During the 1930s and 1940s, Raul Torres ranked among the foremost figures in caipira music, ultimately committing 456 performances to disc across more than 200 78 rpm releases and six LPs. Around 1960 he became the first artist in the style to cut sides backed by an orchestra, with Maestro Poly serving as orchestrator. Esteemed as both singer and writer, he earned the title Ambassador of the Embolada thanks to his command of that form, scoring his greatest successes with the 1933 release “Pisei no Rabo do Tatu” and the 1934 release “Sururu no Galinheiro.” Among his other notable numbers, whether performed or penned by him, stand “Jacaré no Caminho,” “Não Zanga Comigo” (Nair Mesquita), “Boi Amarelinho,” “Meu Cavalo Zaino,” “Saudades de Matão” (lyrics), and “Moda da Mula Preta.”
He laid down thirty-nine selections alongside partner João Pacífico, among them enduring favorites such as “Chico Mulato,” “Cabocla Teresa,” “A Mulher e o Trem,” “Cadê Minha Morena,” “No Mourão da Porteira,” “Pingo D’Água,” and “Perto do Coração,” although some observers question the authenticity of the collaboration. His well-known composition “Mestre Carreiro” appeared in the 1970 film Sertão em Festa, directed by Osvaldo de Oliveira and delivered on screen by Tião Carreiro e Pardinho. By roughly 1950 every exponent of the caipira idiom had committed Torres material to record, a practice later continued by such modern acts as Leandro e Leonardo and Chitãozinho e Xororó. Tonico e Tinoco, among the genre’s most significant duos, revisited his catalog so often that Warner eventually issued the retrospective CD Tonico e Tinoco Recordando Raul Torres.
Born to impoverished Spanish immigrants, Torres frequented the batuques and congadas held by the Black community in his hometown during childhood, experiences that later shaped his sound. He first appeared on radio in 1927 over Rádio Educadora Paulista and Rádio Cruzeiro do Sul, the same year he cut his debut Brasilphone disc containing the embolada “Segura o Coco, Maria” and the samba “Verde e Amarelo.” Three years afterward he took part, under the alias Bico Doce, in Cornélio Pires’s landmark independent Columbia session—the first such venture in Brazil—performing “Galo sem Crista,” “Gavião de Penacho,” “Que Moça Bonita,” and “Reculutamento.”
In 1935 he traveled to Paraguay with the ensemble Raul Torres e sua Embaixada; the visit prompted him to incorporate Paraguayan elements into caipira repertoire, and he later asserted that he had been the first Brazilian to compose rasqueados. He revisited the country in 1944 and again in 1950. His rising profile also drew him to Rio de Janeiro, where he shared stages with Lamartine Babo, Francisco Alves, Sílvio Caldas, Jaime Vogeler, Noel Rosa, and Moreira da Silva, among others. That same year his batucada “A Cuíca Tá Roncando” became the principal Carnival success in Rio and received an award in Portugal; six years later the piece lent its title to a theatrical revue mounted by Araci Cortes and Oscarito’s company.
In 1937 Torres formed a productive alliance with his nephew Antenor Serra, known as the Serrinha, yielding such successes as “Cigana,” “Meu Cavalo Zaino,” and “Boiada Cuiabana.” The pair parted ways in 1942 amid recurring disputes. Shortly thereafter Torres joined forces with Florêncio (João Baptista Pinto), with whom he had already recorded two numbers in 1932; together with accordionists José Rielli (later replaced by Castelinho, then by Emílio Rielli Filho) they hosted the popular Rádio Record program Os Três Batutas do Sertão. The trio completed the album O Maior Patrimônio da Música Sertaneja only days before Torres’s death in 1970.
