LOS INDIOS TABAJARAS - Twin Guitars in a Mood for Lovers - (RCA) - 1966, comment, review, exotica, Brazil.

In a quiet mood I have chosen this from the pile of records behind me.

Los Indios Tabajaras are not strangers to anyone who has spent time in op shops as they frequently appear in multiple copies.

Having said that their appearance in op shops frequently does not mean they are bad but rather that they had an audience, were extremely popular, sold many records, and are now not highly collectible ... hence the overrepresentation in the op shop bins.

Which is a pity as there are durable delights to appreciate in their music.

I have a couple of their albums and what attracted me to them initially was the fact they were from South America and fairly exotic.

Allmusic: "Certainly the most uncommon duo of Brazilian artists to have a solid international career, Los Índios Tabajaras was formed by the brothers Antenor Moreyra Lima (Muçaperê) and Natalício Moreyra Lima (Erundi). In the U.S. they had success in the early '70s with "Sakura-Sakura," and their biggest hit was the fox trot "Maria Helena," which won second place at the American charts and sold over one-and-a-half million copies. Their 48 LPs also sold millions of copies worldwide, and they toured South, Central, and North America, Asia, and Europe before settling in the U.S….

Indians from the Tabajara tribe, they left Ceará with their people in 1933, traveling on foot the almost 2,000 km to Rio de Janeiro. During the three years spent on the journey, they collected a number of regional musics. In Rio de Janeiro they were registered and baptized by the lieutenant Hildebrando Moreira Lima, from whom they took their Christian names. Their first public performance was in 1945"

From: http://jukebox.au.nu/instromania/solo_virtuosos/los_indios_tabajaras/ "Los Indios Tabajaras was formed by the brothers Antenor Moreyra Lima (Mucapere) and Natalicio Moreyra Lima (Erundi) – sons of a Tabajaras Indian chieftain of an isolated jungle tribe. Their promoters have always drawn a veil of mystery around Los Indios Tabajaras, so it's tough to trace their early years accurately. Their literature claimed they discovered a guitar mislaid by European explorers, in the jungle during their journey through the hinterlands of Cariri, Ceara, and, after making sure it wasn't going to explode like other firearms their tribesmen had found, began to examine it (later they had to give this guitar away for a pound of beans) . Eventually, they both mastered the instrument and came to the attention of townspeople, one of whom took them to Rio de Janeiro to play.

Dressing up in ceremonial Indian costumes, the brothers perfected a nightclub act in which they sang and played Brazilian and Latin folk songs. They changed their names to Natalicio and Antenor Lima and began touring throughout South America. In 1943, RCA's Latin American arm signed them to a contract, but it wasn't until the late 1950s that they were released in the U.S., and their first album was on a minor label, Vox, rather than RCA".

They broke through in the US in the early 60s and continued playing until the 1980s. (Nato died in 2009 aged 91, Antenor died in the 1990s)

In the best tradition of B. Traven the biographical details are sketchy and seem outlandish in relation to Los Indios Tabajaras. Whether the above is the truth or not probably doesn't matter because the basics are correct. I just thought I should mention that some of the specifics have been disputed … I assume record company spin has been used to make their backgrounds even more exotic.

Legendary Eugene Chadbourne had this to say this (about their "Many Splendored Guitars" album from 1965) and it applies here: "The myth behind this popular recording duo of the '60s and '70s is obviously a bunch of poppycock. Someone has to come out and say it. Brothers Mussapere and Herundy "found" a guitar out in the jungle and learned how to play it? Sure. With the humidity the way it is in the jungle, one might have been able to play scratch baseball with the neck of the instrument, but that's about it. No, the way these fellows get around the chord changes of these Tin Pan Alley songs, show tunes, and cosmopolitan Latin American instrumentals makes one feel sorry for them having to wear paint and feathers at all their gigs. No one ever asked that of Jim Hall. This is mellow, peaceful guitar music. The instruments stay very close to arrangements, articulating the melodies of the songs with as little extra seasoning as a Cuban peasant might have to sprinkle on his dish of rice and beans. It is similar to the way Willie Nelson solos, for example, although there are sometimes flashy little connecting runs that sound more like Django Reinhardt. Backup is subtle, emphasizing quiet Latin percussion, and there is a beautiful recorded sound from the RCA studios as can be expected".

Eugene doesn't always get it right though. Apparently, on their live concerts, Los Indios would perform the first half wearing the traditional Indian head dress feathers, woven vests etc and then reappear for the second half, dressed in formal attire and perform their unique classical guitar arrangements.

Either way it was the exotic and other wise otherworldly guitars that caught the imagination of the American public as well as the ear of country music legends Chet Atkins and Don Gibson who recorded them. (apparently Chet Atkins made the Del Vecchio Resophonic his secret weapon in the studio as a direct result of hearing Nato and eventually, buying his guitar).

I will let the guitarists do their own research into how Los Indios created their distinctive sound as that's too technical for me (there are some links below) .

What I like about them is that the music is gentle, velvety, and evocative, without being syrupy and obvious. All their music that I have heard, even their upbeat tunes, are spiced with melancholia and seem to conjure up the past or remember things lost. Other tunes are downright sad. If there ever was a music that seems to conjure up the retreating rainforest of South America, the plight of the forgotten native peoples, and the encroachment of modern mid 20th century civilisation then this is it.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it?

This is certainly exotica or lounge music but "folk-exotica" or "faux folk exotica"?

This album is all that above and I'm surprised the albums sub-title is "In a Mood for Lovers" as I would have thought a better title is "In a mood for lost loves". Look at the song titles "Some of These Days", "Who Can I Turn to", "The Song is Ended", "Time Was", "As Time Goes By" … get the idea? The accompaniment to the guitars is very much in the background – some later recordings had all sorts of things happening around them. Also, there are no vocals on this album, which is the norm, though occasionally they would sneak in a vocal.

There are some obvious song choices in here and none are really surprising but that is compensated by the fact that Los Indios change the songs to suit their sound.

Tracks (best in italics)

Make Believe – (from the musical "Showboat") – a great song, though it doesn't sound like this normally – this is stripped down. A gentle Hawaiian lilt runs through the track.
The High and the Mighty – ( from the 1954 film) – the theme song by the legendary Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington from the (until recently) rarely seen John Wayne film "The High and the Mighty" which is the granddaddy of all "airport", "air disaster" type films and a box office hit in 1954. This theme was a big hit when released for a number of people (Les Baxter #4 1954, LeRoy Holmes #9 1954 and Victor Young #6 1954). I have heard many versions of it and this is a good one despite the fact the distinctive whistling is not in this version. This song captures the loneliness and aimlessness of a man (a pilot) who has crashed in the past killing all passengers including his wife and young son.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_and_the_Mighty_(film)
El Reloj
Some Of These Days
Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) – (from the musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint-The Smell of the Crowd") – again they have taken the song and changed it to fit their style with no significant damage to the song.
The 3rd Man Theme – (from the 1949 film) – the famous theme and upbeat though more restrained than the famous Anton Karas original
The Song is Ended – the old Irving Berlin song done by everyone- Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Ruth Etting, Ella Fitzgerald.
Time Was – another old tinpan alley type song recorded by the Lettermen and The Four Freshmen amongst others.
La Mer – the much recorded French song by Charles Trenet. Bobby Darin had a gigantic hit with it in 1960 as "Beyond the Sea". A wonderfully evocative song with or without the lyric …
Lagrimas de Sangre
As Time Goes By – the Casablanca (1942) song
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – the Jerome Kern standard recorded by everyone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_Gets_In_Your_Eyes . This version has some sublime guiitar playing.

And …

Great late night music with a cocktail and the lights down low … a perfect way to ease a troubled mind … you should have 2-3 Los Indios albums in your collection … I'll keep this. And, you have to love the cover art.

Sounds

The High and the Mighty

attached

The 3rd Man Theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vx-MeBu6mE

La Mer

attached

As Time Goes By

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udpOc6ITxlU

Original versions

La mer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHYj1-3QrrY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd_nopTFuZA&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQvQm-K5cT8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEIDep_UMmk&feature=related