Cartola: Minha
During my recent trip to Brazil, and having been a fan of Brazilian Bossa Nova/Samba since being introduced to it by Steve a number of years ago, I was eager to hear what BRAZILIANS listen to in BRAZIL. None of this Gringo mess. Turns out they listen to the Gringo mess but ALSO quite a bit of other artists who I had never heard of. Cartola was one such artist, named after his bowler hat he wore when he worked in construction. One of the original artists to meld early samba and emerging bossa nova, Cartola has the sound we love in traditional Jobim and João Gilberto, but with an edge that makes you understand why samba was originally called “low value” music.
Based in Germany, American mezzo-soprano Rebecca Jo Loeb sings regularly with Deutsche Oper Berlin and across Europe. Last season she created the role of Lumee in the premiere of Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m. In addition to her operatic repertoire, Becca Jo specializes in the music of Kurt Weill. Becca Jo returns to NYFOS in this fall in Blitzstein’s No For An Answer and Weill’s Der Silbersee.
Read other posts by Rebecca Jo Loeb.