João Pernambuco - Interrogando

João Pernambuco - Interrogando

Guitar - David Russell
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João Teixeira Guimarães, known as João Pernambuco (Jatoba (current Petrolândia), 2 of November of 1883 - Rio de Janeiro, 16 of October of 1947), was a musician, composer and guitarist Brazilian.

Son of Teresa Vieira [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and the Portuguese Manuel Teixeira Guimarães, with the death of his father in 1891, his mother remarried, moving with her family to Recife. He started playing the viola as a child, influenced by local singers and guitarists.

He learned to play the guitar with country singers such as Bem-te-vi, Mandapolão, Manuel Cabeceira, the blind Sinfrônio, Fabião das Queimadas and Cirino Guajurema. [ 4 ]

In 1902, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, living with his sister and working in a foundry. Six years later, he started working as a servant in the city hall of Rio, moving to a pension in the center of the city. In Rio, he made contact with popular guitarists, while working as a blacksmith, in journeys of up to sixteen hours a day. For his friends and admirers, in ever-increasing numbers, he told and sang things from his homeland, hence the nickname João Pernambuco.

As early as 1908, he was considered one of the best performers in Choro , alongside names such as Quincas Laranjeiras , Ernani Figueiredo , Zé do Cavaquinho and Satyro Bilhar .

He composed songs inspired by the Northeast, based on folk songs . This is the case of the hymn Luar do Sertão , composed in 1911, his greatest success, not credited by the lyricist partner Catulo da Paixão Cearense , who remained as the only author. Pixinguinha certified in his interview at the Museu da Imagem e do Som that he heard João Pernambuco play it before Catulo put the lyrics. João and Catulo performed together at meetings of the Rio upper class.

Parallel to Choro, he developed his work in regional songs through his own compositions and by northeastern guitar players and singers. João Pernambuco also sang and sang well. On the strings, in addition to the guitar, which he handled with mastery and in which he developed a peculiar technique, he was skilled on the guitar. He composed more than one hundred songs, including choros, waltzes , jongos , maxixes , emboladas , toadas, cocos , preludes and studies.

In 1916, he formed the Troupe Sertaneja, with which he performed in São Paulo , Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre .

He participated in the Turunas Pernambucanos and the Oito Batutas , between 1919 and 1922, alongside Pixinguinha , who later achieved fame by touring Europe .

Friends since 1912, Donga , Pixinguinha (this one was fourteen years old) and João lived in a republic on Rua do Riachuelo 268. It was from there that the Caxangá Group came out in carnivals and it was also at this time that they produced Sabia, Os Três Companheiros and I'm Voltando. They were together from 1914 to 1919 in Caxangá and from 1919 to 1922 in Oito Batutas, which at this stage was predominantly a sertanejo group.

From 1928 to 1935, João Pernambuco lived in the mansion on Av. Mem de Sá, 81, where there was a republic that housed mostly musicians and soccer players. There, João organized lively and well-attended choro circles with the participation of Donga, Pixinguinha, Patrício Teixeira , Rogério Guimarães and, occasionally, Villa-Lobos . It was also in this place that João met, through his friend Levino, a young and promising guitarist named Dilermando Reis .

The most holy trinity of precursors of the Brazilian guitar is made up of Quincas Laranjeiras , João Pernambuco and Levino Albano da Conceição and João's guitar work was of such density and depth that Villa-Lobos manifested himself to it:

"…Bach would not be ashamed to sign João Pernambuco's studies as his…".
The renowned musicologist Mozart de Araújo did not do for less:

"João Pernambuco is for the guitar as well as Ernesto Nazareth is for the Piano".
The outstanding guitarist Maurício Carrilho once wrote the following about João Pernambuco and his music:

"It is difficult to find a Brazilian guitarist, be he classical or popular musician, who does not have some music by João in his repertoire."
Along with the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, João Pernambuco's work became "the most legitimate expression of the Brazilian way of playing the guitar", added Maurício.

Source: Portuguese Wikipedia, João Pernambuco
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