HMR Project: History of Music & Modern Recording

Cartola

Latin Music/Recording: South America: Cartola

Cartola

Cartola (aka Top Hat) was a guitarist who became important to early Latin recording and samba music in relation to the samba school, some 200 of which now compete at Carnival each year. Top Hat was a Carioca born Angenor de Oliveira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 11 October 1908. Upon the death of his mother he dropped out of school at age fifteen. It's told he picked up the name, Top Hat, because he wore a bowler to keep his hair clean as a construction worker.

In 1928 Cartola helped form the street band, Arengueiros Carnival Bloco, the malandragem elemental in some of the sambas they performed. Malandragem is the theme of the anti-hero in Brazilian film, literature and music. That band would soon evolve into the Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Mangueira, or simply Mangueira, an important samba school founded on 28 April 1928 that would win Carnival twenty times. Their first parade in 1928 saw the first performance of a Cartola composition, 'Chega de Demanda' ('Enough Fighting'). The first competition between schools at Carnival was in 1929.

It was 1929 when Cartola recorded 'Que Infeliz Sorte' ('Unhappy that Lucky') with Francisco Alves. In 1998 the CD, 'O Sol Nascera' was released, containing that track along with a relatively short catalogue of Cartola to 1978.

'Que Infeliz Sorte' Cartola w Francisco Alves (vocal) com Orquestra Pan American

'What Unfortunate Luck'

Dec 1929 toward Odeon 10519-A

Composition: Cartola

Cartola came to great popularity in the thirties, due much to his daughter, Creusa, singing his sambas for radio. His composition with Carlos Cachaça, 'Quem Me Vê Sorrir', was his first recording as a vocalist gone down in 1940 toward issue in 1942 on a box set of 78s titled, 'Columbia Presents: Native Brazilian Music by Leopold Stokowski' [Discogs]. He earned enough to buy three packs of cigarettes for that [Lyrical Brazil].

'Divina Dama' Cartola w Francisco Alves (vocal) com Orquestra Odeon

'Divine Lady'

Sometime 1933 toward 10977-B

Composition: Cartola

'Quem Me Vê Sorrir' Cartola

'Who Sees Me Smile'

Recorded sometime 1940 by Leopold Stokowski aboard the S.S. Uruguay

Issued on 'Columbia Presents: Native Brazilian Music by Leopold Stokowski' in 1942

Composition: Cartola

'Nao Posso Viver Sem Ela' Cartola w Ataulpho Alves (vocal) and the Academia de Samba

'I Can't Live Without Her'

Recorded 27 Nov 1941 on matrix 6870 toward Odeon 12106-B

Used in Carnival 1942

Composition: Cartola / Alcebíades Barcelos

Cartola ghosted the music business in 1949. It isn't known all why, but grieving the death of his wife, Deolinda, that year, folowing a case of meningitis were likely factors. Cartola was rediscovered working at a car wash in 1956 by journalist, Sérgio Porto. He then resumed his career by radio at Rádio Mayrink Veiga. In 1963 he opened the Zicartola bar and restaurant in Rio de Janeiro with Eugênio Agostine and wife Dona Zica, a major hub for samba and bossa nova. Not until 1974 did Cartola issue his first album, 'Cartola'.