Dona Edith do Prato passes at 94

I only heard today that Dona Edith (Edith Oliveira Nogueira) has also passed away this month. Dona Edith was from Santo Amaro, Bahia and she became very well-known for her playing of the prato e faca ("plate and knife") and her vast knowledge of traditional folkloric tunes. She sang samba de roda, a rural style of samba from the northeast that was brought to Rio (and other parts of Brazil) by migrants and contributed significantly to the urban samba that I speak so much of in this blog.

Santo Amaro is a colonial town that is also the hometown of Caetano Veloso, who produced her 2003 album. The video above show Dona Edith with the lovely Bahian singer Mariene de Castro. There's a rough start at first, almost as though Dona Edith was not too comfortable on stage. I would like to feature the recorded version of the song from her album. I would also like to feature another tune with the bloco afro Cortejo Afro from Salvador. It's almost a bit strange hearing the powerful sound of a bloco subdued in the recording behind Dona Edith's voice, but it's still a great song.


"Casa nova - Raiz" with Mariene de Castro
(traditional folkloric - public domain)


"Samba numerado" with Cortejo Afro
(traditional folkloric - public domain)
Both songs are from the album Vozes da Purificação 2003.

PRI's The World featured a nice piece by reporter Sylvia Maria Gross on January 15th.
Global Hit (4:00) | PRI's The World

Salve o samba da Bahia, salve a Dona Edith!