VIDA SÓ VALE SE FOR POR PRAZER - GRES Beija-Flor de Nilópolis

David, Beija-Flor’s president of honor and one of the most
dedicated supporters of samba.
Another important advance for samba was achieved by actor
and producer Jorge Coutinho, who influenced a considerable
contingent of future trendsetters living in the city’s South Zone
(Leme, Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon): “I thought that college
students had to experience samba. So I promoted shows
that mixed various styles, such as songs by Milton Nascimento,
Som Imaginário and Cartola. I also took sambistas to sing at
Pontifical Catholic University, whose student body at the time
was almost exclusively drawn from wealthy families.”
Besides this, in the 1970s Jorge Coutinho, together with
Leonides Bayer, created an interesting social project called
“Noitadas de Samba” (“Samba Nights”). These were held
every Monday at the Teatro Opinião in Copacabana. At these
events, performers from Rio’s hillside slums and suburbs,
such as Cartola, Guilherme de Brito, Nelson Cavaquinho,
Martinho da Vila, Rosinha de Valença, Paulinho da Viola,
Clementina de Jesus, Dona Ivone Lara, Xangô da Mangueira
and Clara Nunes, among many others, played for audiences
from the South Zone.
ANIZIO AND SAMBA
But if samba resisted prejudice and the samba singers and
musicians (sambistas) survived, with great difficulty, it was
because far from Rio’s middle class South Zone, important
samba redoubts sheltered and welcomed these representatives
of this important Afro-Brazilian art form.
It was the carnival associations, or the samba schools, that
valued the sambistas as if they were part of the family. It
was at the samba schools where the sambistas spent a good
deal of their time, where they composed, sang, dreamed …
created. This was the genuine spirit of the sambista from
Rio de Janeiro, later stereotyped in the global media. It was
a time when most sambistas and composers were linked
to a samba school: Mangueira, Salgueiro, Portela, Império
Serrano... and so many others.
But if the carnival associations were redoubts of samba,
the sambistas still faced difficulties to survive. Subjugated
by a native culture of exploitation of the work force, the
sambistas continued at the margin, exploited, poorly paid,
with no security.
But as the samba schools became stronger and gained respect,
prestige and space, the same thing happened to the
sambistas as well.
This chapter in the history of samba is clearly recalled by radio
host Hilton Abi-Rihan: “Samba was going through a difficult
moment even though it was moving from the margins to the
mainstream. The problem was that the agents promoting this
change were doing so for financial questions. They didn’t
understand samba’s importance as a cultural manifestation.
To them it was just a business. The upshot was that the
sambistas still were poorly paid, both for public presentations
and when their songs were recorded by mainstream singers.
It was hard to make a living as a sambista. Fortunately, this
reality was changing, due to various factors. But I believe one
of the most important factors for this change was the creation
of the Independent League of Samba Schools (LIESA). This
allowed a lot of things to be done for samba and sambistas.
And Anízio has a leading role in all this history. He was the
one who confronted the record companies so the composers
didn’t have to go with hat in hand, humiliating themselves
to try to receive their proper royalties.
Besides the importance Anízio has for samba, carnival in Rio
de Janeiro and samba schools, he has a special importance for
samba composers. I’m a composer myself, and I want to highlight
that it was through his ideas and actions that the samba
schools’ composers became recognized and paid properly for
their work. I want to emphasize this, because my family and
I feel in our daily lives the benefits of this and other positions
take by Anízio in favor of samba and sambistas. Besides this,
Anízio is a fair man: despite his great love for Beija-Flor, during
the entire period he was president of LIESA, his school didn’t
win a single title. This proves his love and respect for carnival
and all samba schools,” says former president of Mangueira,
Álvaro Caetano, or Alvinho as he’s better known.
And because of this respect that Anízio expresses for sambistas
and the public, when he was president of LIESA, he
implemented various improvements. His friend the radio
announcer Hilton Abi-Rihan points points out: “It was Anízio
who took a firm stance and insisted that the parades have a
definite time to start and finish. I remember that at the time
Anízio told me this question of the parade timetable was one
of his main accomplishments as president of LIESA. And it’s
true! I remember that nobody believed he’d manage to impose
this level of organization. The press certainly didn’t believe it.
But he did it. He managed to keep all the schools’ parades on
time, from the start to the finish, which really added to the
spectacle’s value, besides being an important decision showing
respect for the sambistas and spectators. It was Anízio also
who, with his strong-willed temperament, won the arena
rights [the rights to transmit television images of the parades]
for the samba schools,” recalls Abi-Rihan.
Anízio himself remembers: “It was a hard fight, but we
managed to get the TV networks to pay the arena rights
to the samba schools. At the time I managed to get 33%
to help the samba schools put on a better carnival. Today
LIESA receives 51%, a big improvement. But I managed to
get 33% at the time. Before that it was zero. It was almost
impossible to put on a good show. Without the effort of some
people, including from the community, it would have been
impossible to produce the spectacular show we do today!
Revista Beija-Flor de Nilópolis www.beija-flor.com.br