By FRANCISCO DE OLIVEIRA BARROS JUNIOR*
Commentary on the album by the singer and accordionist
“Focus – point of convergence of everything; the center". “Essential – referring to essence; necessary; the indispensable; the most important point”. Words whose source was extracted from the “Aurélio” dictionary to be included in the CD booklet The essentials of Dominguinhos, one of the volumes of the Focus phonographic project, a collection with names from A to Z of male and female singers from various genres of Brazilian Popular Music. From Agnaldo Rayol to Zeca Pagodinho.
In the month of June 2022, I listened to 20 essential songs from the career of singer, composer and instrumentalist José Domingos de Morais, Dominguinhos (1941-2013), who, according to Assis Ângelo, is the “legitimate heir of the old Lua”, Luiz Gonzaga. With “o burst do baião”, it is “its artistic successor”, according to Jairo Severiano (2017). The “subject”, “the follower who evolved with greater coherence”, according to Dominique Dreyfus.
The repertoire of the aforementioned phonographic work covers compositions ranging from 1979 to 1997. Phonograms of partnerships, with emphasis on the special participations, in a duet with Dominguinhos: Chico Buarque, Heraldo Monte, Luiz Gonzaga, Gilberto Gil, Guadalupe, Renato Teixeira and Gal Coast. Among his musical composition partners, I highlight Nando Cordel (Gostoso Demais); Manduka (Quem Me Levará Sou Eu) and Gilberto Gil (Lamento Sertanejo). From the Gonzaguian vintage, “Numa Sala de Reboco” and “Vem Morena” were selected. In the leagues trodden by the traveler Dominguinhos, baião, xote and forró open their doors for the dancer to enter and snuggle with his girls. Good forro.
On August 23, 1990, in the Programa Ensaio, directed by Fernando Faro, the author and performer Dominguinhos, a prominent name in Brazilian music of the 2006th century, speaks of the school created by Gonzaga and, as a child of his, states that: “every accordion player self-respecting person has a bit of Luiz Gonzaga”. In the “Dicionário Gonzagueano”, Dominguinhos testifies: “In fact, we are all mere followers of his” (ÂNGELO, 166, p.XNUMX). Tárik de Souza adds: “on board the instrument that consecrated him, Dominguinhos manages to be melodious to the point of wailing in pain or setting fire to a forró crowded with dancers. His bellow descends from the master of all Luiz Gonzaga, but he is also a creator with autonomy ”.
In the forró arranged by Dominguinhos, accordion, guitar, guitar, bass, drums, zabumba, triangle, caxixi, reco reco, tambourine and agogô enter. He pinches his felt accordion. The root Luiz Gonzaga and his musical trackers communicate the “dramatic expression” of the Northeast of the painful and joyful ones (SANTOS, 2004). Northeastern speech, in Gonzaga's popularity, represents “the poetic and musical synthesis of the hinterland” (RAMALHO, 2000). “The Northeast in flesh and blood”, in the words of Patativa do Assaré.
The History of Brazilian Popular Music, “without prejudice”, registers the name of Dominguinhos among “the multiple tribes of the 1970s”. “With the accordion”, came to “renew forró” (FAOUR, 2021). With his cover portrait by Elifas Andreato, he is the star of issue number 34 of the MPB Composers collection, a joint project between RGE Discos and Globo publishing house. Trailing yet another collection with the art of Dominguinhos, I listen to the CD Special Collection, containing 14 tracks from their repertoire. From the partnership with Gilberto Gil, I listen to “Abri a Porta”.
Luiz Gonzaga participates three times, twice in musical compositions by other authors: “Dançador Ruim” (João Silva – Zé Mocó), “Como Chega O Verão” (Dominguinhos – Abel Silva) and is recorded by the interpreter Dominguinhos: Algodão, Pau-de -Arara and Qui Nem Jiló. From the partner Nando Cordel, four works are present, among them “isso Aqui Tá Bom Demais” and “Hoje é Dia De Forró”. With “Zé Do Rock” (João da Silva – Raimundo Evangelista), Cecéu’s “Chameguinho”. They just want a baby. Come stay with them because "it's tasty" and too good. In 2007, sunday plus Yamandu, with his guitar, offered a fine biscuit gift to his followers.
The song in time shows the image of Dominguinhos accordion player as “the main responsible for the survival of the northeastern musical aspect, which Luiz Gonzaga stylized and popularized throughout the country” (SEVERIANO & MELLO, 2015, p.356). In the desert of his arrival, Dominguinhos headed, dreamy, to the Nilopolitan ground of Rio de Janeiro's “sul Maravilha”. In the Southeast, São Paulo “is its second piece”. In search of “a place in the sun”, the survivors of dry lives, in sad departures, say “I'm coming mom”. “In reality, we have a piece of the Sahel in Brazil. Here on the road, people leaving, they won't come back. Sometimes, everything is so dry and so difficult that people migrate to the Southeast and never come back, they abandon the land”.
The social photographer registers images of the agonized, afflicted man, exiled in his Brazilian exodus. Sebastião Salgado photographs people and landscapes from the Northeast region of the film the salt of the earth (2014), directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Salgado. A photographic journey through sensitive and revealing lenses of the dramatic situations experienced by Marias and Josés, whose sertaneja lamentations are invisible from the perspective of neoliberal policies of parasitic capitalism.
The migrant has his day: June 19th. Portrait of life: refugees expelled from their lands by natural adversities and irresponsible political power games. The “disresponsibility” among “the evils of our civilization”, in the terms of Edgar Morin. “Meu Cariri” (Rosil Cavalcanti/Dilu Melo), in the song of Marinês and his people, reveals what happens when the rain and the “disresponsible” manager don’t help: “macambira dies, xique-xique dries up, juriti moves” . One more date to remember: June 20 celebrates the suffering of refugees worldwide. In a page of a Franciscan calendar, Pope Francis, in a message on human dramas, cites the “often ignored tragedy of emigrants who speculate unworthily in illegality”.
Saint Peter, Saint Anthony and Saint John. June is a festive, devout month of coziness, “swaying”, “roça roça”, square dances, June marches and heartbeats, under the instrumental and vocal chords of the forrozeiro from Massapé and Timbauba. These are the tones of continental Dominguinhos, “simple as life” played and sung on his 1988 LP. “On a trip through Brazil that plays accordion”, shown in the film The Miracle of Santa Luzia, by Sergio Roizenblit, Dominguinhos is the protagonist of his first images. On the sunny road, he takes the straight line and follows: from Pernambucan Exú to Bagé from Rio Grande do Sul. From Patativa do Assaré, passing through the sertões of Euclides da Cunha and arriving at the literary landscapes of Erico Veríssimo, the Brazils are trailed by the accordions of names from A to Z: Arlindo dos Oito Baixos, Zinho Trindade, Mario Zan, Oswaldinho do Acordeon, Renato Borguetti, Toninho Ferragutti, among others.
In 1997, Dominguinhos, urbanizer of baião, sang part of the songbook recorded by Gonzagão on a double CD with several guests. Sailing through the sound waves of “his master and greatest supporter”, in the words of Rodrigo Faour. Chanting the baião, breaking boundaries and planting flags, Luiz is praised by Dominguinhos on the LP It's getting good here”, from 1990. In phonogram 03, “Gonzaga Coração” (Itanildo Medeiros – Juarez do Acordeon – Zé Sanfoneiro) is synonymous with strength, depth, love, joy, truth and faith.
The “goat of the plague”, Luiz Gonzaga “macho”, backwoods damnation, is praised as “the greatest trophy in the Northeast”. The accordionist of the “left hand” touch resists under the empire of the ephemeral, returns and plays. Player engraved on the walls of his tanners' memories. The “Accordion Fashion” (Toinho Alves/Dudu Alves) has its stylists and models: “The old accordion fashion is back / Dominguinhos has played and will play a lot more”. True to his origins, he is an inspiration for Sivuca for being a musician who plays “accordion to chip”.
*Francisco de Oliveira Barros Junior He is a professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Piauí.