[Suki]

Jane and Stanley I think you both will enjoy this duet in Portuguese by the legendary Elis Regina and Tom Jobim, it is so joyous and musically perfect in every way:

YouTube - elis e tom - aguas de março

Stanley is right in that music sometimes brings with it a lot of memories. I never was an Elvis Fan. Neither were my parents. But I saw an old tape of him singing Godspeed and it was lovely. It was.

There was a song my father loved in my Brazilian songbook CD. It is track number 15, let me recall the title. My father loved it, and so did I. I think he thought the melody and rythym so much fun to listen to. But, interestingly it is a little sad too. I think it is true those Portuguese Fados are sad and they influence all that high spirited Brazilian rythms from the African Candomble style of Brazil. It is very interesting. Brazil has a lot of fusion and it keeps their musical traditions fresh and strong.

It is interesting that Stanley mentions some songs his father played on his old victrola. I remember the tunes my father played on the stereo. My father was a really good dancer. And he kept a set of congas in the corner, to play when he liked a song a lot. My father would tell me stories about going to the Palladium and competing in the 1950's for dance prizes. He did win the first prize in Mambo some weekend at the Palladium, and I think he was prouder of that accomplishment than anything I can recall. My sister has all his old photos from the 1950's. She has them neatly arranged in terms of person and in chronological order.

I remember dancing this song with him when we lived in Rio Piedras.....he loved to hum the 'buscando guayabas' refrain when I was trying to cook something and he would open the fridge (that was noisy and old and decrepit) and say---'no hay guayabas ahi adentro? A ver si hay en la ollita de Vidita." And he would come and pick up the lid of the pot up and say, "Hay guayabas aqui?" , and he would want to dance when I was trying to pour in the olive oil in the beans or something.....I still love that song. Maybe it is the memory it brings with it. Music is so lovely because it can make you recall something in life you forgot existed when one is just living one's life and surviving or struggling. What a great power music has to reach all of us.

Jane look at this old Ruben Blades "Buscando Guayaba" song:

YouTube - Ruben Blades, Buscando Guayaba