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LP
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MAIS 027LP
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First ever vinyl pressing. Originally released in 2014. With her joyous stage persona and intoxicating blend of Amazonian, Afro-Brazilian and Caribbean rhythms, Dona Onete is one of world music's most entertaining recent success stories. Described by her manager as "Grace Jones trapped in the body of Cesaria Evora", Onete's songs talk about the delights of seducing men, herbs that make your body "shake" and her encounters with legends of the Amazon. Onete sings carimbó, an indigenous rhythm and dance from Pará, the state of Belém, influenced by both African and European traditions, and which forms the basis of the more famous lambada and other Caribbean rhythms. She recorded Feitiço Caboclo aged 73, and an international release from Mais Um in 2014 saw critics fall immediately for this sassy, saucy and sexy septuagenarian -- influential French magazine Les Inrocks made the album one of their top 5 "world" releases that year and rapturously received festival performances at Womad UK, Paris's Cabaret Sauvage, Portugal's FMM Sines followed in 2015. Onete was born in Cachoeira do Ararí, nestled in the delta of the Amazon across from Belém. She claims she only started to sing properly at the age of 11. "I used to spend the whole day on the river banks, washing clothes. One day, I saw a dolphin and thought that I should sing for him. The next day I sang again, and another came, and another, and soon a whole family of dolphins came to listen!" By the age of fifteen she was singing samba, quadrilhas, boi bumba, and other Northeastern genres in the bars of her hometown, yet Onete never considered a career in music. She became a Professor of History and Amazonian Studies in Igaparé Miri and ardently researched the rhythms, dances and traditions of the indigenous and black people of the area. This led her to establish several music and dance groups, which regenerated traditional customs, and which eventually saw her elected as the Municipal Secretary of Culture of Igaparé-Miri. Absorbing all these genres and rhythms, Dona Onete also began to compose, creating the hybrid genre for which she would later become famous, the carimbó chamegado.
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CD
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MAIS 037CD
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On the eve of her 80th birthday, Dona Onete, the grande dame of Amazonian song, returns with her third album Rebujo, a love letter to her hometown of Belém, situated deep in the Amazon. Rebujo brims with two music styles born in Belém: carimbós, influenced by African grooves, and bangues, a ska-type rhythm. Plus, there's a cumbia, brega ("romantic" music) and samba. Since the release of her 2017 album Banzeiro (MAIS 034CD/LP), Onete has become a superstar in Brazil -- she composed and sung the theme song for one of Brazil's biggest soap operas (A Força do Querer), been awarded the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural in recognition for her contribution to Brazilian culture, and her video for "No Meio do Pitiu" has an impressive 9.2 million views on YouTube. Outside of Brazil Onete has performed at Roskilde, Womad (UK, New Zealand, and Australia), Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival, and TFF Rudolstadt, and she is a global spokesperson for indigenous cultures. RIYL: Soundway Records, Analog Africa, Calypso Rose, Oumou Sangare. Mastered at the Carvery. CD version comes in a gatefold digipack; includes 16-page booklet with Portuguese lyrics and English translations; includes one bonus track.
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LP
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MAIS 037LP
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LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve. On the eve of her 80th birthday, Dona Onete, the grande dame of Amazonian song, returns with her third album Rebujo, a love letter to her hometown of Belém, situated deep in the Amazon. Rebujo brims with two music styles born in Belém: carimbós, influenced by African grooves, and bangues, a ska-type rhythm. Plus, there's a cumbia, brega ("romantic" music) and samba. Since the release of her 2017 album Banzeiro (MAIS 034CD/LP), Onete has become a superstar in Brazil -- she composed and sung the theme song for one of Brazil's biggest soap operas (A Força do Querer), been awarded the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural in recognition for her contribution to Brazilian culture, and her video for "No Meio do Pitiu" has an impressive 9.2 million views on YouTube. Outside of Brazil Onete has performed at Roskilde, Womad (UK, New Zealand, and Australia), Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival, and TFF Rudolstadt, and she is a global spokesperson for indigenous cultures. RIYL: Soundway Records, Analog Africa, Calypso Rose, Oumou Sangare. Mastered at the Carvery.
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LP
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MAIS 037LTD-LP
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LP version. Tropical red vinyl; includes printed inner sleeve. On the eve of her 80th birthday, Dona Onete, the grande dame of Amazonian song, returns with her third album Rebujo, a love letter to her hometown of Belém, situated deep in the Amazon. Rebujo brims with two music styles born in Belém: carimbós, influenced by African grooves, and bangues, a ska-type rhythm. Plus, there's a cumbia, brega ("romantic" music) and samba. Since the release of her 2017 album Banzeiro (MAIS 034CD/LP), Onete has become a superstar in Brazil -- she composed and sung the theme song for one of Brazil's biggest soap operas (A Força do Querer), been awarded the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural in recognition for her contribution to Brazilian culture, and her video for "No Meio do Pitiu" has an impressive 9.2 million views on YouTube. Outside of Brazil Onete has performed at Roskilde, Womad (UK, New Zealand, and Australia), Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival, and TFF Rudolstadt, and she is a global spokesperson for indigenous cultures. RIYL: Soundway Records, Analog Africa, Calypso Rose, Oumou Sangare. Mastered at the Carvery.
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LP
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MAIS 034LP
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LP version. Dona Onete, "the grande dame of Amazonian song", returns with further tales from the river Amazon on her sophomore album Banzeiro. Whether she's championing gay rights, singing about the delights of indecent proposals, or praising a former lover for his "crazy ways of making love", Banzeiro is defined by Onete's honest reflections on life, love, sex as well as her delight in the everyday pleasures of life in the Amazon, whether that's spicy seasoning, salty kisses, or fishy-smelling water. Formerly a history teacher, folklore researcher, union representative, culture secretary and children's author, Onete recorded her debut album Feitiço Caboclo (2014) at 73. A cult figure in Brazil and an ambassador for Amazonian culture, the music she sings is a unique mix of rhythms from native Brazilians, African slaves, and the Caribbean - epitomized in the joyous carimbós that are her trademark. Born in the Amazonian region of Pará in 1938, Onete is a mix of native Indian from her mother's side and African from her father. She first started to sing after a chance riverside encounter: "I was washing clothes by the river and one day I saw a dolphin and sung for him. The next day I sang again, and two dolphins came, then a whole family!" A self-proclaimed "teenage-dreamer" who embraced music "because everything was forbidden by my parents", by the age of 15, Onete was singing in bars, yet her musical ambitions were soon crushed: "I was married at 22 and when I tried to sing at home my husband didn't like it so I had to stop." She became an ardent researcher of the rhythms, dances, and traditions of the Amazon's indigenous and black people, which inspired her to begin composing songs herself. Unable to sing at home, she began to incorporate her compositions in her work as a history teacher, using her songs to explain the history of the region to her students: "Nowadays indigenous people can be proud of their heritage but years ago this wasn't the case." In the early eighties, Onete quit teaching to campaign for workers' rights and following retirement in 1990 she became her region's Municipal Secretary of Culture from 1993-1996, a role she embraced: "I helped local musicians and local culture that people didn't value. I brought my culture to the fore". In the early 2000s, Onete's second husband encouraged her musical side and it was whilst singing at a friend's party in 2006 that she was overheard by a local band. Initially rejecting their offer to sing with them, she was eventually persuaded and soon became a local celebrity known for her risque lyrics. A debut album, Feitiço Caboclo, soon followed and her contemporary take on the music of Para was a critical success with Onete touring Brazil playing to crowds of thousands: "Traditional carimbó songs are about nature and tradition - I modernized it by singing about love and sex and taking influence from samba and pagoda." International critics were next to fall for this sassy, saucy, and sexy septuagenarian with Les Inrocks making the album one of their top five "world" releases that year. European festival performances followed in 2015, including a main stage spot at Womad UK, with a US tour taking in Chicago, Cleveland, and New York in September 2016. "Sometimes, when you think you've given all you've got, you realize that, in fact, you have a lot more ahead of you," she opines. "Banzeiro" is the wave that's created as boats pass through the water and with its pulsating saxophone riff, insistent guitar line, thundering percussion and Onete's charged lyrics the album title track, a banguê - raucous high-octane "Amazonian ska" - is a musical tsunami. Onete is at her most potent on "Na Linha Do Arco Iris" ("The Line Of The Rainbow"), a rallying cry of support for her LGBT fans. Inspired by a young gay man she knew who was afraid to come out, the lyrics are a call to "come out of the wardrobe, cross the line of the rainbow and be who you want to be." "Faceira" and "No Meio Do Pitiú" are joyous carimbós with the latter surely the only song to recount the charms of Pitiú - the fishy-smelling water that floods Belém's legendary fish-market Ver-o-Peso as the ice defrosts. "No Sabor Do Beijo" ("The Taste Of A Kiss") delights in recounting the different flavors a kiss can have: "hot, frozen, sweet, salty, bold . . . abusive", whilst "Lua Jaci" ("Jaci Moon") recounts a journey to a local island for a concert: "When I arrived they didn't have a soundsystem - they were very poor people. All they had was this huge, beautiful moon . . . Lua Jaci." The cumbia-influenced "Quiemoso E Tremoso" is about seasoning Onete invented that reflects the mix of people from Pará: "Quiemoso is a spice from the Africans that burns the mouth, jambu is a spice from the indigenous that makes the mouth tremble (tremoso), whilst the olive oil is from the Portuguese and holds it together." The boleros Onete offers provide respite from the heat of the tropical night and a welcome chance to drop the tempo. On "Coracao Brecho Onete" sings of how her heart has become a second-hand store (brecho) full of happy and sad memories whilst "Quando Eu Te Conheci" ("When I Met You") is a song even she was unsure of recording because of its risqué lyric "Eu adorei teu jeito louco, Muito louco, Muito louco, De fazer amor" - "I adore your crazy way, Very crazy, Very crazy, Of making love." Comes with Portuguese lyrics and English translations.
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CD
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MAIS 034CD
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Dona Onete, "the grande dame of Amazonian song", returns with further tales from the river Amazon on her sophomore album Banzeiro. Whether she's championing gay rights, singing about the delights of indecent proposals, or praising a former lover for his "crazy ways of making love", Banzeiro is defined by Onete's honest reflections on life, love, sex as well as her delight in the everyday pleasures of life in the Amazon, whether that's spicy seasoning, salty kisses, or fishy-smelling water. "Banzeiro" is the wave that's created as boats pass through the water and with its pulsating saxophone riff, insistent guitar line, thundering percussion and Onete's charged lyrics the album title track, a banguê - raucous high-octane "Amazonian ska" - is a musical tsunami. Onete is at her most potent on "Na Linha Do Arco Iris" ("The Line Of The Rainbow"), a rallying cry of support for her LGBT fans. "Faceira" and "No Meio Do Pitiú" are joyous carimbós with the latter surely the only song to recount the charms of Pitiú - the fishy-smelling water that floods Belém's legendary fish-market Ver-o-Peso as the ice defrosts. "No Sabor Do Beijo" ("The Taste Of A Kiss") delights in recounting the different flavors a kiss can have: "hot, frozen, sweet, salty, bold . . . abusive", whilst "Lua Jaci" ("Jaci Moon") recounts a journey to a local island for a concert: "When I arrived they didn't have a soundsystem - they were very poor people. All they had was this huge, beautiful moon . . . Lua Jaci." The cumbia-influenced "Quiemoso E Tremoso" is about seasoning Onete invented that reflects the mix of people from Pará. The boleros Onete offers provide respite from the heat of the tropical night and a welcome chance to drop the tempo. On "Coracao Brecho Onete" sings of how her heart has become a second-hand store (brecho) full of happy and sad memories whilst "Quando Eu Te Conheci" ("When I Met You") is a song even she was unsure of recording because of its risqué lyric "Eu adorei teu jeito louco, Muito louco, Muito louco, De fazer amor" - "I adore your crazy way, Very crazy, Very crazy, Of making love." Comes with Portuguese lyrics and English translations.
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CD
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MAIS 027CD
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A vibrant blend of Paraense folklore, carimbó, boi bumba, Caribbean salsa, brega, samba, and even rap, all rooted in the cultures of the Brazilian interior, this phenomenal debut album from Amazonian septuagenarian songstress Dona Onete has been over 60 years in the making and almost never happened. Sitting on the banks of the Amazonian river in the small town of Igarapé Miri as an 11 year-old, singing sambas, quadrilhas, and boi bumbas to the river dolphins, Dona Onete could have scarcely imagined she'd be seeing the worldwide release of her debut album at the age of 73. While not pursuing music as a career when growing up, Onete's heart remained invested in it. Becoming an expert in the rhythms, dances and traditions of the Amazon through her university studies, she'd go on to become Municipal Secretary of Culture of her hometown Igaparé-Miri. Completely enveloped by Amazonian culture and with her latent talents as a singer, Onete began to compose music for herself. Amassing a collection of over 300 original songs throughout her years, it wasn't until she retired that her musical career took off. Moving to the quiet area of Pedreira in Belém to while away the rest of her days with her husband, Onete inadvertently moved onto a street where popular Brazilian band Coletivo Radio Cipó lived. The band, hearing Dona perform at a local carimbó party, initially thought they were listening to a much younger singer -- due to Onete's vivacious and flirtatious flair, along with her penchant for a cheeky lyric or two. But when they caught sight of her, they were astounded. Knowing they'd stumbled upon someone truly special, the band instantly invited her to sing on their forthcoming album. Onete took some convincing, but eventually relented, a decision that would lead to her recording as an artist in her own right and see her audience of river dolphins on the banks of the Amazon transform into the people of the cities of Brazil, and soon the world.
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