Adoniran Barbosa in the cover of a record of the "Raizes do Samba" collection
Adoniran Barbosa, artistic name of João Rubinato (6
July, 1912, Valinhos - 23
November, 1982, São Paulo), was a famous Brazilian traditional samba singer and
composer.
Biography
Early years
João Rubinato was the seventh child of Emma and Ferdinando Rubinato, Italian immigrants from
Cavarzere (province of Venice). His parents had
settled in Valinhos, a rural town in the state of São Paulo, about 100
km from the city of São Paulo.
He is said to have been a rather reluctant student, and started working at an early age (which required falsifying his birth
date). His first job was a sweeper boy and general helper at a railway company in the nearby town of Jundiaí. In 1924 he moved to Santo
André, a town in the Greater São Paulo area, where he went through many jobs —
loom operator, painter, plumber,
iron worker, peddler and waiter. At a local technical school (the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios) he
learned the office of mechanical assistant.
Debut as composer and singer
In 1933 João Rubinato moved to the city of São Paulo, where he started composing songs and tried
his luck as a singer in Cruzeiro do Sul radio station, in a talent-scouting show directed by Jorge Amaral. After many failures, he
finally succeeded with the Noel Rosa's samba Filosofia,
and got a contract for a weekly 15 minute show.
Fearful that a samba artist with an Italian surname would not be taken seriously by the public, João Rubinato then decided to
adopt a more Brazilian-sounding name. So he borrowed the unusual "Adoniran" from one of his friends, and "Barbosa" from samba
composer Luiz Barbosa, his idol.
In 1935 he won a Carnaval song contest sponsored by the city of
São Paulo, with the samba Dona Boa, composed together with J.
Aimberê. Spirited by that success, he married his longtime girlfriend Olga. The couple has
a daughter, Maria Helena, but the marriage breaks up in less than one year.
At the Rádio Record
In 1941 he starts performing in humour and radio theater
programs at the Rádio Record — which would later become one of the top radio and TV station of
Brazil. He remained with Record until his retirement in 1972, giving his voice to various popular
characters created together with writer Osvaldo Moles, like Pernafina, Zé Cunversa, and Jean
Rubinet (a French movie star). He also played parts in the movies Pif-Paf (1945) and Caídos do Céu
("Fallen from Heaven") (1946), both directed by Ademar Gonzaga. In
1949 he marries Matilde de Lutiis, who will be his companion and
co-author for the next 30 years.
In 1953 he makes a fine performance in the movie O
Cangaceiro, by director Lima Barreto. In the early 1950s he writes many songs on
typical São Paulo themes, most of them recorded by the band Demônios da Garoa, and wins two other
São Paulo Carnaval contests. In 1955 he introduced the enormously popular character Charutinho ("Short Cigar") in the radio humor show Histórias das Malocas
("Shantytown Stories").
Adoniran also acted in some of the earliest Brazilian soap operas (telenovelas), such as
A Pensão de D. Isaura ("Ms. Isaura's Boarding Home"), and comic programs like Ceará contra
007 ("Ceará against 007") and Papai Sabe Nada ("Daddy Knows Nothing").
Later years
In spite of the success of his songs and radio characters, Adoniran only became a star of sorts after 1973 when he recorded his first own album. That made him respected as a major composer, and gave him some media
exposure. Nevertheless, through his career he continued living a simple and happy life. He had earned the right to a privative
table at the Bar Brahma, one of the city's most traditional bars.
While he never lost his love of São Paulo, towards the end of his life he became increasinly sad about the disappearance of
its traditional character. "Until the 1960s," he once said, "São Paulo still existed, but since then I have been looking for it,
and could not find it. Brás, where is Brás now? And Bexiga, where is it? I was told to look for the Sé. Could not find it. all I see is cars and concrete."
While his music continued to be played, Adoniran himself was gradually forgotten by the public; so that when he died in 1982,
in relative poverty, he had at his side only his wife and a brother in law.
Hommages
Besides the Museu Adoniran Barbosa (at Rua XV de
Novembro, 347), there are many mementos of the composer scattered through São Paulo. He gave his name to a school in Itaquera, to a street in the
borough of Bexiga, to a Bar Adoniran Barbosa, and to a square. In
the Don Orione Square there is a bust of the artist,
and in Jaçanã there is a street called "Rua Trem das Onze (11 PM Train Street)".
Musical production
Themes
Adoniran Barbosa made good on the hardships of his youth by becoming the composer of the lower classes of São Paulo,
particularly the poor Italian immigrants living in the quarters of Bexiga(Bela Vista) and Brás, and the poor who lived in the city's many
malocas (the shanties of favelas) and cortiços (degraded multifamily row houses).
The themes of his songs are drawn from the life of low-wage urban workers, the unemployed and the vagabonds. His first big hit was Saudosa
Maloca ("Shanty of Fond Memories", 1951), where three homeless friends recall with nostalgia their improvised shanty, which
was torn down by the landowner to make room for a building. His next success Joga a Chave ("Throw me the Doorkey", 1952)
was inspired on his own frequent experiences of arriving late at home and finding the door locked by his wife, Matilde. In his
Trem das Onze ("The 11 PM Train", 1964), which has been ranked one of the five best
samba songs ever, the protagonist explains to his lover that he cannot stay any longer because he has to catch the last train to
the Jaçanã suburb, and besides his mother will not sleep before he arrives.
Adoniran's language
Unlike the samba songs of the previous decades, which generally used the formal Portuguese of the educated class, Adoniran's lyrics are a realistic
record of the informal speech of São Paulo's lower classes. He once said "I only write samba for the common people. That is why I
write lyrics in 'wrong' Portuguese, because that is how the common people speak. Besides, I feel that samba is more beautiful
when sung that way". The homeless narrator of his Saudosa Maloca, for example, tells of
the day when his shanty was torn down by the landowner:
| |
Peguemo tod'as nossas coisa, |
|
"We picked up all our belongings |
| |
E fumo pro meio da rua |
|
And we went out on the street |
| |
Apreciá a demolição. |
|
To watch the demolition. |
| |
Ai, que tristeza que nós sentia, |
|
Ah, what a sorrow we felt, |
| |
Cada tauba que caía |
|
Each plank as it fell |
| |
Duía no coração... |
|
Hurt us in the heart..." |
The peguemo instead of pegamos, fumo instead of fomos, nós sentia instead of nós
sentíamos, and tauba instead of tábua were all standard features of the speech of many paulistas. Yet,
because of the strong social prejudice attached to such "bad" Portuguese, few if any authors before Adoniran had dared to put
those "errors" in writing. Even lyrics ostensibly sung by poor favela dwellers, such as the classic samba Chão de Estrelas ("Starry Floor"), were paragons of correct grammar and pronunciation.
Thus Adoniran's use of "real" Brazilian Portuguese was a revolution that may be
comparable to Gershwin's use of Gullah in
Porgy and Bess. Indeed, he was often strongly criticized for it, even by poet and
composer Vinícius de Moraes (of The Girl
from Ipanema fame). But Adoniran did not mind his critics, and his mastery allowed him to break impunely with
convention: as he used to say, art was required to sing in "wrong" language. And the success of his most popular songs, such as
Tiro ao Álvaro (1960), was undoubtedly due in good part to the warmth and
naturalness of its language.
Adoniran also recorded, in particular, the broken Portuguese-Italian pidgin spoken
by the Italian immigrants. In Samba Italiano (1965)
he even dared to write a humorous samba song with Brazilian rhythm and theme, but (mostly) Italian lyrics.
Musical style
His favorite musical style is the samba paulista, the samba of São Paulo, generally
despised by the sambistas of Rio de Janeiro. A feature of this style is the
samba de breque ("brake samba"), where the music is suddenly interrupted to make space for
a few spoken words, or a sudden reversal in the melodic line. For example, one of his great successes, the Samba do Arnesto ("Arnest's Samba", 1953) begins:
- O Arnesto nus convidou prum samba, ele mora no Brás.
- "Arnest invited us for a samba, he lives in Brás."
The melodic line is suspended briefly for the phrase ele mora no Brás,
which marks it as a parenthetical remark — not only in the lyrics, but in the music as well.
Compositions
- Malvina, 1951
- Saudosa maloca, 1951
- Joga a chave, with Osvaldo Moles 1952
- Samba do Arnesto, 1953
- Pra que chorar, with Matilde de Lutiis
- A garoa vem descendo, with Matilde de Lutiis
- As mariposas, 1955
- Iracema, 1956
- Apaga o fogo Mané, 1956
- Bom-dia tristeza, 1958
- Abrigo de vagabundo, 1959
- No morro da Casa Verde, 1959
- Prova de carinho, 1960
- Tiro ao Álvaro, with Osvaldo Moles 1960
- Luz da light, 1964
- Trem das Onze, 1964
- Agüenta a mão, 1965
- Samba Italiano, 1965
- Tocar na banda, 1965
- Pafunça, with Osvaldo Moles 1965
- O casamento do Moacir, 1967
- Mulher, patrão e cachaça, 1968
- Vila Esperança, 1968
- Despejo na favela, 1969
- Fica mais um pouco, amor, 1975
- Acende o candieiro, 1972
- Uma Simples Margarida (Samba do Metrô)
- Já Fui uma Brasa
- Rua dos Gusmões
Adoniran also left some 90 unpublished lyrics, which are being posthumously set to music by various composers.
Quotes
- Deus dá o frio conforme o cubertô. ("God gives us the cold according to the blanket"). In: Saudosa Maloca
(1951)
- Mai daí, o homem reza todo dia uma oração. Se quiser tirá de mim arguma coisa de bão, que me tire o trabáio. a muié
não! ("Thence man prays every day so: if You wish to take something good away from me, please take away my job, not my
woman!"). In: Conselho de Mulher.
- Não seja bobo, não se escracha. Mulher, patrão e cachaça, em qualquer canto se acha. ("Don't be a fool, don't get too
upset. Woman, boss and brandy can be found on any corner"). In: Mulher, Patrão e Cachaça (1968).
- Nóis viemos aqui prá beber ou prá conversá? ("Did we come here to drink or to talk?"). In: Nóis Viemos Aqui Prá
Quê?
- Falar errado é uma arte, senão vira deboche. ("To speak wrongly is an art, otherwise it becomes scoffing")
See also
External links
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