{"id":869,"date":"2010-09-21T19:29:04","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T19:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londonschoolofsamba.co.uk\/blog\/?p=869"},"modified":"2021-09-21T15:06:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T15:06:26","slug":"ze-do-caroco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.londonschoolofsamba.co.uk\/?p=869","title":{"rendered":"Z\u00e9 do caro\u00e7o"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a London School of Samba<\/a> favourite, and Z\u00e9 do caro\u00e7o has become one of the classic samba songs of all time: for many sambistas<\/em>, composers and singers alike, it\u00a0is very important because it depicts a life behind the glamour and glitz of carnival, talking proudly about the humble roots of samba schools, in the communities, and what it really means to the people that live and die for that 20mins of glory on the avenida. For any of you that were in Coburg this year a high energy version (check out the Revele\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> version below) went round the Highlander pub more than a few times on the Sunday night! All together now, “Le-le-le-leeee…”<\/p>\n

Z\u00e9 do caro\u00e7o – classic samba songs<\/h2>\n

This is the song which made Leci Brand\u00e3o (daughter of the great partido-alto singer, Jovelinha “Perola” Negra, of\u00a0Sorriso Aberto & Um baga\u00e7o da Laranjafame)\u00a0famous in 1978. It’s quite political –\u00a0Z\u00e9 do caro\u00e7o is a local community leader during the military dictatorship who speaks over a loudspeaker (back then the equivalent of local community radio) and makes his speeches “…ele faz um discurso profundo” at the same time the telenovela is \u201cdistracting everyone\u201d with its banality (as Brazil’s ‘national’ music the military supported samba in a show of patriotism to strengthen the nationalism it depended on to remain in power – but not without heavy censorship of course). It’s a comment on the superficiality of popular culture at the time, and how carnival was becoming all glamour and no guts after the rise of what they nicknamed\u00a0Super Escolas S.A.\u00a0(“Super Schools Inc.”) because basically in just a few years the samba schools had become a huge business\u00a0after the rise of the carnavalesco legitimised the involvement of the middle classes and subsequently the tourist industry. The downside was that this attracted the patronage of the\u00a0bicheiros\u00a0(illegal gambling ‘racketeers’) i.e. Mocidade burst out of insignificance in 1975 thanks to the partronage of the bicheiro\u00a0Castor de Andrade. But the upside was that the parade evolved \u2013 in 1972 Djalma Santos (Mangueira bateria president) helped to create the first\u00a0ala das passistas,\u00a0“V\u00ea se entende” (“Make sure you get it”); 1974 the first ever rainha da bateria, Ad\u00e9le F\u00e1tima, is crowned in Mocidade and in the same year destaques allowed on floats for the first time. Several years later the great ‘Manguerista’ Cartola would refuse to parade saying that it had all got out of hand and the parade went too fast (1979)!!\u00a0Plans for the samb\u00f3dromo were being discussed and eventually Castor Andrade would form LIESA – for many, cementing Mocidade\u2019s importance in samba history and the start of a new era. Anyway, all this explains the lyric \u201ccarnival n\u00e3o \u00e9 esse colosso\/nossa escola \u00e9 raiz, \u00e9 madeira\u201d – which is a reference to authentic, “roots” samba,\u201csamba de raiz,\u201d and hence also the line \u201cVila Isabel\u00a0verdadeira\u201d (the ‘real’ original samba school of Vila Isabel, as opposed to the samba school “S.A.” it had become). Some years later, in 1989 the great carnavalesco Jo\u00e3zinho Trinta led Beija-Flor to an unprecedented victory with a controversial enredo called\u00a0Ratos e Urubus, Larguem a Minha Fantasia\u00a0(“Rats and Vultures, stay away from my costume!”) where he dressed up some alas up in rags as a statement against everything becoming too commercial and ostentatious (that was also the year they paraded with a Christ the Redeemer statue and the church complained so they had to cover it up!).
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\nThose legends of pagode, Revela\u00e7\u00e3o, playing one for the quadras…
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