Vinyl of the Week Vol.31

Ara ra ro ro Tropicalistas and Diaspora friends everywhere, inspired by the portal Moozyca already introduced last week, where a little article about the origin of the tropical diaspora was published, i decide to connect two things in this edition our lovely section vinyl of the week, first of all to introduce you a record that is with me since the first time i play music in a Dance Floor (as CD) and the history behind of the nick name “Dj GArRinchA”, anyway both themes are one and the same thing or i could say without this record and my passion for the music inside, the tropical diaspora would´t exists.

This important record, not only for me but for the MBP (Musica Popular Brasileira) is the Elza Soares – Elza Pede Passagem fom 1972, i just came to the world in that year and today this record has lost none of its radiance as a great peace of classic samba-soul music. Behind Elza a big orchestra with arrangements by the master Dom Salvador doing the arrangements in all tracks, unfortunately the Personnel is not listed in the cover.

Excerpt from the “Origin of the Tropical Diaspora”…

…In this spirit a new movement was born, which I call the “Latin American Way” of the Berlin subculture. Among the first places where this yet-to-be-born scene gathered was the Freitags Bar (German for Friday’s Bar), one of the various unlicensed bars at the center of the former Eastern part of the city. To me, this place embodied perfectly the spirit of that time. Only people who knew about it would come to this gloomy cavernous place in the basement of a pre-WWII building. Each time there was the risk that the party would be called off by the police which made every single event not only slightly adventurous but all the more precious. Thanks to the Latin American affection of the host, music and drinks from South America set the tone. The DJs staging there had no names yet and put music on that nobody knew, the Brazilian cocktail Caipirinha still had the charm of novelty, its rum base Cachaça was a rarity and quite pricey.

Exactly under this spirit in the Berlin of the 90ies i began to realize that everybody drunk caipirinha but the sound track played by the “Djs” was completely Ibero-latin-american, it did not take long and i began to provide cd´s compilations with Brazilian music for that people. Result was that after i delivery many of this compilations,  Brazilian music was part of the set of many of the colleagues were playing music in the bar. The logic consequence was to play my compilations by my self, also this was the begin. After a while i was a resident and began to mix Brazilian music, first of all with the all known Spanish Latin-American songs and later with Balkan music, a style that came in the taste of the people in the early 90ies. Just like that we promote almost every week the party in the Freitag´s Bar and one day a friend of my came to me and ask “…who is this singer you play every week in your set…? with this amazing voice! ” my answer was who-else if not Elza Soares!

Another Friday in the bar and this friend came again to me to say that he knows who this singer is, she was Garrincha´s wife! After that he sad… ”you are the Dj Garrincha” and because was no night where I’ve played Elza Soares i accept that suggestion. So that night in that basement  was the birth of Dj Garrincha.  Not only i got a dj name, after my “baptism” everybody began to have dj names in the bar and some of them are active day now in Berlin like Dr.Sócrates and Andy Loop in Barcelona (by the way the asking guy in history above).

The only one constant in all this years together with my Dj name are special Records i had fist in self burned cds, then in the original cd and finally again in vinyl! My copy i could by in Italy the country where Elza and Garrincha live for a while as they must leave Brazil because of the society pressure against their love story. Not only this record i got there, i have another one i 7″ inch where Elza sing in Italian and would be the next candidate for the Vinyl of the Week.

As in the past today Elza belong to my dj repertoire and doesn’t matter where i play the audience will always hear some song by the Bossa Negra! Anyway she was already many times in Berlin where i could make some pictures like here or create a Poster for the concert as Elza was in Berlin 2011, i couldn’t´t be in Berlin in that time but they organized Elza´s signature in one of my posters!

The wikipedia about this record…

A number of Soares’s albums have also been re-released on CD in remastered editions: 1961’s A Bossa Negra (containing her major hit of that year, “Boato”) and 1972’s big band backed Elza Pede Passagem (produced by Dom Salvador) being two of her most acclaimed releases. Elza Pede Passagem produced no major hit singles of the size of previous releases when originally released in Brazil; nevertheless, it is now considered a classic and representative of the “samba-soul” sound of the early 70s.

When entered the studio to launch Elza Pede Passagem by Odeon, under the musical direction of conductor Lindolfo Gaya, Elza was 41 years old and an impressive luggage – much of life as artistic production. In just over ten years of phonographic records, he had launched a multitude of compact and more than two dozen LPs. They all loaded with impressive record of hoarse voice and singular voice that earned her in 2000, the title of “Greatest Singer of the Universe“, prize BBC Radio London.

Here the song i use to play and the one responsible for the questions in the audience …”who is this woman ?..”  when i play it.

Elza Soares sing “Saltei De Banda” here in a1973 interpretation.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LktbT06xgWk

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Also what the Bossa Negra is doing now? this is easy to answer Elza don´t stop and is always in movement, even when after an operation she can´t walk, a new Movie for example…

“The Movie “My Name is Now, Elza Soares” Another film about her? No. “My Name is Now, Elza Soares” puts literally the diva in the mirror, to reflect in fragments about his life. By its contradictions, by the rich and torn life, suffering and the search for serenity, perhaps never found. Controversial, outspoken, with way of those who have nothing to lose, Elza Soares sees the mirror with the haughtiness of those who carried  water on the head, became a formidable artist and do not forget the harshness that was this route. Sees the passage of years in the face modified by multiple interventions. And you can say, without shame, that their time is now, as suggested by the title of the film and as they say in Paulinho da Viola samba  (“Meu mundo é hoje/não existe amanhã pra mim”).” Source:portal.tododia.uol.com.br

Teaser of “My Name is now, Elza Soares”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrRMX7VFbhY

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 …or interviews in the Rollingstone Magazin about her new concert…

http://rollingstone.uol.com.br/noticia/elza-soares-fala-sobre-feminismo-mane-garrincha-e-lupicinio-rodrigues/

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More information about this album in Portuguese here: http://brasileiros.com.br/2014/03/o-samba-soul-irresistivel-de-elza-e-dom-salvador/

Thank You

Garra