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Sivuca
Severino (Sivuca) Dias de Oliveira was a Brazilian accordionist and guitarist. In addition to in his home state of Paraíba, in Recife, and in Rio de Janeiro, he worked and lived in Paris, Lisbon, and New York on and off throughout his life. He is best known internationally for his work with Scandinavian jazz musicians in the 1980s. His most famous songs are the Brazilian popular classic João e Maria with lyrics by Chico Buarque and the accordion standard Feira de Mangaio. He is famous for his use of makeshift instruments playing alongside conventional ones and for his versatility, fusing traditional regional styles such as forró and Chorinho with jazz, bossa, classical, and other musical forms. Sivuca and Hermeto Pascoal, both versatile multi-instrumentalists with albinism, have worked together and are sometimes confused with each other. His professional career began in Pernambuco where he went at the age of 15, and continued in his first album with Humberto Teixeira (1950), leading to work in radio and television in Rio de Janeiro from 1955. With "Os Brasileiros" he toured Europe (1958). He moved to New York (1964-76) and worked with Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte among others. Archival footage of his work with Makeba can be seen in Mika Kaurismäki's documentary Mama Africa (2011). He recorded with Putte Wickman (P.W. & Sivuca, 1969), Ulf Wakenius's "Guitars Unlimited" (1987) and Sylvia Vrethammar (Rio de Janeiry Blue, 1985; Rendezvois in Rio, 1995). His "Sivuca Brazilian Group" toured Scandinavia in 1990. He was hospitalized on 12 December and died on 14 December 2006, after a two-year struggle with cancer.
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Dom Um Romao: The Complete Muse Recordings

by Derrick A. Smith
32 Records maintain their unique level of quality, and responsiveness, with this single-disc reissue of percussionist/composer Dom Um Romao’s complete Muse recordings, two albums from 1973 that determined the locus of bossa -tinged jazz, the nuyorican Latin movement, the Brazilian “corner club” sound, and Brazilian roots music, namely batucada.
Gene Paul’s customary naturalistic remastering allows full expression of the electronic and acoustic layered textures. Both albums, particularly the eponymous debut, move like a dream. The scant vocals provoke humorously from ...
Continue ReadingDom Um Romao: The Complete Muse Recordings

by C. Andrew Hovan
According to producer Joel Dorn, customer requests have been staggering for the reissue of Brazilian percussionist Dom Um Romao’s two Muse titles which were both culled from sessions in June and November of 1973. Now available on one compact disc, The Complete Muse Recordings contains the sum total of the original albums Dom Um Romao and Spirit of the Times and as documents of a particularly fruitful period for Brazilian music they are invaluable. Way before the term world music" ...
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