INEZITA BARROSO

A Moça E A Banda (1963)

Inezita Barroso (Inez Madalena Aranha de Lima, born in São Paulo, SP, on March, 04th, 1925) started her career during the 1940’s singing folk songs collected by Mário de Andrade, at the Rádio Clube do Recife. In 1950 she started as an actress on the film "Ângela" directed and produced by Tom Payne and Abílio Pereira de Almeida at the Companhia Vera Cruz. In the same year she started at Rádio Bandeirantes. In 1951 she recorded her first 78 r.p.m. with the songs "Funeral De Um Rei Nagô" by Hekel Tavares and Murilo Araújo and "Currupira" by Waldemar Enrique. In 1953, after releasing a few records, she registered two of her greatest hits: "Marvada Pinga", by Cunha Júnior and "Ronda", by Paulo Vanzolini. Still in 1953 she was casted on two other films: "Destino Em Apuros", by Ernesto Remani and "Mulher De Verdade", by Alberto Cavalcanti, which gave her the Saci Award as the best actress. By 1954 she had her own weekly program specialized on folklore at TV Record. She was awarded the Roquete Pinto as the best radio singer and the Guarani as the best record, that year. By the end of the 1950’s she had released many records and received a few more awards and her work became known by Jean Louis Barrault, Marian Anderson, Vittorio Gasmann and Roberto Ingles, when they came to Brazil and took her records to Europe.

In 1962 she left TV Record and started having a few problems to record new albums due to the stubbornly maintenance of a working rhythm she wouldn’t let go. In 1969 she won the 1st South-American Folklore Festival, in Salinas, Uruguay. During the 1970’s she travelled doing music researches and recording special programs for several countries such as U. S. S. R., Israel and the United States. In 1970 she did a documentary that represented Brazil in the Exposição 70, in Japan. The 1970’s were a busy decade for her between programs, shows, researches and recordings.

From 1980 on, she started hosting the program "Viola Minha Viola", on Sundays, on TV Record, São Paulo. In 1992 she performed at the SESC Theatre with the acoustic guitar player Helena Meirelles and the duo Pena Branca e Xavantinho. She recorded more than 60 albums.

In 2010, with an artistic life older than 50 years, the singer, actress and folklore teacher, dearly known by the folk and country artists as "Grandmother", Inezita Barroso completed 30 years with the program "Viola Minha Viola", with a special edition when she opened it performing "Cabocla Teresa", by Raul Torres and João Pacífico, with her potent voice. The choice of this song is because that was the first song sang on the very first edition of the program 30 years back.

A Moça E A Banda

I was a little bit reluctant in posting this album, for though it's quite rare, the songs won't mean much if you're not Brazilian and weren't born between the decades of 1950's and 1970's.  It might be a collector's piece though.  But then, I read something written by Simon Boutman on his blog Unbreakable Microgrooves that changed my mind, and I quote it here: "Inezita Barroso is one of those singers from whom you can only expect good albums, and it doesn't matter what she decides to record".

So, if you're a dedicated collector, I hope you'll enjoy this post, but if you're a Brazilian born about half a century ago, you surely will be thrown back to school time when we had to sing most of these songs before the classes began.

01. Cisne Branco (Canção do Marinheiro) (Antonio Manoel do Espírito Santo/Benedito Xavier de Macedo) • 3:01

02. Hino À Bandeira Nacional (Francisco Braga/Olavo Bilac) • 4:49

03. Canção Do Expedicionário (Spartaco Rossi/Guilerme de Almeida) • 5:11

04. Hino Do Estudante Brasileiro (Raul Roulein/P. Barbosa/Aldo Taranto) • 1:49

05. Hino Do C. F. A. (Alcides J. Degobbi/Edgar Pimentel Rezende) • 2:13

06. Canção Do Soldado (Unknown) • 3:14

07. Hino Da Independência (Dom Pedro I/Evaristo Ferreira da Veiga) • 4:08

08. Avante Camaradas (Antonio Manoel do Espírito Santo/Lira Tavares) • 2:54

09. Hino À Mocidade Acadêmica (Carlos Gomes/Bittencourt Sampaio) • 3:50

10. Hino Da Proclamação Da República (Leopoldo Miguez/Medeiros e Albuquerque) • 5:22