♬ Wilson Moreira Serra (December 12, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was one of Rio de Janeiro's samba musicians. But he is not usually as remembered and/or revered as other masters of the generation such as Candeia (1935 – 1978), Martinho da Vila and even Nei Lopes, Wilson's most famous partner.
Hence the importance of the album that Marina Iris will release on Friday, September 25th, on the Biscoito Fino label. “Banzo batucada – Marina Iris sings Wilson Moreira” is a songbook written by those who know the Rio composer well, who would have turned 90 in December.
Album recorded under the artistic direction of Marina Iris herself, with musical production by Alaan Monteiro and Alessandro Cardozo, “Banzo Batucada” is far from being an obvious tribute. So much so that the repertoire selection ignores the standards of Wilson Moreira's partnership with Nei Lopes – “Coisa da Virgínia” (1977)”, “Candongueiro” (1978), “Goiabada cascão” (1978), “Gostoso Venom” (1979) and “Senhora Liberdade” (1979), immortalized in the voices of singers such as Clara Nunes (1942 –1983), Beth Carvalho (1946 – 2019), Alcione and Zezé Motta – to fish for rare black pearls in Wilson’s chest.
One of the gems is “Coité, cuia” (Wilson Moreira and Nei Lopes, 1977), a loud song that Marina Iris combines with “Meu baio e Meus balaios” (1975) in a medley that re-presents two forgotten sambas released in the voice of Roberto Ribeiro (1940 – 1996), a relevant singer whose discography needs to be better explored by performers of the new generations.
Marina Iris sings Wilson Moreira with reverence, without fashion invention and without the intention of modernizing a work of timeless strength. “Banzo batucada“ is an album from those who are in the know. Like Marina Iris and Teresa Cristina, a guest of the owner of the record in the fond memory of “Alegria Perdida (Yoyô de yayá)” (1974), Wilson's high-octane party with Candeia, the original interpreter of the samba released 52 years ago.
Bamba's partner in “Judia de mim” (1986), Zeca Pagodinho also participates in the album in another samba he composed with Wilson, “Moenda old” (1993), in a recording made with an arrangement by Pretinho da Serrinha. With Jorge Aragão, Marina Iris revisits “Quintal do Céu” (1986), a melodious samba with luminous lyricism, typical of Aragão, Wilson's partner in the samba released 40 years ago.
Preceded by the single released on September 3rd with the recording of “Nãna” (2011), the album “Banzo batucada“ features 18 sambas and a text over 14 tracks. Of the 18 sambas, 16 are by Wilson Moreira and two others are unreleased, made to praise the composer celebrated by Marina Iris.
The slow samba “Mestre Wilson soberano” (Manu da Cuíca and Marina Iris, 2026) and the loud party “Moringa do Moreira” (Marquinho China and Luiz Carlos Máximo, 2026) are allocated at the opening and closing of the album, respectively. Arranged by Ana Costa, the party “Moringa do Moreira” closes the album in high style with improvised verses with Gabrielzinho do Irajá, Marquinho China and Mosquito, Marina's guests on the track.
The samba that gave the name to the album released by Wilson Moreira in 1989, “Okolofé”, reappears, valued by the collective singing of the voices of the Theater Artist Choir, formed by Camilla Monteiro, Clara Serrão, Êlli Ferreira, Hugo Germano, Lucas Sampaio, Luiza Loroza, Muato, Jennifer Dias, Pedro Caetano, Sérgio Kauffmann. “Okolofé”, it is worth remembering, is a samba composed by Wilson in honor of the great actor Grande Otelo (1915 – 1993).
From the black art of Wilson Moreira and Nei Lopes, Marina Iris sings “Não foi ela” (1978) – one of the rare pearls of the album, although it was re-recorded by Zeca Pagodinho in 1997 – and turns the ground around the terreiro by singing “Jongo do Irmão Café” (1981) with the group Terreiro de Crioulo and Nei Lopes himself in an emotional recording.
In the fine seam of the album “Banzo batucada”, “Jongo do Irmão Café” is thematically aligned with “Canteiro deobra” (Wilson Moreira and Sérgio Fonseca, 1986), a track that precedes the jongo, bringing together Marina with two names dissociated from the circles, Chico César and Juliana Linhares, but both in tune with the tone of this mix of samba, seresta, toada and baião about the migration of the northeastern people to the southeast of Brazil. The song “Canteiro de Trabalho” is paired in a medley with the text “Tomorrow will be better”, by the Pernambuco poet Solano Trindade (1908 – 1974).
The recording of “Canteiro de Construção” exemplifies the solid construction of Marina Iris’s tribute to Wilson Moreira. Even if one or another sambe sounds less attractive in the work as a whole, the singer delivers to the people an album in the form of art, shedding light on a high-class composer who needs to be more revered outside the circles.
