Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Nelson Ferraz - Lamento Negro (1956) Featuring Radames Gnattali

Hello, good evening! I've been a frequent parrot at Rio de Janeiro downtown area in the last two weeks or so. The place has several small used book shops that really worth checking. Today I decided to try a store, just because I was 5 minutes early to a meeting in the building next door. I had five minutes and no guarantees, I did not know if the store was working with LPs, for instance. Sometimes I'm lucky, the owner was starting the LP selling business, without the require knowledge for make correct prices. I could make two wonderful bids in 5 minutes, each one for only 2 reais. This is the first, and I'm pleased to make it here, this is a rather curious disc. Let's see.

This is Nelson Ferraz - Lamento Negro (1956), for Continental, featuring arrangements by Maestro Radames Gnattali. If you are in the mood of a very inquisitive album with a very different music, this is probably the album you were waiting for. Little I know about Nelson Ferraz, which is probably a classical singer, a baritone.

I can read your mind right now making the same association I did with the anthological Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus). However, it is very unlikely that this disk is part of a theatrical play or movie, is just a career album of a rather unknown and surprising singer backed by Maestro Radames Gnattali. Tracks include:


Track List

01 - Terra Seca (Ary Barroso) Samba
02 - Funeral Dum Rei Nagô (Hekel Tavares / Murilo Araújo) Canto de Alufá
03 - Leilão (Hekel Tavares / Juraci Camargo) Canção
04 - Banzo (Hekel Tavares / Murilo Araújo) Canção
05 - Algodão (Custódio Mesquita / David Nasser) Samba
06 - Navio Negreiro (Alcyr Pires Vermelho / J. Piedade / Sá Róris) Samba
07 - Lamento Negro (Humberto Porto / Constantino Silva "Secundino") Batuque
08 - Preto Velho (Custódio Mesquita / Jorge Faraj) Samba-canção

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