A Heavenly Revelation from the Brazilian Pantanal
Sonia Bloomfield Ramagem | Gaithersburg, Maryland - USA | 06/01/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I am a 49 years old Brazilian who grew up inland that country. Much to my parents disappointment, and to our maids relief in relation to the destination of my soul, I believed in mules-without-head, in devils incarnated as people with their goat-feet, and in the power of the holy water to make them explode leaving a sulphur smell... I only saw TV or a paved road when I went to Rio de Janeiro to visit my grandparents. I had the privilege of living in different areas of Brazil, and to get to know its people, with their simplicity and wisdom, with their hopes and their suffering, with their disbeliefs--in politicians and government--and beliefs in the Other world, both marvelous and terrifying.This way, through beloved maids and their families, I got to know the simple people's music, the ones played at backyards of simple homes at night, and at the farms by the simple workers using a "violão" (guitar), a "viola de doze cordas" (12 strings guitar), and a "sanfona" (acordeon). The sounds were tangent, sad, melodious, and they were fading from the popular memory as the country started its exceedingly fast urbanization process in the late 50s.Recently, some very special people have been digging the musical soil of the states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and Mato Grosso. This "mining" process has uncovered beautiful gems, and Helena Meirelles is one of the most beautiful of them all: a clear Diamond!I never heard about her until this February, when my husband came from Brazil with one of her records: "Raiz Pantaneira" (Pantaneira Roots - Pantanal is the swampy area in Mato Grosso do Sul). It was fascination at first hearing: the soul of the aparently simple people of Goiás and Mato Grosso, with a Guarany background (Mato Grosso was taken by force from Paraguay one day, not long ago...), comes through her music. She is a master composer and a prodigy player, and I could only fall in love with this old Lady of Inland Brazil: Helena Meirelles! May G'd bless you Helena for all the joy you bring to the world through your music, so simple and so elaborate, so happy and so sad: the music of a suffered people's soul."
You gotta preserve your roots
meirelles3 | 04/03/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Thank god there are people who record and who buy this kind of music. This music is for Brazil what Blues is for the US. Roots"
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1