On Tuesday, 25/02/2020, The Embassy of Brazil in Nairobi in conjunction
with The Alchemist Bar treated us to a documentary, Cartola: The Samba Legend, chronicling the life and times of one of
Brazil’s most popular samba composers of all time.
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| Cartola: The Samba Legend |
On Tuesday, 25/02/2020, The Embassy of Brazil in Nairobi in conjunction
with The Alchemist Bar treated us to a documentary, Cartola: The Samba Legend, chronicling the life and times of one of
Brazil’s most popular samba composers of all time.
Cartola, nee Angenor de Oliveira (the “n” in Angenor he claims
was added at the registry when he was born because he was initially Agenor,
from his parents) was born in 1908, and
the film is very vocal in authenticating the time span of Cartola’s life by using
of numerous clips from the 1900’s era.
Cartola is shown as being a composer who is credited in the aid of developing the world-famous Brazilian samba, with more than 500 songs
being credited to his artistry.
The documentary shows his rise to popularity in the 1930s
when he began to hone his artistry and composing/recording many sambas. But
none of this was a foreshadowing of artistic prowess translating into possible
financial reward because at the time, Cartola, married to a woman named,
Deolinda (7 years his senior) was forced to work different kinds of jobs in a
bid to feed his family.
The film introduces us to a time when people pawned their
sambas because of being broke and this is used to display a shocking state of
desperation amongst artists who are forced to give up ownership of their
artistic progeny in an effort to simply survive.
According to the documentary, it was 1952 when Cartola fell in
love with his third and last partner in life, Zica, who persuaded him to return
to music which coincided with a time, 4 years later, when Cartola was tracked
down by one of Brazil’s most important writers
at the time, Sergio Porto who catapulted Cartola’s return to the music world
after a hiatus by offering him shows which was all good, but the popularity had
yet again waned, and Cartola had to find other means to survive.
Cartola’s effort to publicize the samba born in Brazilian
favelas in recognized through his starting of Zicartola, a bar/restaurant which
he opened in collaboration with his wife Zica as well as Eugênio Agostine.
Zicartola acted as a link between traditional sambistas and many other musical
geniuses (the Bossa Nova Movement was in full swing)
I do not want to spoil way too much for anyone who might be
willing to watch this film at a later date but…
A particular scene that captured me was when I heard O Sol Nascerá (which I became acquainted with through the Globo telenovela, Bom Sucesso (2019) and not having known the song’s origins I was thrilled. I had a similar episode when, while Cartola introduced us to his father, Sebastião Joaquim de Oliveira and they sang O Mundo é um Moinho, yet another samba I had heard in Lado a Lado.
A particular scene that captured me was when I heard O Sol Nascerá (which I became acquainted with through the Globo telenovela, Bom Sucesso (2019) and not having known the song’s origins I was thrilled. I had a similar episode when, while Cartola introduced us to his father, Sebastião Joaquim de Oliveira and they sang O Mundo é um Moinho, yet another samba I had heard in Lado a Lado.
One of the things that most fascinated me, as I mentioned at the beginning of this piece was the introduction of the story through vintage clips that transport the viewer back into a time of uncertainty in Brazil that was beginning to form an identity in the global arena, the public ascent of the Afro-Brazilian through the media and even an extremely short piece on the Revolt/Coup of 1964. The numerous musical interludes that the filmmaker introduces to me, the viewer, with many artists performing Cartola’s various sambas, in an effort to further propel to the importance of the samba at the core of what is generally accepted as being an integral part of Brazilian culture was a plus.
The authenticity of the information that is relayed about
Cartola is further defended through the vast number of references who appeared
in the film, some of them being people like Lan, a popular caricaturist who in the memory of Cartola, paid homage by designing pieces that really portrayed
Cartola in an animated but strangely realistic way.
Overall, despite the fact that I believed this film could have
been shorter, it is undoubtedly one of the best references for the history of
various modes of Brazilian music and an effective eye-opener into the vivacious
world of Brazilian samba.
4/5 stars
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