NRR Project: “Native Brazilian Music”
Various artists
Recorded 1940; released 1942
Approx. 40 min.
Conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) was a fan of Brazilian music. In 1940, he went on a tour of South America with his All-American Youth Orchestra. With the help of fellow composer Hector Villa-Lobos, he gathered together many of Brazil’s greatest musical talents for a special project. On the S.S. Uruguay, he and some Columbia Records engineers sat down to record dozens of native tunes which had never been put to lacquer before.
The musicians in the sessions included Pixinguinha, Donga, Joao de Bahiana, Ze Espinguela, Cartola, Ze da Zilda, Luiz Americano, and Jararaca and Ratinho. Altogether, 40 songs were recorded. From this, a selection of 17 were made into a 78 r.p.m. album and released in 1942.
There are sambas, batucadas, macumba, and emboladas. The album can be accessed via the Internet Archive here. It’s a remarkable recording – here is music of the people, not made for commercial reasons but rising out of the cultures of the South American continent.
The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: White Christmas.
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