:: The articles in this series were originally
The Boeuf chronicles, Pt. 27
Tupinambá’s curtain call.
9 November 2002
Marcelo TupinambáIn the course of this series, we visited Marcelo Tupinambá six times (not counting the introductory article), for each of the previous occurrences of a tune of his in Le Boeuf sur le Toit. On four of those occasions, we also had a fleeting encounter with the lyricist Arlindo Leal. As Tupinambá bows out with his seventh tune, we should devote a few words to Leal. After all, having co-authored five works that figure in Le Boeuf, he is second only to Tupinambá on the most-quoted list.
Arlindo Leal was born in São Paulo in 1871, and nobody seems to know when or where he died. In an appendix to the book Marcelo Tupinambá—Obra Musical de Fernando Lobo by Benedicto Pires de Almeida, Leal is described as one of the most active theatrical authors during the 1910s and ’20s, as well as being a journalist, poet, and contributor to regional literature. In 1903 he co-founded a newspaper called Vida Paulista, of which one copy of the first issue is preserved in the rare books section of the Mário de Andrade Library.
Leal’s theatrical output included comedies, operettas, revues, and burlesques. He was particularly interested in regionalism at a time when country life in the south was absorbing an influx of sertanejo customs and expressions imported from the north and northwest. His theatrical productions were equally successful in Rio de Janeiro as in São Paulo. In the early ’20s he co-authored several carnaval songs with the famous guitarist Américo Jacomino (Canhoto).
Songs by Marcelo Tupinambá & Arlindo Leal
01. Acugelê! Acubabá!* (tanguinho)
02. Ai... Ai... (tanguinho)
03. Ao Som da Viola (tango)
04. Baubuleta* (modinha)
05. Chão Parado (tango)
06. Chorão (tango)
07. Caboclo do Norte (tango)
08. Deixa Está (tanguinho)
09. Finório (tango-sertanejo)
10. Maricota, Sai da Chuva (tanguinho)
11. Meiga (valsa)
12. Por Ti (valsa)
13. Que Sodade (tanguinho [cena sertaneja])
14. Ruâna (sertaneja)
15. Sou Batuta* (tango)
16. Toada (tanguinho)
17. Tristeza de Caboclo (tanguinho [toada])
18. Trigueira (tanguinho)
19. Viola Cantadeira (tanguinho [canção sertaneja])* Leal signed these as José Eloy.
Advertising bill listing 15 Tupinambá compositions
(including “Sou Batuta”) performed by Os DanilosTune No. 27: “Sou Batuta” (1919)
The tanguinho “Sou Batuta” was published by Campassi & Camin’s CEMB (Casa Editora Musical Brasileira) in the same year as the monster hit “Tristeza de Caboclo.” The piano-score cover lists both tanguinhos among 25 tunes in the Repertorio Sertanejo dos Celebres Duettistas “Os Danilos” (many of the others were also composed by Tupinambá). On the same score cover, “Sou Batuta” is advertised as “Sucesso da Orchestra Andreozzi de Rio de Janeiro.”
The Funarte 78-rpm disc database at Fundação Joaquim Nabuco shows no recordings by Os Danilos and none of “Sou Batuta,” but it does list six Tupinambá tunes recorded by Orchestra Andreozzi: the tanguinhos “Tietê,” “A Vida É Essa,” “Sertanejinha,” and “Toada”; the waltz “Alma em Flor”; and the sertaneja “Ruana”—all on the Odeon label.
“Sou Batuta” begins at 14:49 min. into Louis de Froment’s recording of Le Boeuf sur le Toit.
The only known recording of the original tune was made by the Bloco Artístico band. Here is an excerpt, courtesy of Roberto de Azevedo.
It’s regrettable that no sung version exists, as the lyrics contain all the liveliness missing from Bloco Artístico’s plodding rendition. The singer brags of his prowess at dancing the maxixe.
Sou Batuta....
Tanguinho
Letra de José Eloy
Musica de Marcello TupynambáUm maxixe, bem dançado,
O prazer sabe excitar,
Quem o dança apaixonado
Fica logo palpitar...Maxixando bem a geito
Ou' uma dama appetitosa
Eu a junto contra o peito
E minh'alma inteira gosaSou batuta, sou batuta,
Sou batuta no dançar
Eu não sou nenhum recruta
Quando quero maxixar!Sou batuta, sou batuta,
Sou batuta no quebrar
Sem pretenho bôa conducta
Maxixando c'o meu parQuando eu ouço, entusiasmado,
Um maxixe alguem tocar,
Fico logo enfeitiçado
Com vontage de quebrar...E, quando eu entro na dança
Só se ouve, só se escuta;
“Quebra, requebra, não cança
Que tu és mesmo batuta!”Sou batuta, sou batuta,
Sou batuta no dançar etc.
= = =
The Bloco Artístico recording was furnished by Roberto de Azevedo.
Copyright © 2002–2010 Daniella Thompson. All rights reserved.
