and made to join the conga line; a dozen chattering melodies circle and hover through the canopy. A snake swallows a bird that is eating a beetle. Aquino goes back into the ark. His wife brushes his hair and he writes another song. 

Tincoãs – Banzo (Escrava Isaura)

Tincoãs – Banzo (Escrava Isaura, 1976)

Escrava Isaura was a telenovela produced by the Brazilian television network Rede Globo in 1976. It was based on the novel by the same name, written by Brazilian writer Bernardo Guimarães in 1875.

The story is about a slave girl named Isaura who endures incredible hardships (including being engaged to a hunchbacked dwarf) before she is finally freed to marry her star-crossed lover, Alvaro. Not only was the series a big hit throughout South America, it was a smashing success all over the world, especially in the Eastern Bloc, Africa and China. In fact, it was the first TV series the Chinese government even allowed to air in which a foreign actress played the main character (Isaura was played by Lucélia Santos). And it was the very first soap opera to air, PERIOD, in the Soviet Union and Poland. It was even broadcast via satellite to the research station in Antarctica. U.S. President Gerald Ford wanted all 45 episodes placed in a time capsule and sent out to space, but the bill was vetoed by Congress. 

The series was remade in 2004 but shhhh, we won’t talk about that. Just like we won’t talk about the fact that some fool is remaking Clash of the Titans and poor Sir Laurence Olivier is spinning in his grave as we speak.

In addition to the astoundingly great track by Tincoãs, the soundtrack (released by Som Livre) includes lovely music by Elizeth Cardoso, Francis Hime, and Dorival Caymmi. Orquestra Som Livre also contributes a nice little piece, accompanied by a chorus of hunchbacked birds who become increasingly wacky as the song goes along.