Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ROSA, Noel

(b 11 Dec. '10, Vila Isabel, Brazil; d 4 May '37) Brazilian songwriter who left about 200 songs. From a lower-middle-class family, he abandoned medical studies to write songs about Rio de Janeiro, especially its favelas (slums) and low-life. He was the first Brazilian to write serious poetry for pop songs, and specialized in the samba form, at that time unusual for a white man. Never robust, he contracted tuberculosis, his bohemian lifestyle hastening his early death. He performed with the group Bando de Tangaras, but also made solo recordings of his own songs 1929--37, and sang on the radio. In his lifetime he was overshadowed by other singers (Carmen Miranda, Silvio Caldas, Orlando Silva), but his songs have continued to be sung and recorded until he has become almost a cult figure, often represented by his own caricature of his extraordinary features, complete with the cigarette which symbolizes his death. Best-known songs incl. 'Com que Roupa' (a recording of which sold 15,000, a large number in Brazil at the time), the haunting 'Feitico da Vila', 'Fita Amarela', 'Nao tem Tradu‡]ata[o', 'Quando o Samba Acabou', 'Trˆs Apitos'. He claimed his own favourite was 'Gago Apaixonado' ('The Stutterer In Love') because neither his neighbours nor their parrot could copy it. Some of his own recordings (together with those of a noted interpreter) are found on Mestres da MPB, Noel Rosa e Araci de Almeida; numerous modern collections incl. Songbook Noel '91, with many of Brazil's best singers.