Cametá, a historical little Amazonian town on the shores of the river
Tocantins, is the birthplace of the scorching music known as “Siriá”; a
cross pollination between the music of the inhabitants of the
quilombos, a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by escaped slaves
of African origins, and the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest.
It is a breathing, pulsing, emphatic beat, and the modernised version of
this local music, created by
Mestre Cupijó, has been igniting street
parties and traditional festivals across the state of Pará in Northern
Brazil for decades. With the Analog Africa release of the
Mestre Cupijó e Seu Ritmo retrospective
Siriá on May 27th, the combustible sound of Siriá
will be celebrated internationally as the feverish, tropical sound of
the summer of 2014!
Foretelling his talent to flow between cultures, Cupijó was named
after a local river when he was born in 1936, into a family of
musicians. His father, Mestre Vicente Castro, was also known as Mestre
Sicudera, the musical director of Centennial Euterpe, one of Brazil's
oldest bands, founded in 1874.
At 12, Cupijó started to play the clarinet. He also became proficient
at the piano, mandolin and guitar, although the instrument that came to
personify his sound was the alto saxophone. Waltz, bolero, cha cha cha
and an assortment of dance hall music became part of Cupijó's
repertoire, but it was Carimbó and Siriá, the music played by the black
communities of Pará, that had the strongest impact on the young
musician.
To grasp the soul of this music, Cupijó went to its source and lived
with the quilombolas (maroon) community of the Amazon. Upon his return,
enriched by this life-changing experience, he founded the band
Jazz
Orquestra os Azes do Ritmo with the goal of reinventing Siriá and
modernising Samba de Cacete, Banguê and other folkloric music of the
state of Pará. Airwaves from the Caribbean and Latin America had also
brought the cumbia sound of the mighty Colombian orchestras, Merengue
from the Dominican republic and Cuban music to the Amazon, all of which
had an impact on the music of Northern Brazil, Mambo especially! Mestre
Cupijó took these influences and mixed them in with the ingredients he
had studied in the Quilombos. That fusion had explosive results.
His fresh new sound became the soundtrack to Cametá's legendary
Carnival and soon his troupe were invited to other festivals along the
river. Transportation to these concerts was via small boats, where three
or four musicians would share a vessel with their instruments tucked
between their legs. In those days there were no posters or radio adverts
to promote the shows in any way, yet Cupijó’s shows became notorious.
In an interview one of his band members explains: "Whenever there was a
party – on a Saturday for example – and it was known that Mestre Cupijó
would play, the news would spread incredibly fast, just by word of
mouth. We didn’t understand how that was possible, but it certainly was
amazing."
After the initial wave of enthusiasm, the first two LPs were recorded
with rudimentary equipment in a dance club in Cametá. However, it was
the third attempt, recorded in a studio in Belém, which would trigger a
phenomenal success. "Caboclinha Do Igapo" and "Mambo do Martela",
included on this record, became instant hits. A year later, "Mingau de
Açai", one of Cupijo ́s most popular tunes, took the region by storm. In
total six LPs were recorded by Mestre Cupijó.
He then created "Concurso de Musicas Carnavalesco de Compositores
Cametaenses”, a contest for carnival music composers. The songs composed
expressly for these contests in the 70s are still performed today
during carnival season. In addition to evolving the Pará music culture
in this way, he also owned a makeshift soundsystem, "Musicolor", to spin
the discs of local artists before his own shows to the frenzied crowds.
Mestre Cupijó proved himself a philanthropist as well as a conductor
for the people’s music, and acted as a provisional lawyer for the city
of Cametá, specialising in help for the poor. He also had a short spell
in politics and was elected by a vast majority to the station of
Municipal Councillor of Cametá.
Master Cupijó, the pillar of Pará's festive culture, and a humble pop
icon who was ushered prominently into the country’s history books,
passed away on 25 September 2012, at the age of 76. Thankfully, the
Analog Africa label's careful selection of tracks from Mestre Cupijó’s
six studio albums that make up their well-researched
Siriá collection will help ensure that his masterful musical legacy will continue to fascinate and inspire generations to come.
