Biography
Pedro Caetano worked alongside leading figures in MPB, among them the influential sete cordas player Claudionor Cruz as well as Pixinguinha, Noel Rosa, and Alcir Pires Vermelho. Deeply rooted in the artistic milieu for more than four decades, he produced over four hundred pieces while maintaining his daily routine at the shoe shop. Piano instruction began in his early childhood. At twenty-two he completed his debut work, “Foi Uma Pedra que Rolou,” which Sílvio Caldas introduced on the Programa Casé broadcast in 1934; Joel e Gaúcho captured it on disc six years afterward. Caldas, who had pledged to record the song “next Wednesday,” finally did so only in 1954. With Claudionor Cruz—an established musician from Rio’s northern district and a stronghold of authentic Carioca tradition—Caetano forged a productive partnership. Their first success arrived with the valse “Caprichos do destino,” cut by Orlando Silva in 1938. Another enduring favorite, “Sandália de Prata,” written with Alcir Pires Vermelho, reached the public in 1942 through Francisco Alves after the composers had initially conceived it as a choro for Ademilde Fonseca. During a rehearsal at Rádio Nacional, Alves, then known as the King of Carnaval, overheard the lyric and urged them to reshape it into a major seasonal hit; they accepted the counsel and assigned the revised version to him. That same year Ciro Monteiro recorded their choro “Botões de Laranjeira,” launching a long series of distinguished interpretations of Caetano’s music. Francisco Alves again scored a triumph with “Eu Brinco — Com Pandeiro ou Sem Pandeiro,” the standout of the 1944 Carnaval. In 1946 Ciro Monteiro released “O que se Leva Desta Vida” on Victor, backed by Benedito Lacerda’s regional ensemble featuring clarinetist K-Ximbinho. The following year Quatro Ases e Um Curinga introduced “Onde Estão os Tamborins?,” a tribute to the ailing Cartola that became the group’s first Carnaval success. Their 1948 recording of “É Com Esse que eu Vou,” still revived today, sustained the momentum. Caetano returned to the seasonal spotlight in 1961 with “Dessa Vez Vamos,” a satire aimed at presidential candidate Adhemar de Barros, and again in 1965 with the march “Todo Mundo Enche,” composed with Alexandre Dias Filho to lampoon Rio’s traffic-department director. In 1968 “Jambete Sensação,” another Cruz-Caetano collaboration, placed well in the municipal Carnaval competition. At sixty-four he issued his sole LP as a performer of his own songs on RCA Victor. His recollections appeared in the 1984 volume Meio Século de Música Popular Brasileira — O que Fiz, o que Vi, published by Editora Vila Doméstica in Rio de Janeiro.
Albums
Singles
