Noel Rosa, 90 years-old
The works of Noel Rosa are still hyped, with new releases, reviews, movies, web sites and tributes throughout Brazil
Nana Vaz de Castro
11/12/2000
Hadn't he died prematurely at age 26, Noel Rosa would be turning 90 today. It's not easy to speculate where his music would be now. Researcher Omar Jubran alone gathered 229 compositions that were produced along 8 years (starting in 1929) in 14 CDs. Noel's music fructified, generating its own offspring, and keeps influencing new artists. Proofs of his legacy are invading the market, such as the album Chico e Noel em Revista, released by vocal group Garganta Profunda and Noel por Ione, by Bahia-native singer Ione Papas. In 2001, the album Sem Tostão 2... A Crise Continua comes out as a follow up to Tostão... A Crise Não É Boato, both fully dedicated to Noel's sambas, as reviewed by Christina Buarque and Henrique Cazes.
Also underway is a film about Noel's life, named Poeta da Vila (The Vila Poet, as he was dubbed while alive. Vila is short for Vila Isabel, the north side borough where he lived), written and directed by Ricardo Van Steen.
Urban Samba
The maintenance of the character and works of Noel have different reasons. One is his biography, which, in fact, would make a good movie (three short films have been produced, so far: Cordiais Saudações, from 1968, by Gilberto Santeiro; Noel por Noel, 1981, by Rogério Sganzerla; and Com Que Roupa?, 1996, by Ricardo Van Steen). The great grandfather, the grandfather and the father committed suicide. His birth was complicated, he had to be pulled by forceps, and his chin was forever sunk, much for the caricaturists' joy. Short, skinny, weak, nasty, womanizer, bohemian, heavy drinker and smoker, Noel enjoyed his moment of fame and glory and died with tuberculosis, poor, and married to a woman whom he did not chose for his wife.
In spite of being ugly, he was a lady-killer and had plenty of girlfriends - some of them at the same time. Clara, Fina, Lindaura, Ceci, Julinha and others that he met in the towns that he visited. He married Lindaura because of a few adventures, totally against his will, forced by her mother and the police, since she was only 17 years-old.
Noel emerged as a successful composer in the carnival of 1931, with the samba Com que Roupa? (With what Clothes? written in 1929), which was a satire to the economic crisis that hovered round Brazil at the time, as well as a domestic complaint against his mother, who locked her son's wardrobe as an attempt to prevent him from going out at night. Prior to that, Noel had recorded with the group Bando dos Tangarás, and was always present at the musical meetings in Vila Isabel, where he already had a name as a guitarist since age 18.
The set was good for newcomers. Radio was becoming a great communication vehicle and the record industry was being organized, especially after 1927, when the electrical recording system was introduced in Brazil. With the implementation of the Estado Novo (the New State devised by president Getúlio Vargas) in 1930, a wave of urbanization swept Rio de Janeiro. The life of factory workers, coffee, streetcars, would all be turned into raw material for Noel Rosa's samba songs.
Also underway is a film about Noel's life, named Poeta da Vila (The Vila Poet, as he was dubbed while alive. Vila is short for Vila Isabel, the north side borough where he lived), written and directed by Ricardo Van Steen.
Urban Samba
The maintenance of the character and works of Noel have different reasons. One is his biography, which, in fact, would make a good movie (three short films have been produced, so far: Cordiais Saudações, from 1968, by Gilberto Santeiro; Noel por Noel, 1981, by Rogério Sganzerla; and Com Que Roupa?, 1996, by Ricardo Van Steen). The great grandfather, the grandfather and the father committed suicide. His birth was complicated, he had to be pulled by forceps, and his chin was forever sunk, much for the caricaturists' joy. Short, skinny, weak, nasty, womanizer, bohemian, heavy drinker and smoker, Noel enjoyed his moment of fame and glory and died with tuberculosis, poor, and married to a woman whom he did not chose for his wife.
In spite of being ugly, he was a lady-killer and had plenty of girlfriends - some of them at the same time. Clara, Fina, Lindaura, Ceci, Julinha and others that he met in the towns that he visited. He married Lindaura because of a few adventures, totally against his will, forced by her mother and the police, since she was only 17 years-old.
Noel emerged as a successful composer in the carnival of 1931, with the samba Com que Roupa? (With what Clothes? written in 1929), which was a satire to the economic crisis that hovered round Brazil at the time, as well as a domestic complaint against his mother, who locked her son's wardrobe as an attempt to prevent him from going out at night. Prior to that, Noel had recorded with the group Bando dos Tangarás, and was always present at the musical meetings in Vila Isabel, where he already had a name as a guitarist since age 18.
The set was good for newcomers. Radio was becoming a great communication vehicle and the record industry was being organized, especially after 1927, when the electrical recording system was introduced in Brazil. With the implementation of the Estado Novo (the New State devised by president Getúlio Vargas) in 1930, a wave of urbanization swept Rio de Janeiro. The life of factory workers, coffee, streetcars, would all be turned into raw material for Noel Rosa's samba songs.