Cartola

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Cartola, whose real name was Angenor de Oliveira, was born in 1908 in the Catete district of Rio de Janeiro and was the eldest of eight children. His nickname, which means hat, came from the hat he wore as a bricklayer to protect his hair. As a child he watched his father play guitar and cavaquinho and was given a cavaquinho himself. In 1919 the family moved to Mangueira, then a small, growing favela, where his lifelong friend and regular writing partner Carlos Cachaça lived.

Music and breakthrough

In 1928 Cartola helped to found the samba school Estação Primeira de Mangueira. He proposed that the colours green and pink of his earlier carnival group should also become those of the school. His work was popular in the 1930s. In the 1940s he disappeared from samba until 1956. In 1964 he opened the restaurant Zicartola with his wife Zica, where live samba was played. In 1974 he began recording solo albums, and in 1978 he gave his first solo concert, at the age of seventy. As Rosas Não Falam is on his 1976 album.

Influence

Cartola wrote more than five hundred songs, alone or with others. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the development of samba, both as a composer and as a poet. His work shows that samba was not only party music, but also a form of poetry with melancholy.

Listening

• 
  As Rosas Não Falam · Cartola, 1976
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1968Fala Mangueira!
• 1974Cartola
• 1976Cartola
• 1977Verde que te quero rosa
• 1979Cartola
• 1982Documento inédito
• 2016Tempos Idos