Youtube is a goldmine for anyone who loves music. In the olden days we had to listen to a few songs a time in a record shop, hoping to find the occasional masterpiece. You can now do this on the computer in your home, limitless. Once you started, you just follow suggestions.
I discovered Youtube as a musical tool on 17 March 2007. Since then I undertook many musical voyages of discovery and rediscovery. Many of those virtual journeys took me to Brazil.
On 5 December 2009 I encountered these two songs sung by Roberta Sá: Mais Alguém (‘Somebody else’) and Cicatrizes (‘Scars’).
Today, by coincidence I found another piece of music sung by her, together with one of my musical heroes, Chico Buarque de Holanda: Mambembe. The song was written by Moreno Veloso and Quito Ribeiro.
The video is from a DVD called “Pra se Ter Alegria” (‘For having fun’). On Youtube there is this video that contains the same song and two more:
Cartola’s Peito Vazio, sung together with Ney Matogrosso.
This song also features the band Trio Madeira Brasil, consisting of guitarist Marcello Gonçalves (he also accompanies Roberta Sá and Chico Buarque in the aforementioned ‘Mambembe’), guitarist Zé Paulo Becker, and mandolin player Ronaldo do Bandolim. (The latter I confused with Paulinho da Viola for a moment, but that’s clearly somebody else.)
Modinha, accompanied by guitarist Yamandu Costa on 7-string guitar.
(I don’t know if these Youtube uploads are legal, but if they might ever be removed for copyright reasons, hopefully the original DVD will still be for sale somewhere.)
Here’s a Youtube mix of Roberta Sá’s music.
OK, that’s about the music. What I really wanted to write about is this: life is short and it can be harsh sometimes. Seemingly small things can cheer us up and make life beautiful. This is an example: those smiles by Roberta Sá in the video Mambembe.
Even is she had an ugly face, which clearly she hasn’t, one such smile could turn a grey day into a celebration. So let’s not forget to smile to each other, as often as we can.