12/04/2024
My two great beacons in music were born in April, in different years, but separated by just ten days. Both started in the music scenario with the cavaquinho — an instrument that I have been playing for almost three decades. During my youth, just for pleasure. In adult life, still for pleasure, but also as a way to improve musical knowledge and help my work as a journalist and writer.
To the beacons.
He, under the zodiac sign of Taurus, with the protection of Saint George and Ogun, born on April 23, 1897. For some, born in Olaria. For others, in Ramos. It is known, of course, that he born in Zona da Leopoldina, in the ghetto of Rio de Janeiro. The most important figure in the history of “choro”1. A first-rate flutist, revolutionary saxophonist, highly respected arranger, he became a shaper of what is still known today as Brazilian urban popular music. As a composer, the greatest of the greatest. His name: Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho. Pixinguinha.
She, under the zodiac sign of Aries, was born on April 13, 1922, in Botafogo, Zona Sul of Rio. But she lived most of the time in ghettos, both in Madureira and on Estrada Velha da Pavuna. Biologically, she is the daughter of Emerentina and João. Spiritually, from Oxum Opará. Granddaughter of enslaved African jongueiros2, niece of a chorão3, cousin and daughter-in-law of samba school founders, fruit of a love born on a “rancho carnavalesco”4, it can be said that she is the character with the most complete training that has ever existed in the universe of samba. Contralto with great ease in reaching highs and lows with the same excellence in tuning. Cavaquinho player, pioneering composer of intuitively perfect melodic refinement, therefore, inimitable. Since childhood, Bach’s litanies and masses coexisted harmoniously in her imagination. Prominent member of alas da baiana5, property master, porta-bandeira6, born in a leap year, and sambista7. Erudition and popularity in one person, countermelodies embroidered in gold and water: Yvonne da Silva Lara. Dona Ivone Lara.
In terms of mastering form, language and, consequently, what is most accomplished in terms of artistic creation and composition, Dona Ivone Lara is to samba what Pixinguinha is to choro. While he imposes himself with “Carinhoso” and “Rosa”, she ascends with “Nasci pra sonhar e cantar” and “Alvorecer”.
Days after receiving the invitation to write this text, the news arrives that the Bill that defines April 13th as National Women’s Sambista Day (Dia Nacional da Mulher Sambista) into the official calendar has been approved.
If they had chosen a different date as a milestone for this representation among those that mark the birth of other women linked to samba, the tribute would also have been fair: February 7 (Clementina de Jesus), May 5 (Beth Carvalho), June 14 (Geovana), July 21 (Jovelina Pérola Negra), August 12 (Clara Nunes), August 19 (Aracy de Almeida), September 12 (Leci Brandão), November 21 (Alcione), December 13 (Gisa Nogueira), December 23 (Cristina Buarque).
They could also have chosen for women who did not necessarily work in the artistic world, but who were fundamental in making samba happen. Women like the “mães baianas” of the so-called “Little Africa” in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the 19th century, like Tia Ciata, Tia Perciliana, Tia Amélia, Tia Gracinda, Tia Bebiana, and others.
Among so many possibilities of names and dates, they chose April 13th, the birth of Dona Ivone Lara, as National Women’s Sambista Day. In turn, National Choro Day is celebrated on April 23, “Saint” Pixinguinha’s birthday. The symbolism is huge.
Dona Ivone earned the nickname “First Lady of Samba” from the poet Hermínio Bello de Carvalho for being, in fact, the first to bring together in a single person the following attributes: singing, composing, playing a harmony instrument, dancing her unmistakable “miudinho”8 and making the costumes and outfits in which he performed on stages or in Carnival parades. A woman who composed her first samba at the age of 12, but only had the opportunity to record and release her first album at 56.
For ten years I have been saying that Dona Ivone Lara is such a broad and complex subject that Brazil has not yet realized the dimension of the phenomenon in its entirety. And when I intentionally refer to Dona Ivone as a “subject” it is for the following reason: in addition to hearing an artistic work recognized in all Brazil and abroad as something very special, Ivone Lara’s trajectory symbolizes, inspires, and provokes reflections and debates about many of the subjects that nowadays are still necessary and urgently to be discussed.
In Dona Ivone Lara’s trajectory, there are confrontations with misogyny, racism, ageism, fatphobia, religious intolerance, the overload (poorly or unpaid) of women who have to manage their careers, manage their homes, and raise their children. Through Ivone Lara it is possible to talk about mental health, the essential importance of social assistance, ancestry, female pioneering. We can also to talk about access and success.
A broad and extremely deep character, through her life and work, Dona Ivone is a mirror and reflection of a diverse country like Brazil. How many black girls and women identify themself with their music and see in their figure more than just a point of reference, a royalty?
Ivone became an orphan in her youth and became the first person in her family to have a university degree. While still a girl, her mother decided to lie about her age, raising by one year so she could be accepted into the public school and begin a beautiful path of academic training. She graduated in the early 1940s as a nurse, specialized in Occupational Therapy and performed an important role in the team of revolutionary Nise da Silveira. For 37 years she treated patients with mental differences with music at a time when music therapy was barely talked about. Beyond the walls, as a social worker, she worked tirelessly to locate family members and help reintegrate those marginalized into society.
In parallel to her job, Ivone Lara was a highlight in “Ala das Baianas” of Cidade Alta for many years. It was part of – albeit unofficially – a noble space within a samba school that prohibited the presence of women, until that moment: the composers’ wing (ala dos compositores). And, finally, she became the first woman in history to win the samba lyric contest at a samba school belonging to the Rio de Janeiro Carnival Special Group.
Through music, Dona Ivone Lara populates the Brazilian imagination with her work still being played on the radio, television and, above all, sung in rodas de samba9 by the people. Her songs, most of them created in a “mediumistic” partnership with the great Delcio Carvalho, were recorded by the greatest performers of Brazil, from the most different styles and generations: Beth Carvalho, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Paulinho da Viola, Fundo de Quintal, Elza Soares, Elizeth Cardoso, Maria Bethânia, Monarco, Caetano Veloso, Clara Nunes, Alcione, Jair Rodrigues, Nana Caymmi and Zeca Pagodinho.
Of the 150 melodies she composed – “sambas de terreiro”10, waltzes, jongos, “partidos-altos”11, “choros-canção”, “sambas de enredo”12 –, some of them Dona Ivone received from other inspirational plans. It is no coincidence that her biggest hit is titled “Sonho meu”. For months, Ivone dreamed of the melodic paths, and she woke up making a solfege. Maria Bethânia was the first to record, on the album “Álibi”, from 1978, which made her the first woman to surpass the milestone of one million records sold in Brazil.
Another of them, “Axé de Ianga (Pai Maior)”, I quote for Ivone herself to tell in a previously unpublished statement:
“They say my protector is the queen of music. She protects me a lot and gives me these intuitions. I truly believe in mysteries, I truly believe in spirits, I believe that there is a myth, in my family, that we all adore, which is Uncle José. My aunt [Grandma Teresa, born with a free womb13, jongueira, an icon of Morro da Serrinha], who was 120 years old, told us a lot about Uncle José. Uncle José came from Angola, is Angolan and became a myth in our family. He died and sometimes my cousin is possessed by his spirit, and he always brings us news, either good or bad or a warning. The last time I was with him was as like this. I was in Angola, I went to do that show, Kalunga, and when I got there everyone knew me because of the music ‘Sonho meu’. I felt a very strong spiritual attraction, it seemed like I already knew everyone. When we returned to Brazil, everyone made music for Angola. Chico Buarque created the song “Morena de Angola”, Djavan created his song. I said: I’m also going to create one for Angola, knowing that my ancestors were from there and Mozambique. I went to my cousin’s house, she focused herself and the spirit of Uncle José said to me: ‘Hi, dear, have you been to my homeland? Did you like it?”. I said: I do, yes, sir. He said: ‘You do so many beautiful things for others, why don’t you do one for me?’. I answered: ‘Well, grandpa, I was waiting for your permission and was going to ask for some explanations. For example, how am I going to write a song for you without knowing a word of your dialect?’. He said: ‘In my country, when things were bad, there was a lot of punishment, we suffered and got together to do litany. We used to call Ianga a lot, which means Greater Father (Pai Maior).’ I left there so excited. After that he enlightened me a lot, gave me a lot of intuition, and the next day I had already written the entire song with lyrics. My cousin was possessed again by my uncle, and I sang to him. Oh, he danced “cateretê”14 with me, he taught me the dance of his homeland. And I sang to him: ‘Oi, Ianga, que te poi, Ianga/ Didianga me/ Ianga, Ianga, que te poi, Ianga/ Didianga me/ Ele trouxe na sua munganga, ê/ Didianga me/ A felicidade e deu/ Aos filhos seus/ Ninguém mais lamenta e chora, Ianga/ Didianga me/ Ianga, Ianga, que te poi, Ianga/ Didianga me’15.”
As I am the author of a book – which, fortunately, is on its way to its 3rd edition – about Dona Ivone Lara, I was lucky for being able to be with her a few times and closely see how these inspirations that emerged fluently from an inexhaustible source of melodic lines as rare as they are supernatural.
One of the last times I was at Dona Ivone and her family’s house, in Madureira, she was sitting in the backyard, making a solfege of a sweet and magnetic melody. I come close and asked what song it was that I didn’t know until then. To which Dona Ivone replied: “This one showed up this morning. I just finished, son.”
Fortunately, Dona Ivone’s country has at least a dozen of her compositions on the tip of its tongue. It is worth opening a brief parenthesis to remember – according to a survey by the Central Collection and Distribution Office (Escritório Central de Arrecadação e Distribuição – Ecad) – the ten most re-recorded songs by Ivone Lara: “Sonho meu”, “Acreditar”, “Alvorecer”, “Nasci pra sonhar e cantar”, in partnership with Delcio Carvalho; “Enredo do meu samba” and “Tendência”, with Jorge Aragão; “Mas quem disse que eu te esqueço?”, with Hermínio Bello de Carvalho”, “Tiê”, with cousins Hélio and Fuleiro; “Os cinco bailes da história do Rio”, with Silas de Oliveira and Antonio Bacalhau; and “Alguém me avisou”, composed solely by her.
If on the one hand we celebrate the fact that many people know these “Top 10” by Dona Ivone, on the other hand we regret that a large part of the public, including lovers and faithful listeners of samba, are unaware of the rest of the work. There are another 140 songs in Ivone’s songbook of the same quality.
“Relicário” is a commendable initiative of Sesc, we expect that other initiatives like this continue to shed light on this inspired repertoire, inviting Brazil to truly get to know the country’s greatest female composer, Yvonne da Silva Lara.
Lucas Nobile is journalist, music critic and author of “Dona Ivone Lara: a primeira-dama do samba” (Sonora Editora) and “Raphael Rabello: o violão em erupção” (Editora 34). Curator and artistic director of “Mostra Dona Ivone Lara: Axé!”, held by Sesc Mogi das Cruzes in 2023. Consultant for “Ocupação Dona Ivone Lara”, exhibition held by Itaú Cultural in 2015. He is a collaborator at Rádio Batuta (IMS).
About Relicário: Dona Ivone Lara (Ao vivo no Sesc 1999), you may also read:
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