Dorival Caymmi
Encyclopedia
Dorival Caymmi was a Brazil
ian singer, songwriter
, actor
, and painter
active for more than 70 years beginning in 1933. He contributed to the birth of Brazil's bossa nova
movement, and several of his samba
pieces, such as "Samba da Minha Terra" and "Saudade da Bahia", have become staples of Música Popular Brasileira
. Equally notable are his ballads celebrating the fishermen and women of Bahia, including "Promessa de Pescador", "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?", and "Milagre". Caymmi composed about 100 songs in his lifetime, and many of his works are now considered to be Brazilian classics. Both Brazilian and non-Brazilian musicians have covered his songs.
Ben Ratliff of The New York Times
wrote that Caymmi was "perhaps second only to Antônio Carlos Jobim
in 'establishing a songbook of this century’s Brazilian identity.'" Throughout much of the 20th century, his music about the people and culture of Bahia
influenced Brazil's image in the eyes of both Brazilians and foreigners. Caymmi was married to Brazilian singer Stella Maris for 68 years, and the couple's children, Dori Caymmi
, Danilo Caymmi
, and Nana Caymmi
, are also prominent musicians. Each debuted professionally by accompanying their father onstage and in recordings.
, to Durval Henrique Caymmi, the great-grandson of an Italian
immigrant, and Aurelina Soares Caymmi, a native Bahian. He had two younger sisters, Dinahir and Dinah, and a younger brother, Deraldo. His father, a civil servant
, often played the piano, guitar, and mandolin at home, and his mother, a housewife, sang regularly. He participated in his church's choir
for much of his childhood. At age 13, he left school to work as a journalist
at Bahian newspaper O Imparcial. When O Imparcial went out of business two years later, he took up work as a street vendor
.
Although he never formally studied music, Caymmi taught himself to play guitar in the late 1920s and began to compose, sing, and play his own songs on Bahian radio programs around 1930. He first achieved widespread recognition in 1933, when at age 16, he composed the song "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?" ("What Is It About Bahian Women?") for singer Carmen Miranda
. In 1936, at age 22, he won a songwriting contest at Salvador's annual Carnaval
celebration. His prize was a pink satin lampshade. Despite his early musical success, he moved to Rio de Janeiro
in 1938 with intentions to pursue a law
degree and to return to working as a journalist. While employed there by the newspaper Diários Associados, he spent his spare time composing and singing songs on the radio show Dragão da Rua Larga. His popularity began to grow with the show's audience.
music and samba
. He recorded for more than five decades and released about 20 albums, sometimes singing and playing guitar as a solo
ist and at other times accompanied by bands and orchestras. Although active for the better part of the 20th century, Caymmi wrote only about 100 songs. Despite having a relatively small body of work, Caymmi held a reputation of composing songs of exceptional quality. He occasionally collaborated with Jobim, who called him a "universal genius" and Brazil's greatest composer. Many contemporary Brazilian artists, including Caetano Veloso
, Gilberto Gil
, and Beth Carvalho
cite Caymmi as a significant influence on their music.
and recorded his first three singles, "Rainha do Mar/Promessa de Pescador" ("Queen of the Sea/Promise of the Fisherman"), "Roda Pião" ("Top Wheel"), and "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?/A Preta do Acarajé" ("What Is It About Bahian Women?/The Dark Woman from Acarajé"). He came to more attention in the early 1940s when he performed as a regular on the Brazilian radio network Rádio Nacional
. He recorded "Samba da Minha Terra" ("Samba of My Homeland") in 1940 and "A Jangada Voltou Só" ("The Raft Returned Alone") in the following year. In 1944, he performed his own "Acontece Que Eu Sou Baiano" ("It Just So Happens That I'm Bahian") in the movie Abacaxi Azul (Blue Pineapple). In the late 1940s, he was a member of the samba-canção
movement largely founded by his sometime creative rival, composer Ary Barroso
. Other prominent Brazilian musicians of the day covered several of his songs, including Dick Farney
, who famously recorded Caymmi's "Marina" (1944) in 1947.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Jobim, João Gilberto
, and others who contributed to the birth of the bossa nova style collaborated with Caymmi and often referenced his work when composing their own pieces. During this era, Gilberto covered several of Caymmi's songs, including "Rosa Morena" ("Dark-skinned Rose") and "Saudade da Bahia" ("Longing for Bahia"). Jobim was particularly enamored of Caymmi's music, and the two grew to be close friends. American
lyricist
Ray Gilbert
translated Caymmi's "Das Rosas" into English in 1965, and it was released in the United States as "And Roses and Roses". The song was recorded by Brazilian vocalist Astrud Gilberto
and by American
singers Andy Williams
and Perry Como
. Williams's version became a hit, and as a result, Caymmi was invited to spend four months in Los Angeles
, where he performed, filmed a television show, and recorded an LP record
.
, and in 1945, he set one of Amado's politically-driven poems to music to aid the senatorial
campaign of Luís Carlos Prestes
. In the late 1970s, Caymmi again took inspiration from Amado when he composed "Modinha para a Gabriela" ("A Little Song for Gabriela"), a musical adaptation of Amado's novel Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (Gabriela, Cloves and Cinnamon). Perhaps the best-known product of Caymmi and Amado's collaboration is the song "É Doce Morrer no Mar" ("It's Sweet to Die in the Sea"), which the two wrote over dinner one night at Amado's home. Other songs they co-wrote include "Beijos pela Noite" ("Kisses Through the Night"), "Modinha para Teresa Batista" ("A Little Song for Teresa Batista"), "Retirantes" ("Migrants"), and "Essa Nega Fulô" ("This Feisty Dark Lady").
Minister of Culture
Jack Lang
presented him with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
, a French order that recognizes significant contributors to the fields of art
and literature
, in Paris
. The following year, a new street named Avenida Dorival Caymmi (Dorival Caymmi Avenue) opened in Salvador. In 1986, Rio de Janeiro's famed Mangueira
samba school based its Carnaval performance on Caymmi's life and work, and the school won the annual parade-style samba competition.
, a fine arts school in Rio de Janeiro. Even after discontinuing his formal study, he painted for the rest of his life. He practiced Candomblé
, an Afro-Brazilian religion
characterized by belief in spirit-gods and ritualistic practices involving mediumship
. Candomblé was his father's religion, and Caymmi gradually involved himself more with it as an adult, when his friends invited him to accompany them to religious ceremonies and parties. Caymmi was also a naturist
, and when he was in Bahia, he liked to bathe nude in the Lagoa do Abaeté (Abaeté Lagoon) with a group of friends. He stated to the newspaper Valor Econômico: "We rolled around in palm leaves and slipped through the mountains of sand. Some people didn't like this, but most understood that we weren't naked for unclean reasons."
, Danilo
, and Dori
, all of whom followed their father into musical careers.
and multiple organ failure on August 16, 2008, at his home in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. His granddaughter, Stella, who wrote a biography about him in 2001, said, "He did not know that he had cancer, and he did not want to know. He did not ask much about this. He was first hospitalized in 1999. My grandfather went through with treatment, but he did not want to know anything about the illness. He acted with serenity every day, and because of that, we respected this wish."
praised Caymmi's style for its "suave and romantic colloquialism." In a 1994 anthology of Caymmi's work, Antônio Carlos Jobim wrote in the introduction, “Dorival is a universal genius. He picked up the guitar and orchestrated the world.” In 2001, New York Times journalist Ben Ratliff wrote that Caymmi was "perhaps second only to Antônio Carlos Jobim in 'establishing a songbook of this century’s Brazilian identity.'" On the day of Caymmi's death in 2008, Brazilian composer and musician Tom Zé
said, "It's difficult to comprehend just how valuable a CD of Caymmi's beach songs from the 1940s is." Also around the time of Caymmi's death, President of Brazil
Luis Inácio Lula da Silva called him "one of the founders of Brazilian popular music." Several of Caymmi's contemporaries, including Gal Costa
and Olivia Hime
, have recorded tributes to him.
s. His last four albums were released as CDs
.
s.
}
|Continental
|-
|É Doce Morrer no Mar/A Jangada Voltou Só
|Continental
|-
|Essa Nega Fulô/Balaío Grande
|Continental
|-
|1945
|Dora/Peguei Um Ita no Norte
|Odeon
|-
|1946
|A Vizinha do Lado/Trezentos e Sessenta e Cinco Igrejas
|Odeon
|-
|1947
|Marina/Lá Vem a Baiana
|RCA Victor
|-
|rowspan="2"|1948
|Cantiga/Sodade Matadera
|RCA Victor
|-
|A Lenda do Abaeté/Saudades de Itapoã
|RCA Victor
|-
|1949
|O Vento/Festa de Rua
|RCA Victor
|-
|1952
|Não Tem Solução/Nem Eu
|Odeon
|-
|1953
|Tão Só/João Valentão
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="2"|1954
|A Jangada Voltou Só/É Doce Morrer no Mar
|Odeon
|-
|Quem Vem pra Beira do Mar/Pescaria (Canoeiro)
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="3"|1956
|Maracangalha/Fiz uma Viagem
|Odeon
|-
|Saudades de Itapoã/A Lenda do Abaeté
|Odeon
|-
|Sábado em Copacabana/Só Louco
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="3"|1957
|2 de Fevereiro/Saudades de Itapoã
|Odeon
|-
|Acalanto/História pro Sinhozinho
|Odeon
|-
|Saudade da Bahia/Roda Pião
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="2"|1960
|Rosa Morena/Acalanto
|Odeon
|-
|São Salvador/Eu Não Tenho Onde Morar
|Odeon
|}
Note
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, and painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
active for more than 70 years beginning in 1933. He contributed to the birth of Brazil's bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
movement, and several of his samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
pieces, such as "Samba da Minha Terra" and "Saudade da Bahia", have become staples of Música Popular Brasileira
Música Popular Brasileira
Música Popular Brasileira or MPB designates a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music. It is not a discrete genre but rather a constellation that combines original songwriting and updated versions of traditional Brazilian urban music styles like samba and samba-canção with contemporary...
. Equally notable are his ballads celebrating the fishermen and women of Bahia, including "Promessa de Pescador", "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?", and "Milagre". Caymmi composed about 100 songs in his lifetime, and many of his works are now considered to be Brazilian classics. Both Brazilian and non-Brazilian musicians have covered his songs.
Ben Ratliff of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that Caymmi was "perhaps second only to Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
in 'establishing a songbook of this century’s Brazilian identity.'" Throughout much of the 20th century, his music about the people and culture of Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
influenced Brazil's image in the eyes of both Brazilians and foreigners. Caymmi was married to Brazilian singer Stella Maris for 68 years, and the couple's children, Dori Caymmi
Dori Caymmi
Dorival Tostes Caymmi is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and producer who is a two-time Grammy Award winner .-Biography:...
, Danilo Caymmi
Danilo Caymmi
Danilo Candido Tostes Caymmi ia a Brazilian musician, singer, composer and arranger.Danilo is the youngest son of Dorival Caymmi and Stella Maris, and brother of Dori and Nana Caymmi. Brought up by two musical parents and older siblings, he showed an early interest in music and began playing the...
, and Nana Caymmi
Nana Caymmi
Nana Caymmi is a Brazilian singer.Caymmi was born in Rio de Janeiro, the daughter of Dorival Caymmi and Stella Maris. Her first appearance on record was on her father's album Acalanto. She married Venezuelan doctor Gilberto Aponte Paoli and moved there in 1959. She and her husband divorced in...
, are also prominent musicians. Each debuted professionally by accompanying their father onstage and in recordings.
Early life
Caymmi was born in Salvador, BahiaSalvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
, to Durval Henrique Caymmi, the great-grandson of an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
immigrant, and Aurelina Soares Caymmi, a native Bahian. He had two younger sisters, Dinahir and Dinah, and a younger brother, Deraldo. His father, a civil servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
, often played the piano, guitar, and mandolin at home, and his mother, a housewife, sang regularly. He participated in his church's choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
for much of his childhood. At age 13, he left school to work as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
at Bahian newspaper O Imparcial. When O Imparcial went out of business two years later, he took up work as a street vendor
Camelô
Camelô is a Brazilian Portuguese name given to street vendors in major Brazilian cities.Law enforcement often enters into conflict - sometimes physical - with camelôs, for selling low-quality products , making improper use of public space , and for not paying the same taxes that licensed retailers...
.
Although he never formally studied music, Caymmi taught himself to play guitar in the late 1920s and began to compose, sing, and play his own songs on Bahian radio programs around 1930. He first achieved widespread recognition in 1933, when at age 16, he composed the song "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?" ("What Is It About Bahian Women?") for singer Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
. In 1936, at age 22, he won a songwriting contest at Salvador's annual Carnaval
Brazilian Carnival
The Carnival of Brazil is an annual festival held forty-six days before Easter. On certain days of Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally abstained from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term "carnival," from carnelevare, "to remove meat." Carnival celebrations...
celebration. His prize was a pink satin lampshade. Despite his early musical success, he moved to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
in 1938 with intentions to pursue a law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
degree and to return to working as a journalist. While employed there by the newspaper Diários Associados, he spent his spare time composing and singing songs on the radio show Dragão da Rua Larga. His popularity began to grow with the show's audience.
Overview
Many of Caymmi's lyrics pay homage to the lifestyle, beaches, fishermen, and women of his native Bahia. He drew much of his inspiration from music indigenous to northeastern Brazil, especially Afro-BrazilianAfro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
music and samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
. He recorded for more than five decades and released about 20 albums, sometimes singing and playing guitar as a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
ist and at other times accompanied by bands and orchestras. Although active for the better part of the 20th century, Caymmi wrote only about 100 songs. Despite having a relatively small body of work, Caymmi held a reputation of composing songs of exceptional quality. He occasionally collaborated with Jobim, who called him a "universal genius" and Brazil's greatest composer. Many contemporary Brazilian artists, including Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
, Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira , better known as Gilberto Gil or , is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical innovation and political commitment...
, and Beth Carvalho
Beth Carvalho
Elizabeth Santos Leal de Carvalho is a Brazilian samba singer, guitarist, cavaquinist and composer.-Biography:...
cite Caymmi as a significant influence on their music.
Chronology
"O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?" gained even more fame in Brazil when Miranda performed it in the 1939 film Banana-da-Terra, and it was this song that garnered her international attention and helped launch her career. After this success, Caymmi began to focus more on making music, and he wrote songs that appeared in other Brazilian films. In late 1939, he signed with Odeon RecordsOdeon Records
Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
and recorded his first three singles, "Rainha do Mar/Promessa de Pescador" ("Queen of the Sea/Promise of the Fisherman"), "Roda Pião" ("Top Wheel"), and "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?/A Preta do Acarajé" ("What Is It About Bahian Women?/The Dark Woman from Acarajé"). He came to more attention in the early 1940s when he performed as a regular on the Brazilian radio network Rádio Nacional
Rádio Nacional
-Rádio Nacional broadcasters:*Rádio Nacional Brasília - Brasília - 980 kHz*Rádio Nacional FM Brasília - Brasília - 96.1 MHz*Rádio Nacional Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro - 1130 kHz*Rádio MEC AM Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro - 800Kz...
. He recorded "Samba da Minha Terra" ("Samba of My Homeland") in 1940 and "A Jangada Voltou Só" ("The Raft Returned Alone") in the following year. In 1944, he performed his own "Acontece Que Eu Sou Baiano" ("It Just So Happens That I'm Bahian") in the movie Abacaxi Azul (Blue Pineapple). In the late 1940s, he was a member of the samba-canção
Samba-canção
Samba-canção is a kind of slow samba music from Brazil. It appeared in the late 1940s. During the 1950s several stars used to sing it including Dalva de Oliveira, Nora Ney, The Batista Sisters, Jamelão, Maysa, Dorival Caymmi and many others...
movement largely founded by his sometime creative rival, composer Ary Barroso
Ary Barroso
Ary Barroso was a Brazilian composer, pianist, soccer commentator, and talent-show host on radio and TV...
. Other prominent Brazilian musicians of the day covered several of his songs, including Dick Farney
Dick Farney
Dick Farney was a Brazilian pianist, pop-composer, and "crooner" popular in the 1950s.- Discography :...
, who famously recorded Caymmi's "Marina" (1944) in 1947.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Jobim, João Gilberto
João Gilberto
João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, known as João Gilberto , is a Brazilian singer and guitarist. His seminal recordings, including many songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, established the new musical genre of Bossa nova in the late 1950s.-Biography:From an early age, music...
, and others who contributed to the birth of the bossa nova style collaborated with Caymmi and often referenced his work when composing their own pieces. During this era, Gilberto covered several of Caymmi's songs, including "Rosa Morena" ("Dark-skinned Rose") and "Saudade da Bahia" ("Longing for Bahia"). Jobim was particularly enamored of Caymmi's music, and the two grew to be close friends. American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
Ray Gilbert
Ray Gilbert
Ray Gilbert was a lyricist.Gilbert is best remembered for the lyrics to the Oscar winning song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from the film Song of the South, which he wrote with Allie Wrubel in 1947.He married, in 1962, actress Janis Paige.Daughter, actress and singer Joanne Gilbert, July...
translated Caymmi's "Das Rosas" into English in 1965, and it was released in the United States as "And Roses and Roses". The song was recorded by Brazilian vocalist Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto is a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer. She is well known for the Grammy Award-winning song "The Girl from Ipanema".-Biography:...
and by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singers Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
and Perry Como
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
. Williams's version became a hit, and as a result, Caymmi was invited to spend four months in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where he performed, filmed a television show, and recorded an LP record
LP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
.
Collaboration with Jorge Amado
Caymmi was a lifelong friend of Bahian author Jorge AmadoJorge Amado
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and her Two Husbands in 1978...
, and in 1945, he set one of Amado's politically-driven poems to music to aid the senatorial
Senate of Brazil
The Federal Senate of Brazil is the upper house of the National Congress of Brazil. Created by the first Constitution of the Brazilian Empire in 1824, it was inspired by the United Kingdom's House of Lords, but with the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889 it became closer to the United States...
campaign of Luís Carlos Prestes
Luís Carlos Prestes
Luís Carlos Prestes was a leader of the 1920s tenente rebellion and the Communist opposition to the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas in Brazil....
. In the late 1970s, Caymmi again took inspiration from Amado when he composed "Modinha para a Gabriela" ("A Little Song for Gabriela"), a musical adaptation of Amado's novel Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (Gabriela, Cloves and Cinnamon). Perhaps the best-known product of Caymmi and Amado's collaboration is the song "É Doce Morrer no Mar" ("It's Sweet to Die in the Sea"), which the two wrote over dinner one night at Amado's home. Other songs they co-wrote include "Beijos pela Noite" ("Kisses Through the Night"), "Modinha para Teresa Batista" ("A Little Song for Teresa Batista"), "Retirantes" ("Migrants"), and "Essa Nega Fulô" ("This Feisty Dark Lady").
Awards and honors
To thank Caymmi for bringing international attention to Brazilian music and culture, in 1968, the governor of Bahia presented Caymmi with a house in Salvador, and so he returned to live in his hometown for a short period of time. In 1972, Caymmi was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Bahia, an order given to Bahian residents for excellent service to the state. In Caymmi's case, the service was bringing pride and honor to Bahian people through the widespread dissemination of his music about life there. On Caymmi's 70th birthday, in 1984, FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Minister of Culture
Minister of Culture (France)
The Minister of Culture is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts in France and abroad; and managing the national archives and regional "maisons de culture"...
Jack Lang
Jack Lang (French politician)
Jack Mathieu Émile Lang is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party, he served as France's Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and 1988 to 1992, and as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002. He was also the Mayor of Blois from 1989 to 2000...
presented him with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
, a French order that recognizes significant contributors to the fields of art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The following year, a new street named Avenida Dorival Caymmi (Dorival Caymmi Avenue) opened in Salvador. In 1986, Rio de Janeiro's famed Mangueira
GRES Estação Primeira de Mangueira
The Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Mangueira is one of the most traditional and best supported Samba schools in Rio de Janeiro. It was founded on April 28th, 1928 in Morro da Mangueira, near the region of Maracanã by Carlos Cachaça, Cartola, Zé Espinguela, Nelson Cavaquinho, among others...
samba school based its Carnaval performance on Caymmi's life and work, and the school won the annual parade-style samba competition.
Personal life
Although Caymmi earned his fame through music, he was also known to a lesser degree for his paintings. From 1943 to 1945, he regularly attended a drawing and painting class at the Escola de Belas ArtesEscola Nacional de Belas Artes
Escola de Belas Artes is one of the centers of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and dates back to colonial times....
, a fine arts school in Rio de Janeiro. Even after discontinuing his formal study, he painted for the rest of his life. He practiced Candomblé
Candomblé
Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...
, an Afro-Brazilian religion
Afro-American religion
Afro-American religions are a number of related religions that developed in the Americas among African slaves and their descendants in various countries of Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of the southern United States...
characterized by belief in spirit-gods and ritualistic practices involving mediumship
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
. Candomblé was his father's religion, and Caymmi gradually involved himself more with it as an adult, when his friends invited him to accompany them to religious ceremonies and parties. Caymmi was also a naturist
Naturism
Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practising, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public. It may also refer to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism....
, and when he was in Bahia, he liked to bathe nude in the Lagoa do Abaeté (Abaeté Lagoon) with a group of friends. He stated to the newspaper Valor Econômico: "We rolled around in palm leaves and slipped through the mountains of sand. Some people didn't like this, but most understood that we weren't naked for unclean reasons."
Marriage
While working at Rádio Nacional in 1939, he met Brazilian vocalist Adelaide Tostes, who is better known by her stage name Stella Maris, and the two married in 1940. Tostes responded to a 1994 press query about Caymmi's habit of frequenting bars with a short story: "One night I went to look for him in a bar ... He was surrounded by women. I went in and slammed a table. A glass broke. The bouncer came, and I punched Caymmi's face. Then I left cussing. I thought he was involved with drugs, but it wasn't the case. He was with the tramps." Despite such incidents, however, they remained together for 68 years, until his death in 2008. The couple had three children, NanaNana Caymmi
Nana Caymmi is a Brazilian singer.Caymmi was born in Rio de Janeiro, the daughter of Dorival Caymmi and Stella Maris. Her first appearance on record was on her father's album Acalanto. She married Venezuelan doctor Gilberto Aponte Paoli and moved there in 1959. She and her husband divorced in...
, Danilo
Danilo Caymmi
Danilo Candido Tostes Caymmi ia a Brazilian musician, singer, composer and arranger.Danilo is the youngest son of Dorival Caymmi and Stella Maris, and brother of Dori and Nana Caymmi. Brought up by two musical parents and older siblings, he showed an early interest in music and began playing the...
, and Dori
Dori Caymmi
Dorival Tostes Caymmi is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and producer who is a two-time Grammy Award winner .-Biography:...
, all of whom followed their father into musical careers.
Politics
Although Caymmi rarely incorporated political messages into his music, he often spoke bitterly about the government's corruption. Jorge Amado, his close friend, was sent into exile for several years after he publicly criticized the country's rulers during the period of military dictatorship. In 1994, Caymmi said, "I have concluded that to act as a citizen in Brazil today is to live a joke. It's the same as playing the lotto, dreaming about nonsense, trying to get rich when you are 80."Death
Dorival Caymmi died at age 94 of kidney cancerKidney cancer
Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the cells in the kidney.The two most common types of kidney cancer are renal cell carcinoma and urothelial cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis...
and multiple organ failure on August 16, 2008, at his home in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. His granddaughter, Stella, who wrote a biography about him in 2001, said, "He did not know that he had cancer, and he did not want to know. He did not ask much about this. He was first hospitalized in 1999. My grandfather went through with treatment, but he did not want to know anything about the illness. He acted with serenity every day, and because of that, we respected this wish."
Reception and legacy
Brazilian singer and composer Carlos LyraCarlos Lyra
Carlos Lyra is a Brazilian singer and composer of numerous bossa nova and Música Popular Brasileira classics. He was born on May 11, 1939. Along with Roberto Menescal, he was a primary figure of the younger generation of bossa nova musicians who closely followed the inception of the style by João...
praised Caymmi's style for its "suave and romantic colloquialism." In a 1994 anthology of Caymmi's work, Antônio Carlos Jobim wrote in the introduction, “Dorival is a universal genius. He picked up the guitar and orchestrated the world.” In 2001, New York Times journalist Ben Ratliff wrote that Caymmi was "perhaps second only to Antônio Carlos Jobim in 'establishing a songbook of this century’s Brazilian identity.'" On the day of Caymmi's death in 2008, Brazilian composer and musician Tom Zé
Tom Zé
Tom Zé is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who was influential in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. After the peak of the Tropicália period, Zé went into relative obscurity: it was only in the 1990s, when the musician and label head David Byrne discovered an album recorded...
said, "It's difficult to comprehend just how valuable a CD of Caymmi's beach songs from the 1940s is." Also around the time of Caymmi's death, President of Brazil
President of Brazil
The president of Brazil is both the head of state and head of government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian Armed Forces...
Luis Inácio Lula da Silva called him "one of the founders of Brazilian popular music." Several of Caymmi's contemporaries, including Gal Costa
Gal Costa
Gal Costa is a Brazilian singer of popular music.-Early life:...
and Olivia Hime
Olivia Hime
Olivia Hime is a singer and lyricist. Olivia is also the co-owner and musical manager of the record label Biscoito Fino....
, have recorded tributes to him.
Albums
Prior to 1988, all of Caymmi's albums were released as LP recordLP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
s. His last four albums were released as CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
.
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Canções Praieiras | Odeon Odeon Records Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label.... |
| 1955 | Sambas | Odeon |
| 1957 | Eu Vou pra Maracangalha | Odeon |
| Caymmi e o Mar | Odeon | |
| 1958 | Ary Caymmi e Dorival Barroso | Odeon |
| 1959 | Caymmi e Seu Violão | Odeon |
| 1960 | Eu Não Tenho Onde Morar | Odeon |
| 1964 | Caymmi Visita Tom | Elenco Elenco Elenco the record label should not be confused with Elenco the electronics companyElenco is a Brazilian record label created in 1963 by Aloysio de Oliveira. It is often considered as one of the most influential labels in the Bossa nova and MPB genre... |
| 1965 | Caymmi | Odeon |
| 1967 | Vinicius e Caymmi no Zum Zum | Elenco |
| 1972 | Caymmi | Odeon |
| 1973 | Caymmi Também É de Rancho | Odeon |
| 1984 | Setenta Anos | Funarte FUNARTE- Projeto Pixinguinha Created in 1977 by Funarte in partnership with the Culture Departments of Municipal and State but interrupted since 1997 for lack of funds, Projeto Pixinguinha is the name of a cultural event that aims to spread the Música Popular Brasileira throughout Brazil. It is currently favored by Rouanet Law... |
| 1985 | Caymmi, Som, Imagem e Magia | Sargaço Produções |
| 1987 | Família Caymmi | |
| 1988 | Família Caymmi em Montreux | Odeon |
| 1994 | Caymmi em Família | Som Livre Som Livre Som Livre is a Brazilian record company that was founded by Rede Globo in 1969 to commercialize its soap opera soundtracks, later expanding to record studio albums.... |
| 1996 | Caymmi Inédito | Universal Universal Music Group Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations... |
| 2000 | Caymmi: Amor e Mar | EMI EMI The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major... |
Singles
All of Caymmi's singles were released as 78 rpm gramophone recordGramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
s.
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 | Rainha do Mar/Promessa de Pescador | Odeon |
| Roda Pião | Odeon | |
| O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?/A Preta do Acarajé | Odeon | |
| 1940 | O Mar (I)/O Mar (II) | Columbia Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... |
| Navio Negreiro/Noite de Temporal | Odeon | |
| 1941 | É Doce Morrer no Mar/A Jangada Voltou Só | Columbia |
| Essa Nega Fulô/Balaío Grande | Columbia | |
| 1943 |
|Continental
Continental Records
Continental Records was the name of two different record labels of the mid 20th century, one based in New York City, the United States of America, and the second based in São Paulo, Brazil....
|-
|É Doce Morrer no Mar/A Jangada Voltou Só
|Continental
|-
|Essa Nega Fulô/Balaío Grande
|Continental
|-
|1945
|Dora/Peguei Um Ita no Norte
|Odeon
|-
|1946
|A Vizinha do Lado/Trezentos e Sessenta e Cinco Igrejas
|Odeon
|-
|1947
|Marina/Lá Vem a Baiana
|RCA Victor
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
|-
|rowspan="2"|1948
|Cantiga/Sodade Matadera
|RCA Victor
|-
|A Lenda do Abaeté/Saudades de Itapoã
|RCA Victor
|-
|1949
|O Vento/Festa de Rua
|RCA Victor
|-
|1952
|Não Tem Solução/Nem Eu
|Odeon
|-
|1953
|Tão Só/João Valentão
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="2"|1954
|A Jangada Voltou Só/É Doce Morrer no Mar
|Odeon
|-
|Quem Vem pra Beira do Mar/Pescaria (Canoeiro)
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="3"|1956
|Maracangalha/Fiz uma Viagem
|Odeon
|-
|Saudades de Itapoã/A Lenda do Abaeté
|Odeon
|-
|Sábado em Copacabana/Só Louco
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="3"|1957
|2 de Fevereiro/Saudades de Itapoã
|Odeon
|-
|Acalanto/História pro Sinhozinho
|Odeon
|-
|Saudade da Bahia/Roda Pião
|Odeon
|-
|rowspan="2"|1960
|Rosa Morena/Acalanto
|Odeon
|-
|São Salvador/Eu Não Tenho Onde Morar
|Odeon
|}
Tributes
| Year | Artist | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Gal Costa Gal Costa Gal Costa is a Brazilian singer of popular music.-Early life:... |
Gal Canta Caymmi | Phonogram Phonogram Records Phonogram Records was started in 1962 as a joint venture between Philips Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In 1972, Phonogram was merged with Polydor Records into PolyGram.... |
| 2002 | Olivia Hime Olivia Hime Olivia Hime is a singer and lyricist. Olivia is also the co-owner and musical manager of the record label Biscoito Fino.... |
Mar de Algodão: As Marinhas de Caymmi | Biscoito Fino |
| 2004 | Various | Caymmi: 90 Anos – Mar e Terra | BMG |
Note
- A.Reissued under new label.
External links
- Caymmi's obituary in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...