Adeus Mestre Caymmi!

It’s taken me some days to post this entry because it is so personal to me. When I learned of Dorival Caymmi’s passing last week, it took me to a nostalgic place. 

My avô (grandfather) was a big fan of Caymmi and in many ways the two favored each other in appearance.  Upon my avô’s death he left a collection of old recordings to my dad; among them were many of Dorival Caymmi’s albums. 

When we first came to the States, my dad would play Dorival on Sunday afternoons. I would break down and cry.  I would ask him to take me back to Brazil. That I missed my grandparents or that it was just too cold here.  After a while I got used to life in America and it was comforting to hear Dorival’s voice in our New York City apartment; especially during those long, cold and dark winters.  Every time I hear Dorival’s songs it reminds me of that time and how we got through those first years in a new country.

Dorival Caymmi left his native Bahia as a young man to go to Rio.  There at the age of 16 he wrote his first hit “O Que É Que a Baiana Tem” (What is it about Bahian women?).  This was Carmen Miranda’s first hit.  It is said that it was Dorival who taught Carmen how to shake her hips like a Bahiana.  Dorival wrote over 100 songs and recorded 20 albums. His musical style was based on Afro-Brazilian rhythms and the folkloric sounds of Bahia.  Antonio Carlos Jobim called him a “universal genius” and our country’s greatest composer.

Dorival is a Brazilian national treasure who will be greatly missed.

~ by Xai on August 20, 2008.