Beth Carvalho: De pé no chão

De pé no chão is a fundamental album in the history of Brazilian music, the birth certificate of the movement that became known as pagode carioca. Samba, born in the early 20th Century with the Estácio bambas, was notedly transformed when, in 1978, Beth Carvalho brought a different swing from the suburbs to her eleventh album.

In a new volume in the O Livro do Disco collection, journalist, author and screenwriter Leonardo Bruno tells stories from the legendary Cacique de Ramos samba circles to the challenges of the studio recordings of a watershed album that broke new ground. De pé no chão, chockfull of iconic tracks, such as “Vou festejar”, “Goiabada cascão” and “Agoniza, mas não morre”, goes beyond illustrating Beth Carvalho’s trajectory. It’s also the story of pagode as a cultural movement — one that, according to researcher Nei Lopes, “carries the same weight of the bossa nova revolution”.

A valuable document for those who want to understand the latter half of the “samba century”, De pé no chão opened a doorway into the genre’s reinvention, and Zeca Pagodinho, Jorge Aragão, Fundo de Quintal, Jovelina Pérola Negra, Almir Guineto, among many others, came out of it. After this album, no one has ever drummed the same.

About the author
Leonardo Bruno is a journalist, author, and screenwriter. He has written Canto de rainhas (2021), Zeca Pagodinho — Deixa o samba me levar (2014), Explode, coração — Histórias do Salgueiro (2013), Cartas para Noel — Histórias da Vila Isabel (2015) and Três poetas do samba-enredo (2021), also published by Cobogó, among other books. For television, he directed and wrote the documentary series O samba me criou. He’s also the screenwriter of the movie Andança – As memórias e os encontros de Beth Carvalho. He worked as a television presenter in Roda de Samba Ao Vivo and as a columnist for the Extra newspaper, where he wrote weekly pieces about samba schools. He’s a researcher for Observatório doCarnaval, at the Museu Nacional (UFRJ), and a member of the jury for the O Globo Estandarte de Ouro award, as well as a Carnaval commentator for TV Globo.

About the artist
Beth Carvalho was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1946, in a Rio de Janeiro middle class family, and began her career in bossa nova gatherings. In 1968, she won third place in the Festival Internacional da Canção (FIC) with “Andança”, a hit that made her nationally famous. She soon took the tunnel from the city’s Zona Sul to its suburbs and definitively surrendered herself to samba. Starting in the 1970s, she recorded various of the genre’s classic hits, such as “Folhas secas”, “Coisinha do pai” and “As rosas não falam”, securing her place as one of Brazil’s greatest singers. Beth became known for the quality of her albums’ track lists, born of tireless research with composers from all stripes. She revealed to the world talents such as Zeca Pagodinho, Arlindo Cruz and Fundo de Quintal, and became known as the “Godmother of Samba”. She also had an important role in recording old-school bambas, and built a special relationship with Cartola and Nelson Cavaquinho. She passed away in 2019, having released 32 albums, and will forever be missed.

About the collection
The O Livro do Disco collection was released in 2014 by Cobogó in order to present readers with distinct musical reflections about albums that were, and still are, essential to our cultural and, of course, emotional education. With each title, the reader is invited to dive deep in the history of albums that broke barriers, opened paths and defied convention. O Livro do Disco is for music fans, but also for those who desire a deeper, yet accessible, contact with the context and central figures of works that made music history. In times of fragmented listening and music access through streaming platforms, finding (again) these albums in their totality is a way of hearing what they have to say about our times.

Specifications
Title Beth Carvalho: De pé no chão
Author Leonardo Bruno
Language Portuguese
Page count 152
ISBN 978-65-5691-080-2
Capa Radiográfico
Format Softcover
Size 13 x 19 cm
Year 2022