Magnificent Music from the Man from Mango Hill
The man and
his colors...
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Cartola was a founder of the Mangueira Samba School (Mangueira is a favela in Rio; its samba school one of Rio's most storied). It was he who chose Mangueira's mythic colors -- green and pink -- the colors of the mangas rosas (pink mangoes) hanging amidst the green leaves of the mango trees which gave the neighborhood (albeit indirectly) its name. When the colors were criticised as an inelegant combination, rather than point out the obvious, he said that pink was for love and green was for hope, and how could love and hope not go together well?
As a boy Angenor de Oliveira worked construction, wearing a bowler derby -- a cartola -- to keep his hair from getting dirty. He composed Mangueira's first samba enredo (marching samba), and he went on to write scores of most-highly-regarded songs (art songs, really), a number of which were recorded by Brazil's best-known recording artists of the time (including Carmen Miranda). He was also tapped by Villa-Lobos for a recording by Leopold Stokowski, Native Brazilian Music. The composer never made any money to speak of, and in the 1940's he dropped out of site, most people assuming he was dead.
Genius in search of Genius
 Sérgio Porto |
In 1956 journalist Sérgio Porto (he often published under the pseudonym "Stanislaw Ponte Preta") was having a cafezinho in a bar in Ipanema when a grizzled man with missing teeth walked up to the bar and ordered a cachaça. Sr. Preta gathered himself up and asked if by any chance he was standing face-to-face with the great composer Cartola -- and the reply was in the affirmative. Cartola had been washing cars nearby and taken a break for fortification.
 Cartola & Dona Zica |
Cartola's "rediscovery" led to another opening up of his compositions, and in addition to his own recordings of his work he has been recorded by Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Paulinho da Viola, Beth Carvalho, Clara Nunes, Clementina de Jesus, Elis Regina, Marisa Monte, and others. From 1963 to 1965 Cartola owned and operated a nightclub devoted to samba, Zicartola (the name combining his with that of his wife "Zica", who ran the kitchen). Forgotten sambistas were brought back to the public and new ones introduced (Paulinho da Viola first performed there...his first earnings were the bus fare he couldn't afford).
Cartola died in 1980. His music -- and so his spirit -- lives on.
...and as
a boy in black & white.