Brazil: Songs Of Protest

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2006

Label: Smithsonian Folkways Archival

From sleeve:
"This album presents twelve of the most typical songs depicting the life of the Brazilian people. You will come to understand the peasant, the dweller in the "Sertao" (Desert) of the Northeast as he sings of his sadness in having to leave the countryside to flee the drought, as he realizes his exploitation by the large landowner and as he hurls his protestations.

The inhabitant of the "favela" (slums) condemned to vegetate on the outskirts of society tells of his life, also, in these songs. He tells how he constantly waits for the train to take him to work, waits for the raise each month that has been promised him for a year; his wife waits for
the baby to be born and the baby waits for what? This expression of protest by the young composers of popular music in Brazil, this outcry, expresses the desire to make of a song an instrument to serve the people, to offer to the people a means of expressing themselves, of
communicating: it marks a turning point in the evolution of the Brazilian song."