Cartola

by Alvaro NederThe history of Cartola is intertwined with history of urban carioca Samba. He was partner of legendary Noel Rosa, had his compositions recorded by virtually all acknowledged Brazilian interpreters, and was a founder Escola de Samba Estácio Primeira de Mangueira, (Samba School of Mangueira), one of the main Samba schools of carioca Carnival of all times, and the first Carnival association to employ the Samba as musical vehicle. Until then, the groups (blocos) of participants (folios), used to play and dance to marcha-rancho. Son of an amateur acoustic guitar player, Cartola learnt by himself to play the guitar, watching his father. Learnt the cavaquinho (ukelele) as well. At 15 years old, his mother dies. Losing the link between himself and the tyrannical father, Cartola abandons school after completing the junior high school, leaves home, and dedicates himself to Bohemianism and various part-time sub-employs. When he founded, together with other sambistas, the Samba school of Mangueira (a carioca hill over which the poor people established themselves), in April 28, 1928, he was charged from the first moment with the functions of the schools master of harmony. The schools first parade, still in 1928, opened with the first Samba composed by Cartola, Chega de demanda (Enough fighting, an appeal to cessation of violence amongst rival sambistas and malandrosof the hills). The school of Portela already existed at that time, but the other schools only began to constitute themselves from 1932 on. People at the Estácio hill were already active as sambistas, composers and interpreters, but hadnt constituted the Estácio Samba school yet. Until then, the urban Samba still hadnt absorbed influences of middle-class culture, which would only begin with Noel Rosa (1910-1937), native sambista of Vila Isabel (one of Rios traditional neighborhoods), of small bourgeoisie status and university culture; Orestes Barbosa (1893-1966), journalist, writer and popular composer; and Cartola, confessed reader of a few lines of Castro Alves, Gonçalves Dias, Olavo Bilac, Luís de Camões and his preferred, Guerra Junqueiro, whose A velhice do padre eterno and A morte de d. João he read completely, taking his literary studies as completed. Being the Samba a synthesis produced by Negro slaves of their pagan religious ceremonies with white peoples culture, at this initial period lyrics and music were extremely rustic, evidencing the illiteracy of their creators, descendants of the slaves. But the percussive instruments already included the surdo, the tamborim, the pandeiro e the cuíca. The first contest of Samba of the city of Rio de Janeiro took place at 01/20/1929. It included the participation of the two Samba schools already constituted, Mangueira and Portela, whose Samba Não adianta Chorar, by Heitor dos Prazeres, won. Mangueira presented Beijos, Cartolas second Samba, and Eu quero Nota, by Arturzinho. In 1931, singer Mário Reis goes to the hill of Mangueira to buy songs, habit of those times not limited to the acquisition of full rights, but which involved the exclusion of the composers names as well. Sold for 300 mil-réis, the Samba Que infeliz Sortewas at last recorded by Francisco Alves, as Mário Reis couldnt sing it. But Cartola never admitted to let go his own authorship of his music and lyrics. As Francisco Alves was a major popular success, being part of the permanent cast of Rádio Nacional, then the biggest mass-communication vehicle in Brazil, Cartola becomes known to the larger audience. Continuing to sell the rights of his songs for the same price, made for Alves the successes Não faz, Amor, Tenho um novo Amor, Divina Dama, Diz que foi o mal que te Fiz. In 1932 begins the partnership with Noel Rosa with the Samba Não faz, Amor. Noel starts to frequent the Buraco Quente (Hot Hole), giving preference to Cartolas hut. This ones concubine, a warm-hearted black woman named Deolinda, helped Noel several times, as hed use to get drunk until hed faint. Deolinda would bath him on the washbowl, spread talcum powder over his body and put him to sleep in clean sheets. Even with the acknowledgment of critics and audience, money was always short. Cartola had to live by ones wits, as fish, ice-cream and cheese peddler, cambono de macumba (assistant for black magic rituals), and mason. At the same time, though, he continued to perform functions of Mangueiras master of harmony and to compose Sambas of Carnival and middle-year. In 1932 Mangueira was the champion with the Samba Pudesse meu Ideal, by Cartola and Carlos Cachaça. In 1933, the school presented Fita meus Olhos, by Cartola and Baiaco, which would be recorded 45 years later by the author. In 1934 Mangueira didnt participate in the public contest, as it had won a specialized jury contest one month before, and didnt want to risk to lose the title in the public judgment. At the year of 1935, acknowledgment of Samba schools by dominant class is given through their inclusion in the official Carnival schedule, by mayor Pedro Ernesto Batista. This official acknowledgment would make possible to the schools access to subvention and organization, while this kind of association was used to runaway from police some years before. Portela won the contest that year, but Cartolas Samba held the second place, with the Samba Brasil terra Adorada, with partnerships by Carlos Cachaça and Arturzinho. The prestige of Cartola and Mangueira could be observed through the broadcasting to Germany of the Hora do Brasil show, at January 29th, 1936. During full nazi campaign, the Germans received for one hour information, biographies, testimonies and music by black people of the carioca hills. Among the songs, Liberdade, by Arlindo dos Santos and Cartola; Pérolas para o teu Colar, by Maciste Carioca and Cartola; Dama Abandonada, by Cartola; O destino não Quis, by Carlos Moreira de Castro and Cartola; and a selections of Sambas de partido alto by Cartola. The year of 1936 shows Cartola in a period of great fertility, having composed five Sambas with Carlos Cachaça: Tudo neste Mundo, Sentido Pranto, Primeira Volta, Me Disseram and Quem me vê Sorrir. With Isaltino Custódio, Cartola composed Deusaand Ingênua Criaturain that year. In January 26th., 1937, the Department of Tourism of the city instituted a contest to elect the best composer of the several schools of the city. Cartola sang two Sambas: Partiuand Sei Chorar. Under massive applause by the audience and unanimity in the jury, Cartola won the contest, receiving a gold medal. Even gaining effusive manifestations of support through press, by journalists, politicians and artists, the monetary prospects were still shallow. Sei Chorar remained unpublished until 50 years after, and Partiu, composition highly regarded by maestro Heitor Villa-Lobos is unpublished until now. The gold medal was pawned days after at the Caixa Econômica, due to his permanent financial difficulties. In 1940, as consequence of F. D. Roosevelts good neighbor policy, which was stimulated by the intention of solidification of the relations between U.S.A. and Latin America in face of the II World War, conductor Leopold Stokowski arrives in Brazil aboard of ship Uruguay, accompanied by the musicians of the All American Youth Orchestra, organized by him. Together came a group of sound and recording engineers of Columbia Records. The mission was double: to spread the culture of all Americas through orchestra concerts, and to compile and record the musical production of each visited country for posterior propagation through records. Stokowski looks in Brazil for the one who he knew as Brazils biggest erudite composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and asks him for indications of the best carioca music. Villa-Lobos gathers the towns best composers and interpreters: Pixinguinha, Luís Americano, Jararaca, Ratinho, Donga, Zé com Fome, Zé Espinguela, Mauro César and the young soloist Janir Martins, completed with the gang of Mangueira, under command of Cartola. Villa-Lobos was an admirer of Cartolas music, and became a frequenter of his hut at the hill. Turned in a kind of Cartolas godfather, introduced him to several opportunities, such as the movie Descobrimento do Brasil (1938). In the first time that Villa climbed the Mangueira hill, Cartola prepared for him a reception with grandeur. Rehearsed two original Sambas for the occasion, and while the Ala (one of the sections of the Samba school) dos Periquitos climbed the hill together with the Maestro, singing in two parts the Samba Ao Amanhecer, the Ala das Cozinheirasgot down. From the 40 songs recorded by Stokowski, Columbia published only 16 in two albums of four 78 rpm records, under the title Columbia presents - native Brazilian music - Leopold Stokowski. Cartola was represented by four recorded compositions: Meu Amor and Primeiro Amor, with Aluísio Dias; Tristeza, with Orlando Batista; and Quem me vê Sorrir, with Carlos Moreira de Castro, the Carlos Cachaça. Only this last one was included in the records. In 1941, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946 e 1947, Mangueira was vice-champion, always with Cartola as master of harmony and official composer. But election of Hermes Rodriguesfor the presidency of the school marks the beginning of a long ostracism for Cartola. Rodrigues, interested in the commercial aspect of Carnival, hires a professor to judge the Sambas in the schools internal contest. The professor would privilege easily assimilated melodies, disposing the inventive and unusual melodies by Cartola. With popular acceptance of his Samba style in declination, Cartola drowns himself in alcohol, disappears from the artistic environment, survives to a meningitis and gets even poorer and miserable. His third wife (very little is known about the second one, who hurt him so much) Zica (Euzébia Silva do Nascimento), a pastora which had been under his command at Mangueira, strives to make him to return to artistic life, looking for several artists and composers (Lan, Ari Barroso, Braguinha), who try to help, but end giving up due to the lack of interest of the old master. Washing cars in the humid dawn of Copacabana was surviving Cartola, when was encountered by journalist Sérgio Porto. With great effort and caring, Porto brings Cartola to the Rádio Mayrink Veiga, for a short period; takes him to other radio stations, makes reporters and interviews on him; in short, fights for his resurrection. At the end of the 50s Cartola works for the second time in a movie, the famous Orfeu de Carnaval (Black Orpheus). Soon after, receives permission for occupying for free a large house, property of the city, where is born the idea of the restaurant and showroom ZiCartola, later established at the Rua da Carioca, 53. The ZiCartola was an enormous success, from the start. Promoted cultural enthusiasm around Samba and was an epochal event regarding the spreading of the hills music among the carioca middle-class. But Cartola and Zicas administrative amateurism conduces the enterprise to a commercial failure, and the ZiCartola is sold to Jackson do Pandeiro in 1965. In September 26th, 1968, enjoying a more stable economic situation, as a humble bureaucrat, Cartola receives the donation of his lot, at rua Visconde de Niterói, 896, in Mangueira. With his own hands and the old knowledge of masonry, builds his house with no help. Between 1929 and 1952 13 songs by Cartola were issued, in 78 rpm records. From 1957 to 1974, 30, besides other special appearances as interpreter. But only in 1974, at 65 y.o., Angenor de Oliveira records his first Lp, Cartola (Discos Marcos Pereira, 403.5007). Unanimously acclaimed by the critics, with excellent popular acceptation, this opening record however doesnt represent commercial success, as the record company, specialized in historic documentation, didnt have a competitive scheme of distribution. In April, 1976, the second Lp, Cartola(Discos Marcos Pereira - MPL 9.325), arouses even bigger enthusiasm in the press, and presents the most successful of the Cartolas compositions: As rosas não Falam. This record received the Golfinho de Ouro award by the Image and Sound Museums Council of Popular Music. Cartola, whose self-imposed abstinence of participating in the Mangueira contests draw back to 1949, decides to return in 1977. Receives countless invitations for shows and presentations, his music is included in broadly popular soap-operas, his figure is portrayed in high-impact TV documentaries. At last, the old Cartola begins to receive a little of the great deal he deserves. The fourth Lp, Cartola 70 anos(RCA 103.0278), issued in March, 1979, enjoyed the usual flooding of laudatory critics. As it was the first to be distributed by a commercial recording company, was the first which really paid off in terms of popular success. With around 600 composed songs, and the tardy acknowledgment of his genius, Angenor de Oliveira, the Cartola, dies of cancer in the Sunday, November 30th, 1980, at 10:45 p.m. His simple, authentic and unpretentious way of being and writing can be admired in his testimony to the Movimento newspaper (Rio de Janeiro, 11/16/1978) I have a profound love for the flowers and for the women who had pretended me. One doesnt hit a woman even with a flower, and the flowers, one doesnt give them to any woman at all.