Cartola

Cartola's legacy merges closely with the trajectory of urban carioca samba across the span from the 1920s until the close of the century. He collaborated as the creative partner of the legendary Noel Rosa, saw his works interpreted by nearly every respected Brazilian performer, and helped establish Escola de Samba Estácio Primeira de Mangueira, known as the Samba School of Mangueira, among the most prominent samba institutions in carioca Carnival and the earliest Carnival organization to center samba as its principal musical form.

Born to an amateur acoustic guitar player, he taught himself the instrument through observation of his father while also mastering the cavaquinho, akin to the ukulele. At age fifteen, following his mother's death and the severing of ties with his authoritarian father, he completed junior high school, abandoned formal education, departed home, and immersed himself in bohemian pursuits alongside assorted temporary employment. On April 28, 1928, he assisted in founding the Samba School of Mangueira, situated on the carioca hill where impoverished residents settled, and assumed duties as the school's master of harmony. The institution's inaugural parade later that year featured his debut samba, "Chega de Demanda," an appeal for an end to violence among rival sambistas and malandros of the hills.

Although the school of Portela already operated, additional schools only began forming from 1932 onward. Sambistas, composers, and interpreters at the Estácio hill remained active without yet organizing the Estácio Samba school. Urban samba had not yet incorporated middle-class influences, which arrived through Noel Rosa (1910-1937), a native sambista from Vila Isabel with small-bourgeois origins and university training; Orestes Barbosa (1893-1966), a journalist, writer, and popular composer; and Cartola himself, who acknowledged reading select works by Castro Alves, Gonçalves Dias, Olavo Bilac, Luís de Camões, and his favored Guerra Junqueiro, completing A Velhice do Padre Eterno and A Morte de D. João as the extent of his literary pursuits.

Percussive instruments already integral to samba at this stage encompassed the surdo, the tamborim, the pandeiro, and the cuíca. The city's first samba contest occurred on January 20, 1929, involving the two existing schools, Mangueira and Portela, with the latter's "Não Adianta Chorar," by Heitor dos Prazeres, taking first place. Mangueira offered "Beijos," Cartola's second samba, alongside "Eu Quero Nota," by Arturzinho.

In 1931, singer Mário Reis visited the hill of Mangueira to purchase songs under the prevailing custom that encompassed both full rights and removal of the composers' names. Acquired for 300 mil-réis, the samba "Que Infeliz Sorte" ultimately appeared on record by Francisco Alves, since Mário Reis could not perform it. Cartola, however, never acknowledged his role in the music and lyrics. Because Francisco Alves enjoyed major popularity within the permanent cast of Rádio Nacional, then Brazil's foremost mass-communication outlet, Cartola reached a broader public. He continued selling rights at the same price, generating further successes for Alves such as "Não Faz, Amor," "Tenho um Novo Amor," "Divina Dama," and "Diz Que Foi o Mal Que te Fiz."

A partnership with Noel Rosa commenced in 1932 through the samba "Não Faz, Amor," after which Noel began frequenting the Buraco Quente and favoring Cartola. Despite critical and public recognition, finances remained scarce. Cartola sustained himself through diverse roles as a fish, ice-cream, and cheese peddler, cambono de macumba, and mason, all while fulfilling Mangueira's master-of-harmony responsibilities and composing both Carnival and middle-year sambas. In 1932, Mangueira claimed the championship with "Pudesse meu Ideal," by Cartola and Carlos Cachaça. The following year, the school presented "Fita Meus Olhos," by Cartola and Baiaco, which the composer himself recorded forty-five years afterward.

Mangueira abstained from the public contest in 1934 after securing a specialized jury title only a month earlier and declining to jeopardize it. Official recognition of samba schools by the dominant class arrived in 1935 through inclusion in the Carnival schedule by mayor Pedro Ernesto Batista. Portela won that year's contest, yet Cartola's "Brasil Terra Adorada," composed with Carlos Cachaça and Arturzinho, placed second. Cartola's and Mangueira's prestige extended as far as Germany via the Hora do Brasil broadcast on January 29, 1936, which included "Liberdade," by Arlindo dos Santos and Cartola; "Pérolas para o Teu Colar," by Maciste Carioca and Cartola; "Dama Abandonada," by Cartola; "O destino Não Quis," by Carlos Moreira de Castro and Cartola; and a selection of sambas de partido alto by Cartola.

The year 1936 yielded five sambas with Carlos Cachaça—"Tudo Neste Mundo," "Sentido Pranto," "Primeira Volta," "Me Disseram," and "Quem Me Vê Sorrir"—plus "Deusa" and "Ingênua Criatura" with Isaltino Custódio. In 1937, the Department of Tourism organized a contest to select the finest composer among the city's schools; Cartola performed "Partiu" and "Sei Chorar," claimed victory, and received a gold medal.

Even with widespread backing from the press, journalists, politicians, and artists, financial prospects stayed limited. "Sei Chorar" stayed unreleased for fifty years, while "Partiu," held in high regard by maestro Heitor Villa-Lobos, likewise remained unpublished. The gold medal was pawned shortly afterward at the Caixa Econômica amid ongoing monetary strain.

In 1940, under F.D. Roosevelt's good neighbor policy aimed at strengthening U.S.-Latin American ties ahead of the Second World War, conductor Leopold Stokowski reached Brazil with members of the All-American Youth Orchestra and Columbia Records engineers. Their dual purpose involved promoting American culture through orchestral performances and documenting each country's musical output. Stokowski consulted Brazil's foremost erudite composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, who assembled leading figures including Pixinguinha, Luís Americano, Jararaca, Ratinho, Donga, Zé com Fome, Zé Espinguela, Mauro César, and the young soloist Janir Martins, together with Mangueira's collective under Cartola's direction. Villa-Lobos, an admirer of Cartola's music, became a regular visitor to his hill hut and served as a kind of godfather, opening doors such as the film Descobrimento do Brasil (1938).

Of the forty songs Stokowski recorded, Columbia released only sixteen across two sets of four 78 rpm discs titled Columbia Presents: Native Brazilian Music by Leopold Stokowski. Cartola contributed four compositions: "Meu Amor" and "Primeiro Amor," with Aluísio Dias; "Tristeza," with Orlando Batista; and "Quem Me Vê Sorrir," with Carlos Moreira de Castro and Carlos Cachaça, the last of which alone appeared on the album.

Between 1941 and 1947, Mangueira placed as vice-champion each year, with Cartola continuing as master of harmony and official composer. The election of Hermes Rodrigues as school president initiated a prolonged period of marginalization for Cartola. Rodrigues, focused on Carnival's commercial side, engaged a professor to evaluate entries in internal contests. As popular reception of his style waned, Cartola turned to alcohol and withdrew from artistic circles after barely surviving meningitis, descending further into poverty. His third wife, "Zica" (Euzébia Silva do Nascimento), a pastora formerly under his leadership at Mangueira, sought assistance from numerous artists and composers, including Lan, Ari Barroso, and Braguinha, yet these efforts faltered through lack of interest in the veteran master.

While washing cars in the damp dawn of Copacabana, he was discovered by journalist Sérgio Porto, who painstakingly escorted him to Rádio Mayrink Veiga for a brief engagement, arranged appearances at other stations, organized interviews, and labored toward his artistic revival. Toward the close of the 1950s, Cartola participated for a second time in film, the renowned Orfeu de Carnaval ("Black Orpheus").

Soon afterward he obtained permission to occupy a spacious municipal property rent-free, where he conceived the ZiCartola restaurant and showroom later sited at Rua da Carioca, 53. The venture generated immediate cultural excitement for samba and marked a pivotal moment in introducing hill music to the carioca middle class. Cartola and Zica's inexperience in management, however, led to commercial collapse, and the establishment passed to Jackson do Pandeiro in 1965.

In 1968, enjoying modest stability as a low-level civil servant, Cartola accepted donation of his plot at rua Visconde de Niterói, 896, in Mangueira, and erected his house personally, drawing on prior masonry experience.

Across the interval from 1929 to 1952, thirteen of his songs appeared on 78 rpm releases. Twenty additional tracks emerged between 1957 and 1974, together with further credits as composer. Only in 1974, at age sixty-five, did Angenor de Oliveira issue his debut LP, Cartola (Discos Marcos Pereira, 403.5007). Though greeted with unanimous critical and public praise, the album achieved limited commercial reach because the label specialized in historical documentation and lacked robust distribution.

A second LP, also titled Cartola (Discos Marcos Pereira, MPL 9.325), followed in April 1976 and stirred heightened press enthusiasm while featuring the most successful of his compositions, "As Rosas Não Falam." The release earned the Golfinho de Ouro award from the Image and Sound Museum's Council of Popular Music. After voluntarily refraining from Mangueira contests since 1949, Cartola returned in 1977, receiving numerous performance invitations, hearing his music featured in widely watched soap operas, and appearing in multiple television documentaries.

Finally the veteran artist garnered some measure of the recognition long due. A fourth LP, Cartola 70 Anos (RCA 103.0278), arrived in March 1979 and again drew abundant critical acclaim. Having composed close to six hundred songs and received belated appreciation of his talent, Angenor de Oliveira, known as Cartola, succumbed to cancer on Sunday, November 30, 1980. His straightforward, genuine, and modest character emerges in remarks to the Movimento newspaper (Rio de Janeiro, November 16, 1978): "I have a profound love for the flowers and for the women who had pretended me. One doesn't hit a woman even with a flower, and the flowers, one doesn't give them to any woman at all."