Mário de Andrade was a renowned Brazilian intellectual and one of the founders of the Brazilian avant-garde movement, Modernismo. For all his cutting edge work, though, he was also a passionate student of Brazilian folk culture. “Long-Lost Trove of Music Connects Brazil to its Roots” in today’s NYTimes, reports that in 1938, de Andrade traveled around northeastern Brazil and made recordings of the various musical styles he encountered.
Almost seventy years later, a six CD box set, “Música Tradicional do Norte e Nordeste 1938” has been released by the SESC of São Paulo. The online article contains some sample clips, but you can find much more of the music here. Further, some of the musical instruments he came across will be displayed at the municipal center in Sao Paulo. The article states:
At the time the recordings were made, Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship that had outlawed Afro-Brazilian religious practices… and “a goodly portion of the objects they collected, especially the drums, came from confiscated material at police stations”..It sounds like a fascinating CD and a great side trip if you plan to be in Brazil this summer for the conference.
This article is only available on-line to the public for a week or so, but as with all submissions to this site, we will put a hard copy in our archives.
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