Search - Cartola :: Documento Inedito

Hats off to Cartola

Spencer L. Turner | Richmond, Virginia | 04/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For fans of Brazillian music or those who are drawn to romantic acoustic guitar this album answers all your longings. Cartola was a master of the Brazillian lament and an underspoken innovator for Brazillian popular music in general. In 'Documento Inedito' we find the artist nostalgically ruminating over his life through interviews in which the interviewer thankfully lets us hear only the soft, weathered voice of Cartola and one almost perceives the sound of autumn crinkling into windblown leaves. The past is blended with the present as Cartola plays, with the old, new compositions that sound as fresh and spontaneous and true as the ones which sold albums for the majority of Brazil's superstars. This disc is an heirloom considering the near impossibility of finding recordings of the composer singing his own music and in fact during one of the interviews he notes plaintively that this album will be the first in his life(and last) solely devoted to versions done by him. Amazing, you'll say as Cartola's rich, gentle throat makes your long afternoons stretch out languidly. In "O Inverno do Meu Tempo" (The Winter of my Time) he ponders thoughtfully over the prospect of entering the last stage of life without regrets and still able to love, "The dreams of the past, in the past are present, in a love that'll never grow old"; while in "Acontece" (Things Happen)-a Cartola standard- he admits that his love's gone cold, "If I could still pretend that I love you, If I could, but I don't want to, I shouldn't do it, this never happens" O Cartola, finalities are more abrupt and beautiful in your poetry. "Quem Me Ve Sorrindo"(Whoever Sees me Laughing) he tells us was a hit in America and attracted the attention of the famed Brazillian Modernist composer Villa-Lobos who immediately became a fan, recognizing the obvious divine fountain of Brazillian popular music manifesting itself in this quiet, humble man. "Who sees me laughing thinks I'm happy, my laughter is for consolation, so that no one sees the lament of my heart" You can't hide it any longer Cartola - Documento Inedito opened its beautiful, florid walks and dark alleys for us all to admire and treasure forever."