Ever since the music of Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934) was introduced to an American and international public with a helping hand from Disney and Zé Carioca in cartoons of the 1940s as pointed out by Daniella Thompson in an article, it was soon swallowed up by the pop-industry outside Brazil to make it digestable for a mainstream audience devoting its tastes to light entertainment, dance and an Americanized understanding of Brasilian culture. Only in recent years another understanding and appreciation of Nazareth's works is beginning to unearth, mainly thanks to great initiatives taken by ragtime societies in the US, ChoroMusic.com and, not least, the magnificient work directed by the Brasilian researcher and pianist, Alexandre Dias, who by now has published the result of his research in an official website devoted to the works of E. Nazareth including free access to all 218 registered scores in a revised version, a milestone in preserving this musical heritage for future generations. The website is definitely worth a visit for serious followers of Nazareth and can be launched here.
However, like choro musicians were among the first to embrace the music of E. Nazareth and make it a part of the standard repertoire at rodas, in radio and recording sessions thus spreading it to the public all over Brazil, it is also of historical importance to remember and recognise how this music was received and percieved by the music scene outside Brazil. Among the renown ambassordors in spreading the music of Nazareth to a larger public through performance, recordings and participation in movies was bandleader Edmundo Ros and His Rumba Band,during the 1940s and 1950s a highly popular ensemble of the time. I found a couple of examples on YouTube featuring the audiotracks of compositions by E.Nazareth as interpretated by Edmundo Ros and His Rumba Band - the first features 'Apanhei-te cavaquinho' as recorded in 1945, enjoy!Here's a recording from about the same time of Nazareth's maxixe-tango, "Dengoso"
The lasting quality of the music performed by musicians like Edmundo Ros and His Rumba Band depends on the ability of such bands to make the output danceable. And if you don't think that it's possible to dance to the music of E. Nazareth after listening to the video-tracks above, let Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers show you how it's done:A Feliz Ano Novo - A Happy New Year 2010! to readers of this blog, that counts its entry no 200 since June 2006.
Jo