Cartola

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Cartola
Cartola
Background information
Birth name	Angenor de Oliveira
Born	October 11, 1908
Origin	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Died	November 30, 1980
Genre(s)	samba
Occupation(s)	singer, songwriter
Instrument(s)	vocal
Years active	1927-1980

Angenor de Oliveira, known as Cartola (Portuguese for top hat), (October 11, 1908 – November 30, 1980) was a Brazilian singer, composer and poet considered to be one of the most important figures in samba development. He got his nickname because he used a bowler hat while working as a construction worker so the cement would not dirty his hair.

1 Biography
2 Work
3 Example of Work: O Mundo é um Moinho
4 Discography
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Biography

Cartola was born in Rio de Janeiro, in a borough called Catete, but spent his childhood in the neighborhood of Laranjeiras. Due to financial difficulties, the numerous family transferred itself to the Mangueira hill, where a small favela was beginning to appear.

In Mangueira, Cartola soon befriended Carlos Cachaça and other sambistas, getting started in the world of malandragem and samba. In 1928, they founded the Arengueiros Carnival Block, which would later transform in the traditional samba school Estação Primeira de Mangueira, one of the most loved samba-schools in Brazil. Cartola is considered responsible for the choice of colors of the school, which are said to stem from the colors of football club Fluminense, which is settled in Laranjeiras.

Cartola became popular in the 1930s, with many sambas recorded at that time. In the beginning of his carrier, Creusa Cartola, his adopted daughter when she was five years old, was extremely important to launches him as composer, for being a singer of extremely persuasive voice, singing his sambas in programs of radio of this decade. As much that later, it makes participation special in the first LP of Cartola. Later, in the 1940s, Cartola disappeared from the scene. Little is known about that time in Cartola's life, when he departed from Mangueira after disagreements and became depressed with the death of his wife Deolinda; about that time, rumours about his death were speculated. Cartola was found, in a very popular tale, by journalist Sérgio Porto in 1956, working as a car-washer.

Porto took care of starting to promote Cartola's return, inviting him to radio shows and divulging his work with new partners. Later, in 1963, investing in his struggle to take the hills' samba to the city streets, Cartola opened together with Eugênio Agostine and his wife Dona Zica the famous Zicartola bar/restaurant in downtown Rio de Janeiro, which became known as the most important samba establishment of that time, providing a link between the traditional sambistas and the incipient Bossa Nova movement. Cartola invited people such as Nélson Cavaquinho, Pixinguinha, Nara Leão, Paulinho da Viola, and Zé Ketti to sing the "low-value" music, as sambistas ironically referred to their work.

Cartola's real embracement from the phonologic market started in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he became quite popular and a lot of samba classics were released, such as "O Sol Nascerá", "O Mundo é Um Moinho", "Corra e Olhe o Céu", "Quem me vê Sorrindo" and "Senhora Tentação", with support from singers Elizeth Cardoso, Clara Nunes, Paulinho da Viola and especially Beth Carvalho. He released his first record only at the age of 66, in 1974, and even living in financial difficulties, composed and sang until his death at age 72.

Cartola composed, alone or with partners, more than 500 songs.

[edit] Work

Cartola composed melodies, harmonies and lyrics. As a lyricist, one thing that should be noticed is Cartola's very correct portuguese. Such correctness is something to be praised in a work as big as Cartola's, especially regarding someone with no formal higher education. His poetry binds in an effective manner elegance and emotion, while keeping a relatively low level of complexity, which made his work accessible to larger layers of the population.

It's important to highlight that with regard to tempo, Cartola's music had a strong tendency towards calmer, slower sambas in contrast to the faster, brisker sambas de terreiro seen in samba schools and to other composers' music. Some say his sambas had a tendency towards samba-canção. The cavaquinhos in his records had a certain cry mood which was less percussive than usual, with the exception of his last records where Alceu Maia was the cavaquinist.

As a musician, Cartola made use of many modulations, some of which were not common in samba at that time. Some of his modulating tunes are "Quem me vê Sorrindo" and "Sim" (I -> V), "Acontece" and "Amor Proibido" (I -> bVI), "Inverno do Meu Tempo" (I -> bIII) and "A Cor da Esperança" (I -> bII). Furthermore, he made use of non-trivial figures such as tritone substitutions and extensive tritone resolutions to the IIIm7, as can be observed, e.g., in "Alvorada", "Senhora Tentação", "Inverno do Meu Tempo" and "Disfarça e Chora".

[edit] Example of Work: O Mundo é um Moinho

One of Cartola's most well-known songs is the one he wrote for his adopted daughter Creusa, when she left their home in Mangueira at the age of 16. The word moinho means either watermill or windmill in portuguese, thus the title reads The World is a Mill in that sense. It's a slow samba ballad, which makes it sound especially poetic.

Lyrics:

Ainda é cedo, amor.
Mal começaste a conhecer a vida,
Já anuncias a hora de partida
Sem saber mesmo o rumo que irás tomar.

Preste atenção, querida,
Embora eu saiba que estás resolvida.
Em cada esquina cai um pouco tua vida.
Em pouco tempo não serás mais o que és.

Ouça-me bem, amor.
Preste atenção, o mundo é um moinho.
Vai triturar teus sonhos tão mesquinhos,
Vai reduzir as ilusões a pó.

Preste atenção, querida.
De cada amor tu herdarás só o cinismo.
Quando notares estás à beira do abismo.
Abismo que cavaste com teus pés.

Translation:

It's still early, love.
You've barely started to know life,
You already announce the hour of departure
Without even knowing the direction you'll take.

Pay attention, dear,
Although I know that you made up your mind
In each corner falls a little your life
Soon you'll no longer be what you are.

Listen carefully, love.
Pay attention, the world is a mill.
It will grind your paltry dreams,
It will reduce your illusions to dust.

Pay attention, dear.
From each love, you'll inherit only cynicism.
When you notice, you're at the edge of the abyss.
Abyss you dug with your own feet.