A Waltz About Rio and a Quick Process of Discovery
It was beautiful and very simple—and I knew right away that I’d heard it before. Let's learn about it.
I thought this afternoon about “Valsa de uma cidade”—a beautiful Brazilian waltz about Rio from 1954 that sounds like it could be a midcentury entry in the Great American Songbook.
Actually, no. It happened slightly differently.
I was listening to Caetano Veloso’s 1987 album Caetano in the car on the way home from the gym. Amid a bunch of interesting and half-dated 1980s tracks with synths, fake drums, and fretless bass guitars aping Jaco Pastorious, there was this acoustic gem that seemed out of place. Sounds like a harp there, too. Really gorgeous.
It was beautiful and very simple—and I knew right away that I’d heard it before. After a quick search, I realized I’ve listened to this song many, many times on records in my collection.
Because I’m totally ignorant of Portuguese, this is pretty much the method I’ve been using to learn about Brazilian music for the last two decades now. I’ve gotten quite good at recognizing a pretty huge number of songs in a language I can’t understand, and it’s actually a rewarding process. Let’s go.
Valsa De Uma Cidade (Waltz of a City)
The music was written by Ismael Netto, the songwriter for the wonderful vocal group, Os Cariocas. He collaborated on the song with Antônio Maria, a well known journalist. Like his friend and fellow writer Vinicius de Moraes, Maria’s life was fascinating. From Wiki:
Antônio Maria wrote daily features for more than 15 years - a daily account of what was going on in Rio de Janeiro. Up until 1955, his by-line appeared on "A Noite É Grande" (“Long is The Night”) and "Romance Policial de Copacabana" (“Copacabana Cop's Story”). In his Cop's Story column, Antônio Maria would frequently interview the protagonists of the moment, right in the police stations and on the streets of Copacabana or in the middle of the night. Author of advertising jingles, he ended up writing pop music lyrics. In 1952, two of his works: "Menino Grande" and "Ninguém Me Ama", were Top Ten hits on the Brazilian radio. In 1959, in partnership with Luiz Bonfá, he composed the incomparable hits: "Manhã de Carnaval" and "Samba do Orfeu."
So he was responsible for the lyrics of two most famous compositions of the bossa nova era. Wild. As befitting a song that contains only a single A section and a B section, Maria’s lyric is evocative and lovely, yet simple:
Sea wind and my face in the sun to glow, glow
Promenade full of people going past and seeing me pass
Rio de janeiro, I like you
Likes who appreciates it
This sky, this sea, this happy people
Well I wanted to write a love poem
And love was all that I saw
In everything I loved
And in the poem that I wrote
There was someone happier than I was
O my love
That did not want me.
I wanted to go through a few of the versions I like and share them. I’m sure there are dozens of others, but let’s listen to a few.
The first recording was by Lúcio Alves, and became a standard.
Almost immediately, it was given a very early 50s vocal group reading—no surprise, since the composer was responsible for much of Os Cariocas’ material. They were an amazing vocal group—like the Four Freshmen of Brazil. This tune appeared in 1958, from their LP dedicated to tunes by the by-then-deceased Ismael Netto. The kinds of harmonies you might hear at an ice skating rink.
By 1957, samba had become popular again, so it was creeping into everything. Instantly, the song is transformed. There should be more records like this—cocktail piano trio with a samba rhythm section.
I’m really not big on the medley thing, but I’m big on the Clara Nunes thing. In the years before she became an avatar of roots samba, she made some weird studio/live records. It’s like a radio or TV variety show broadcast, only on vinyl, with all the chatter. Here’s a whole LP side from one of those records recorded in the late 60s with Brazilian actor Paulo Gracindo. If you want to cue it up, the song begins at 3:43. (Also here is Tom Jobim’s amazing “Estrada do Sol” (that starts at 7:00).
In the modern era, the song was recorded by the peerless Joyce Moreno—a singer-songwriter, jazz singer, something. Whatever she is, she is beyond category. I should post more of her music.
The most straight-ahead Brazilian jazz ballad take is from Miúcha—frequent collaborator of Tom Jobim, sister of Chico Buarque, wife of João Gilberto, and mother of Bebel Gilberto. Busy lady.