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The forró
The forró is a "bal
populaire", as the French would call it, is a place where popular dances
are held, and the dance itself. At a forró all sorted of rhythms are to be
heard, but principally those of northern and north-eastern Brazil as baião,
xote, arrasta-pé, quadrilha, rojão, coco, maracatu, carimbó and so on.
When the English came to
Brazil to build the railways, in about the 1920s, they started with the sertão
(backcountry) of te state of Bahia. To provide entertainment for their employees
during their non-working ours, they built large huts where they could to have
fun with musics and dances.
Someone said that word
"forró" cames from the announcing that the building was for everyone's
use: "For all". The caboclos (people living in those arid parts) did
not understand English and gradually "for all" became "forró".
Others said that "forró" came from "ferro", iron, used tu
build the railways. Others said that in that time a non conventional dance was
called "forrobodo", became "forró" in a shorter word.
The huts were originally intended
for workers, local inhabitabts, poor people, over the years they inspired
fine poets, singers and composers, such as Luiz Gonzaga, Jackson do
Pandeiro and many others. They took those rhythms and musical styles and
added words about everiday life, love, problems such as drought ever
present in those parts, leading to famine, extreme poverty and migration
to others states. The songs are nevertheless very lively and enthusiastic,
enabling the dancers to forget for a while the harsh realities of that
life.
The forró has come a long way since
then. Today great composers like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Lenine,
Alceu Valença, Geraldo Azevedo and Zé Ramalho and many others compose
and sing forró. Thanks to them the popularity of the genre has spread to
the rest of the world.
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- Forroxote em Cariri (Nazaré
Pereira). Forroxote is a mixture of forró and xote
rhythm. Nazaré composed this song when she arrived from France in
Fortaleza, capital of federal state of Ceará, north-east of Brazil.
Delighted to be recording in one of the capitals of forró, she puts
all her enthusiasm and joy into this song.
- Valente Nordeste (Gurguio).
A tribute to those who live in the very poor Nordeste.
Despite their difficult living conditions, the Nordestinos love and
dance as in a dream, which enables them to forget their suffering. Oh.
how brave are the Nordestinos!
- Tacacá (Lourival Passos). This piece is typical of
northern Brazil. The autor pays tribute to the city of Belém (capital
of the federal state of Pará), its cousine and its religion. Our Lady
of Nazaré is the patron saint of the Amazon area. He also praises the
unusually harmonious atmosphere that reigns in Belém.
- Baião em Paris (Humberto Teixeira). Baião is a
style of music. This piece was composed by Humberto Teixeira in 1950s
when he was staying in Paris. In this imperfect French, he wished to
pay tribute to various districts: Pigalle, Monmartre. This is a song
Nazaré Pereira love to sing.
- Rodopiou (Ivan Cardoso) Rodopiou means "to spin,
swirl or twirl. This is a carimbó, an Amazonian dance which Nazaré
has added the instruments of forró. The composer-songwriter Ivan
Cardoso pays tribute to three great composers and singers of carimbó:
Pinduca, Verequete and Cupijó.
- Meu jardim de amor (Romulo
Marques-Nazaré Pereira). My garden of love. To a tune
of Romulo Marques, Nazaré sing her garden of love, her family home in
Belém, to which she returns from time to time for the pleasure of
being with her mother and brothers. She describe the pleasant moments
she spends with her family or in a hammock in the middle of the
garden, watching the rain falling or the leaves dancing.
- Medley. In this medley (pot-pourri), Nazaré brings
together three famous forró songs: Forró de
cabo a rabo (Luiz Gonzaga-João Silva) - Casaca de couro (Rui de
Moraes) - Pagode russo (Luiz Gonzaga-João Silva).
- Maracatimbó (Nêgo
Nelson-Kzam Gama). A mixture of two rhythms:
maracatú (dance of Pernambuco, federal state of north-east of Brazil)
and carimbó (dance of Pará state, north of Brazil). To music by
Nêgo Nelson, Kzam Gama's words pay tribute to Marapanim, where the
carimbó was born, and also his family: father, mother, aunts...
- Cristina (Nazaré Pereira-Coaty de Oliveira). Cristina
is the 'younger sister' of Carolina (heroine of one of Nazaré's great
hit songs). Cristina, a very cheerful and flirtatious teenager
discovers love...
- Gosto do teu beijo (Kzam Nery-Manoel Cordeiro). The
taste of kiss. Is a love song about the pleasure of kissing.
- O Uirapuru (Waldemar Henrique). Uirapuru is the name
of a rare bird of Amazonian forest. It may be heard for only two weeks
of the year when he build his nest. It sing in the morning for five to
ten minutes. Its song is so melodious that legend has it that all
others birds stop singing to listen to. It brings good luck in love to
those who hear its chant.
- Medley. For this
pot-pourri Nazaré has brought together two famous forró dance: Doido
pra vadiar (Jorge de Altinho) - Forró do Xenhenhem (Cecéu).
- Que nem Jiló (Luiz
Gonzaga-Humberto Teixeira). Jiló is a kind of small
and very bitter aubergine. In this song immortaled by Luiz Gonzaga,
the bitterness of the jiló is contrasted with the sweetness of love.
- Quadrilha em família (Nazaré Pereira). Nazaré pays
tribute to all the members of her family and imagines them dancing a
quadrilha.
- J'ai deux amours (Vincent
Scotto-Geo Koger-Henri Varna). 'I have two loves'. A
reference to the french chanson, of which Nazaré is so fond, but also
to Josephine Baker ("my inspiration"). "I choose this
song because it is so appropriate to my own story: I was born in the
savannah, but I love living in Paris", said Nazaré.
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