Walter Alfaiate

A leading presence in samba circles, Walter Alfaiate produced over 200 compositions across a half-century span yet released just a single collection, Olha Aí, in 1998 at the age of 68. He entered the tailoring trade at thirteen, the occupation supplying his professional name. From the outset he supplied sambas to the neighborhood Carnaval groups Foliões de Botafogo and São Clemente. During the 1960s he joined the rodas de samba held at the Opinião theater and performed with Reais do Samba in 1968 and Os Autênticos from 1966 to 1968 alongside his chief collaborator Mauro Duarte, Noca da Portela, and Eli Campos, still billed then as Walter Nunes. Wider recognition arrived only in the early 1970s after Paulinho da Viola cut the track “Cuidado, Teu Orgulho Te Mata,” written with Duarte. In 1978 João Nogueira released “Bate-Boca,” again co-written with Duarte; the following year Paulinho da Viola recorded “Coração Comprimido” with Zorba Devagar and, in 1981, delivered “A.M.O.R. Amor,” another partnership with Duarte. The two artists shared a stage in 1993 for the Sambas of Botafogo presentation at Rio de Janeiro’s Clara Nunes theater. In 1999 Alfaiate held a month-long engagement at the Mistura Fina club alongside Wilson DasNeves, Nelson Sargento, Noca da Portela, and Augusto Martins, and later that year completed a São Paulo run backed by Água de Moringa. The next year he mounted the tribute program Roda de Bamba at the Image and Sound Museum of Rio de Janeiro, honoring Paulinho da Viola, Manacéia, and Duarte, and marked his seventieth birthday with a concert at the Niterói municipal theater that featured Aldir Blanc among other prominent samba figures.