Tribute to Luiz Gonzaga

Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing closes this weekend, and the second-to-last show featured a lineup of forró musicians.  Forró is both country music from Northeast Brazil, and the particular form of partner dance that goes along with it.  It's been popular in that part of the country, in one form or another, since the Portuguese settled there, but it remained relatively obscure outside the Northeast states until Luiz Gonzaga came along.  Gonzaga brought the music, first to Rio de Janeiro, and later the rest of the country via popular MPB artists who covered many of his tunes.  Last night was a tribute to this man and his music, at a time when forró is being spread in a much bigger way, throughout North America and the world.  Quarteto Olinda and Maciel Melo, Biliu de Campina, and Walmir Silva played four short sets and, if you didn't know what forró is by the start of the dance lesson, you definitely knew by the end of the night. 

Quarteto Olinda at Midsummer Night Swing

A popular story is that forró got its name from the English phrase "for all".  In the early part of the last century, when the British were building roads throughout Northeast Brazil, the workers held weekend parties to which people of all races and classes were invited.  This was considered highly unusual at the time, and the phrase "it's for all" got repeated by Africans, native people, and Portuguese speakers, until "for all" somehow became forró.  The story, whether it's true or not, shows the true democratic spirit of this dance, and last night was a perfect example.  It was old and young, single, married, Brazilian and American, black, white, Asian, short, tall, those who can dance and those (like me) who cannot.  Two bands played two sets each, and I must say that, even though this music never enthralled me the way other forms of Brazilian music have, it was beautiful to experience the musicians' dedication to this style, and to see so many New Yorkers get their first taste of Northeast Brazil.  I also saw a very cool sight, a scene which I'm told is becoming a bit more frequent at Midsummer Night Swing:  a woman in a wheelchair being twirled around by a young man.  I snapped a picture, but they were gone before I could ask for permission to publish it.

In addition to Quarteto Olinda, one member of last night's lineup about whom I'm very curious is Maciel Melo.  His website is in Portuguese and so it's going to take me awhile to absorb all the info, but he is another fabulous player from the Northeast who may be about to hit the international circuit in a big way.  One of his videos really pulls on my heartstrings and fires my imagination:

You'll be reading more in the near future about this music in general, and these musicians in particular, as well as Walmir Silva and Biliu de Campina.  Stay tuned.