I Finally met mestre Wilson Moreira! As you can probably tell by now, my dear readers, I am quite fond of the man also known as Alicate ("pliers"). I learned how he got that nickname as soon as he shook my hand! You can see a video of Mestre Wilson in performance in a previous post here. You can also see him doing some fine miudinho dance steps in the classic Leon Hirszman film Partido Alto from 1978 here.
Mestre Wilson was one of the heavy cats on one of my favorite samba albums Partido em 5, which I have talked about extensively in this blog. In case you arrived late, that album from 1975 is a revolutionary recording featuring luminaries such as Candeia, Casquinha and Doutor in a live studio setting. I have already featured a track from this album elsewhere, but would like to feature one of Mestre Wilson's songs. Songwriting credits are also given to Doutor (they wrote "Doutô" on the album) for this track, though Moreira is the actual composer. As is often the case in many sambas, giving credit in a parceria, or partnership, was often more a symbol of mutual respect between sambistas than an actual co-authorship.
"Roda de partideiro" (Wilson Moreira / Doutô)
from the album Partido em 5 (1975)
I would also like to feature a song from his 1986 album Peso na Balança. This album, fortunately, was only recently released on CD by a Japanese label (Tanaka is the producer, according to Seu Wilson) who is a huge fan of traditional samba and has done more to recover old recordings than any Brazilian label ever has...
"Luanda Luandê" (Wilson Moreira)
from the album Peso na Balança (1986)
I was really thrilled to be able to ask Seu Wilson directly about not only that great album recording, but also the percussionist Doutor, that I have been trying to dig up information about. Unfortunately, Seu Wilson was not able to tell me that much, except that Doutor was discovered tapping on a bucket as he stood in line waiting for water in the community. He eventually transfered what he did on the bucket to a surdo de repique. For those of you into Brazilian percussion, the tenor drum repinique is part of the surdo family, just a smaller and much higher pitched version. So Doutor would tap on the shell with rings while playing the heads with both hands. The sound was so grooving and contagious that Doutor ended up recording on almost every samba album produced in the 1970s until he died. It's funny to imagine that such an instrument, that became such a standard in those recordings, was a relatively new invention.
Abraço Mestre Wilson!
from the album Partido em 5 (1975)
I would also like to feature a song from his 1986 album Peso na Balança. This album, fortunately, was only recently released on CD by a Japanese label (Tanaka is the producer, according to Seu Wilson) who is a huge fan of traditional samba and has done more to recover old recordings than any Brazilian label ever has...
"Luanda Luandê" (Wilson Moreira)
from the album Peso na Balança (1986)
I was really thrilled to be able to ask Seu Wilson directly about not only that great album recording, but also the percussionist Doutor, that I have been trying to dig up information about. Unfortunately, Seu Wilson was not able to tell me that much, except that Doutor was discovered tapping on a bucket as he stood in line waiting for water in the community. He eventually transfered what he did on the bucket to a surdo de repique. For those of you into Brazilian percussion, the tenor drum repinique is part of the surdo family, just a smaller and much higher pitched version. So Doutor would tap on the shell with rings while playing the heads with both hands. The sound was so grooving and contagious that Doutor ended up recording on almost every samba album produced in the 1970s until he died. It's funny to imagine that such an instrument, that became such a standard in those recordings, was a relatively new invention.
Abraço Mestre Wilson!
1 comments:
Lindo lindo LINDO! I first found out about Wilson Moreira from a song on the 'Brasil: A Century Of Song - Folk & TraditionalBrasilian' music collection, called "Okolofe." Beautiful song. And of course later I found Partido em Cinco from my great friend Beto. Axe'
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