Quizamba - Review

The Discoteca Collection:
Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas
L. H. Corrêa de Azevedo:
Music of Ceará and Minas Gerais

On November 30, 1937, under Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas’ presidency, a Law, Decreto Lei #25, was put into effect that created a government institute which is considered to be the Brazilian government's first step in recognizing and preserving its own historical monuments and artistic expressions.
IPHAN (Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artistico Nacional [Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage]), was created with the help of illustrious Brazilians such as Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade (who was in charge of running the Institute), Manuel Bandeira, Afonso Arinos, Lúcio Costa, Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Mário de Andrade (who

already had created the Discoteca Pública Municipal de São Paulo [Municipal Collection of Public Recordings of São Paulo] in '35).
One year after IPHAN was established, the Discoteca Pública dispatched a Folklore Research Mission to Brazil's north and northeast to document regional folklore, ritual music, and dance. The Brazilian states of Pernambuco, Paraíba, Ceará, Piauí, Maranhão, and Pará were covered, and a collection of musical instruments, costumes, ritual objects, photos, short films, and vast number of field recordings were gathered and brought back to São Paulo.
In the early '40s, towards the end of WWII when diplomatic relations between Brazil and the United States were stronger then ever, Brazilian folklorists and the U.S. Library of Congress began cooperating with an exchange of the recordings, films, and photographs that were housed in São Paulo.
The Library of Congress loaned equipment to Luiz Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo (a composer and professor of music in Rio de Janeiro) to record Brazilian folkloric music. Corrêa de Azevedo then began an arduous expedition to the Brazilian states of Goiás, Ceará, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul.
It is within this historical context, that Rykodisc now presents us two professionally re-mastered CDs. Not only do the recordings have great historical importance, but also they form the musical basis for many great Brazilian composers that are renowned worldwide today.