Renata
Rosa Live with the Women of Kariri-Xocó
Renata Rosa first started singing as a young girl in Kariri-Xocó, a
village located on the banks of the São Francisco River in the state
of Alagoas in Brazil. Accompanied by the family of the pajé Julio, singing
instructor and Indian healer, she began singing traditional regional polyphonic
songs at the age of 14. The melodic construction of these songs’ polyphonic
counterpoint and its tones, which reach into the higher registers, shaped and
moulded her career as a singer.
Whilst
her first album, Zunido da Mata, paid tribute to another source of
inspiration – namely, traditional maracatu rural and cavalo marinho,
genres from the state of Pernambuco in the Recife region in North-eastern
Brazil – her new album, Manto dos Sonhos, marks a return to vocal
polyphonies with several traditional songs from this same region and,
on most tracks, choruses sung by Indian women.
Supplementing these songs with traditional Indian songs from the
Rio São
Francisco region, the Renata Rosa trio (Renata Rosa, Pépé, Lucas
dos Prazeres) is joined by an Indian women’s choir from the village Kariri-Xocó.
These are the same women who have supported, accompanied and encouraged Renata
Rosa since she was a young woman. In addition to the tracks featured on the
album – samba de coco, coco de roda, toré, rojão, all composed
on a polyphonic base – this performance offers a unique opportunity to
hear, for the first time outside Brazil, the subtle interweaving of Indian
torés, polyphonic songs that escalate and can lead to a state of trance.
Backed by the choir of Indian women – and a man whose masculine role
is paramount in the play of maracas and whose high-pitched voice harmonises
with the singer’s –, Renata Rosa brings to the European stage the
atmosphere of the polyphonic jousts proper to Indian villages, villages that
have been decimated one by one by the water needs of the global food industry
and by the establishment of a hydroelectric plant near Kariri-Xocó.
This plant has left the Indians unable to continue their everyday work routines;
without the floodwaters, it is no longer possible for them to grow rice and
use their fishing techniques for private consumption on the banks of the São
Francisco River, nicknamed the old Chico.
The village of Kariri-Xocó in the state of Alagoas came into existence
one hundred years ago when the Xocós joined the Kariris after being
driven from their land. Although this forced grouping of two ethnicities was
not free of strife, the community developed a strong bond, joining forces in
the struggle to reclaim Indian land. The Kariri-Xocó nation has successfully
maintained its traditions, notably those involving the pajé, the spiritual
leader (the cacique being the political leader). The toré unites the
community around the main elements of Indian culture: nature, plants, wind,
earth, fire and water. Singing the sacred songs that make up the toré is
an important bonding ritual for the community. These songs are led by the pajé,
the chorus master, whilst the rest of the community keeps time with maracas,
responds to him at opportune moments and dances in a circle around a fire.
The singing allows the tribe’s collective body to be replenished through
the involvement of each individual, resulting in the community’s lasting
endurance and balance. Guided by inspiration, the songs are infinite, as new
ones are constantly being created. They are sung in the native tongue and in
Portuguese, a concession that has allowed the ritual to persist. The rojãos
are the various “work songs” associated with different community
activities.
The samba de coco has its origins in the construction of houses:
the master of the house invites a coco singer and has a very good
meal prepared for his
friends who will help lay the house’s foundations. After preparing the
clay for the floor and pouring it over the ground, the participants pack it
down with their feet to the rhythm of the coquista (the coco singer). The pounding
steps used to even out the floor are called trupés. The floor’s
being turned into a percussion element demonstrates the strong influence of
the indigenous culture. The participants dance and respond to the singer’s
verses, whilst the coquista develops his embolada (a flow of verses that can
be improvised). With time and the disappearance of clay floors, this tradition
has now become associated with other community activities like grinding manioc
flour. Samba de coco groups have also gradually started making appearances
at festive events and parties. The beat of the coco de roda is more syncopated
than that of the samba de coco; the role of the feet is not as percussive and
the participants form a circle around the soloist, dancing and responding to
him or her.
