• LP
     CAPOEIRA 
     M Traíra, M Cobrinha Verde and M Gato Preto 

    1962







    📻 Velhos Mestres

    Traíra and Cobrinha Verde*, 1962
    < >
    • 01.
      Santa Maria
      9:07
    • 02.
      São Bento Pequeno*
      5:30
    • 03.
      São Bento Grande
      5:21
    • 04.
      Jogo de Dentro
      6:33
    • 05.
      Cavalaria
      5:09
    • 06.
      Iúna
      1:38
    • 07.
      Seqüencia de ritmos
      7:39

    Traíra and Cobrinha Verde*



    Information

    Dias Gomes wrote the illustrative text talking about the fictitious mestre Coca of Pagador de Promessas, that was in theatre since 1960.

    They talk about the capoeira LP on the 8th July 1961 in the Manchete magazine (see the image below):

    LP-s WILL SHOW THE FOLKLORE AS IT IS
    One of the main problems of who researches brazilian folklore is to go to false producers of exotisms. For this the editor's office Xauã has worked extensively to bring about folklore in the very places of action. The result includes the near launch of artistic albums that will contain specific studies about the subject and recordings of folk songs, that are collected in their places of orgin. The first LP will talk about candomblé and is recorded in the shrine of Menininha do Gantois in Salvador. "Capoeira" (photo) will follow.

    On the 1st August 1962 newspaper Diário de Notícias writes about the LP's launch:

    In Rio de Janeiro thanks to the enthusiasm of some youngsters [Salomão Scliar, Ermes Bataglin e Diamantino Domingues] the editor's office called Xauã was created and it's already bringing up folklore from the very rich musical collection of Brazil in it's unedited form from all over our country. Distrusting in such manner the professional distributors of false folklore, it's already launched with enormous success an LP of authentic candomblé [on the 21st September 1961] and is now following it up with a new one of the music of Bahian capoeira.

    M Cobrinha Verde [1912-1983] was invited by the movie actor Roberto Batalin [1926-2004?], to record an LP of capoeira with mestres Traíra [João Ramos do Nascimento, 1925-1975] and Gato [José Gabriel Góes, 1929-2002].

    M João Grande affirms the singer DIDI (Djalma da Conceição Ferreira) to be Didi Cabeludo.

    M Gato Góes affirms Didi Cabeludo to be the students with striped shirts who plays with M Cobrinha Verde. Hairy, but without hair.

    Velhosmestres.com did a study of the images of the LP's booklet. We grouped the images based on the location. Read more below and on the images! We thank Cristiano Cabeleira for the hints.

    IMAGES WITHOUT LOCATION

    • LP cover
      CAPOEIRA
      Brazilian Folkloric Documents
      "Capoeira or the War Dance" by Rugendas from April 1835

    • A reproduction of a painting by Augusto Rodrigues

    • Carybé's drawing

    • PHOTOS: Salomão Scliar and Marcel Gautherot

      TEXT: Dias Gomes

      DESIGN: Augusto Rodrigues and Carybé

      PAGINATION: José Medeiros (image)

      COORDINATION: Editora Xauã

      PRODUCTION: Roberto Batalin

      Impression: Artes Graficas Palmeiras
      Rua Barão de Itapagipe 60
      Guanabara - Brasil

    • Back cover
      "San-Salvador" by Rugendas from July 1835

    • Side A of the LP

    • Side B of the LP

    Images

    1 MARKET RAMP

    We don't know where the sound of the LP was recorded, but it's not very likely it was done out in the open. The accompaning photos of the disc were taken on the ramp of the Model Market. We managed to identify mestres Traíra e Cobrinha Verde, but not Gato, who also participated as a berimbau player. On many photos we can see Didi Cabeludo.

    To position the roda on the market ramp we identified the São Marcelo fort and the old Customs House (today the latest Model Market) at the back.

    • M Cobrinha Verde (on the ground) and Didi Cabeludo
      Photo by Salomão Scliar? (1925–1991)
      1961?
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Collection: 8th July 1961, magazine Manchete

    • Didi Cabeludo (Djalma da Conceição Ferreira) and M Cobrinha Verde (back turned)
      Photo by Salomão Scliar? (1925–1991)
      1961?
      Ramp of the Model Market

    • M Cobrinha Verde (on the ground) and Didi Cabeludo
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?
      Read the text below!

    • Didi Cabeludo
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?

    • Didi Cabeludo (red square)
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?

    • ?,
      M Traíra (berimbau),
      M Cobrinha Verde,
      ? (berimbau),
      ?
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?


    • Playing: ? and ?
      Didi Cabeludo in the red square
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?


    • Playing: ? and ?
      M Cobrinha Verde in the red square
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?

    • M Cobrinha Verde with a whistle that he uses at the end of track 2 of the LP
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?
      Read the text below!

    • Berimbau in the hands of M Traíra
      Ramp of the Model Market
      Photo by Salomão Scliar?
      1961?

    Market Ramp

    Photos' directions

    photos' directions

    2 PORT QUAIS

    Two of the most famous photos of Marcel Gautherot depicting capoeira chosen to accompany the LP.

    The first of the photos is cut so that it doesn't show M Waldemar as on the original photo.

    The photos were already studied on M Waldemar's page, see  here 

    • Playing: ? and ?
      Port Quais
      Part of Marcel Gautherot's photo, ca 1954

    • M Traíra and Quebra-Jumelo
      Port Quais
      Part of Marcel Gautherot's photo, ca 1954

    Port Quais

    The text

    • page 4

      -

      CAPOEIRA is a ballet dancer's fight. Dance of gladiators. Duel between fellow men. It's a game, a dance, a dispute -- harmony of force and rythm, poetry and agility. Unique in the movement comanded by music and singing. The submission of force to rythm. From violence to melody. The sublimation of antagonisms.

      In Capoeira, the fighters are not adversaries, they are comrades. They don't fight, they just pretend to. They search most in geniusly for a way to give an artistic vision of a combat. Besides the competitive spirit they have a sense of beauty. The capoeira man is an artist and an athlete, a player and a poet.

      However, we must distinguish the true CAPOEIRA, as that still practised in Bahia, from the one which marked the malandro and disorders in the beginning of our century in Rio and Recife. In these cities, the Capoeira was really a street fight including knife and razor blades besides their characteristic strikes. It caused panic in popular feasts and almost always provoked police intervention. Even in Bahia, at that time, the capoeiras worried the province authorities by the disturbances they caused. To banish them, the government sent them to fight in Paraguay. And for the first time the rasteira, the au, the meia lua and the rabo de arraia were used as war weapons. With success if we judge the historical facts.

      But the Capoeira is just a vadiação -- as the bahians call it, practiced nowdays in the glorification feasts of Senhor do Bonfim and Our Lady of the Beach Conception, where the mestres (masters) exibhit the selves continuing the glory of Manganga and Samuel God's beloved, legendary capoeiras.

      We find Nine different Modalities of the Capoeiras Art, distinguished basically by the music and the way of playing it:

      CAPOEIRA DE ANGOLA
      ANGOLINHA
      SÃO BENTO GRANDE
      SÃO BENTO PEQUENO
      JOGO DE DENTRO
      JOGO DE FORA
      SANTA MARIA
      CONCEIÇÃO DA PRAIA
      ASSALVA SINHÔ DO BONFIM

      The most practised -- and also the richest in terms of choreography -- is the first one. We have the regionalistic capoeira or regionalistic bahian fight of Master Bimba with inserts of jiu-jitsu, box and catch as catch can, justly refused by the purists of the art.

      In Capoeira de Angola a ritual preceeds the fight disposed in a semi-circle, the comrades start the singing under the berimbaus tunes pandeiros and chocalhos. Crouched before the musicians the two players are still in a respectful silence. That is the presept. The capoeiras men concentrate themselves and according to the popular belief they wait for the saint. The verses of the precept vary. But the lasts are always the same:

      Eh, come back to the world comrade!

      That is the signal. Turning the body upon the hands, the capoeiras go through the circle, initiating the fight-and-dance whose choreography is dictated by the musical rythm. The music is never interrupted varying the tunes played by the master and repeated by the chorus. The first melodies are generally dolent -- and the fight starts in slow-motion -- with large strikes wher the capoeiras display their perfect muscular control. Soon the berimbau beat changes and the rythm accelerates -- the players change their game and the legs start cutting the air with incredible agility. The assistance stimulates the contendors:

      -- I wanna see a ‘skatetail’ Master Coca
      -- Boy what an ‘au’
      -- Hurry up my comrade leave this ‘but-but’ and use a ‘whip’ on him
      And there is always a defunct smeller saying gloomily
      -- I would like to see it for life or death.....

      Capoeira is a toy. So many strikes are forbidden like those which could hurt the eyes, hears, kidneys, stomarch, etc.

      But when they really mean it everything goes in the stream …

      The most prominent strikes are

      THE BALOON — with both arms, the capoeiras entangles the adversary's body and throws him upon his head backwards.
      THE RASTEIRA — one scrapes with one of the legs trying to hit the opponent"s feet and throw him down.
      THE SKATES TAIL — with both hands on the ground, the capoeira man makes a semi-circle with hid stretched legs, trying as in the rasteira to take out the other fighter's base.
      THE WHIP — the foot comes from up above in an up-side-down jump completing an angle of 45 degrees.
      THE AU — a break neck leap, basing the body on the hands and throwing both feet ahead.
      The Banana Tree. The Middle Moon and the Flat Foot are the Whip's variations.

      There are still the Cabeça, Golpe de Pescoço, Dedo nos Olhos and many other strikes or steps of this strange and viril ballet brought by the Bantu Slaves from Angola among their barbarian and powerful culture.

      It's possible that Capoeira as practiced today in Bahia owes very little to it's country of origin. In the verses and music recorded in the present long playing, we feel the presence of our people in his capacity of assimilation and recreation. And the own transformation of a fight in a dance, of a conflict in a motiv for singing is very much for our people.

      With this, we enable ourselves to send everywhere in the world the following message:

      How good it could be, if every conflict, every dispute could be cleared up with music and poetry.

      DIAS GOMES

    • +

      page 12

      Mestre: TRAÍRA (João Ramos do Nascimento)

      Singer: DIDI (Djalma da Conceição Ferreira)

      Berimbau: GATO (José Gabriel Gões)

      Berimbau: CHUMBA (Reginaldo Paiva)

      Berimbau: DE GUINÉ (Vivaldo Sacramento)

      Pandeiro: PAI-DE-FAMILHA (Flaviano Xavier)

      Pandeiro: QUEBRA-JUMELO (Vanildo Cardoso de Souza)

      Velhosmestres.com: the following part is troublesome, since it lists more tracks than written or contained on the disc itself:

      [SIDE A]

      Santa Maria - Sings TRAÍRA

      São Bento Pequeno - Sings TRAÍRA [actually sings Cobrinha Verde and is such written on the LP]

      São Bento Grande - Sings COBRINHA VERDE [actually sings Traíra and is such written on the LP]

      Angolinha - Sings COBRINHA VERDE [this track doesn't exist on the LP]

      [SIDE B]

      Cavalaria - Sings TRAÍRA [it's track 2 on the LP]

      Jógo de dentro - A dispute between two fictional persons [it's track 1 on the LP]

      Riachão do Diabo - Sings TRAÍRA [not on the LP]

      Angolinha Miùdinha - Sings COBRINHA [not on the LP]

      Guarani - Sings TRAIRA [not on the LP]

      [Iuna - the track is on the LP, but not among the text]

      DIVERSE: Angolinha Pequena - Angola - Angola Dobrada - Santa Maria [-] Regional - Cavalaria - Jôgo de Dentro - Gêge Kêto - Iuna [it's on the LP the trak as SEQÜENCIA DE RÍTMOS]


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