By MdC Suingue
Born to a Rio de Janeiro middle class family, she flirted with bossa nova, MPB and even forró. Her singing career was launched in the mid 1960s when she had her first hit, ‘Andanças'. But all that was before she became a full-time sambista and dived into the world of the suburbs, Lapa, favelas and the music from avery different reality from the one she was born into... 
He was the owner of one of the few temples of samba left in Copacabana, a neighborhood that was home to dozens of live music places back in the 50s/60s. Bip Bip was a bar he ran with no intention of becoming rich, but to keep busy and make a decent enough living whilst providing punters with lots of beer, music and culture. He treated the bar as an extension of his living room: you were his guest, to the extent that you were expected to fetch your own beer in the fridge! Since the eighties - when he bought the bar and began organizing his famous ‘rodas de samba’ - his bar acquired a reputation as a point of resistance - culturally and politically. The 19 square meters that initially gathered the likes of Cristina Buarque, Elton Medeiros, Walter Alfaiate and Zé Keti shaped a new generation of sambistas that learned the old songs and are now creating their own repertoire, perfectly befitting their distinguished elders. We too have our personal Alfredinho tale to tell... |
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