rozenblit incident

The partnership which bore the short-lived Satwa was a collision of seemingly disparate identities from the same north-eastern coastal territories; Lula Côrtes from the old Portugese state of Paraíba, and Lailson from the resettled Dutch colony of Pernambuco.

Both, though, were very much a product of an idealogical optimism which flourished in spite of the third military government under Emilio Garrastazu Médici. Each traveled freely. Côrtes to Morocco, Lailson in the United States. On their return home in 1973, the "economic miracle" fostered by seven years free trade was in collapse.

Côrtes and Lailson parted company soon after the resulting LP was issued on a private press.

While Bernardo Rondeau* documents that Lailson subsequently drifted - eventually concentrating on a successful career as a newspaper satirist - Côrtes went on to collaborate with fellow Paraíban, Zé Ramalho on a more ambitious project. Where "Satwa" bristles with a raw dynamic, "Paêbirû" is considered and cerebral. Determinedly apolitical. The contrast is striking.

Just one year separates the two, but it as if the gentle unrest which saturated those earlier sessions has been burned away. The ashes interred. The memory of Morocco crystallized into something opaque and distant.

Ironically, given the material is presented in four distinct acts corresponding to the elements, all but a handful of copies were allegedly consumed by a river flood which bankrupted the label.

The story has never been convincingly authenticated.

The first piece is one of three gathered under 'ar'. The second, the last of four stained by 'água'.

Produced by Hélio Ricardo and Katia Mesel.

Recorded at Rozenblit Studio,
Recife, PE. October - December, 1974.

* Review of "Satwa", Dusted Magazine, 2005.

▼ LULA CÔRTES E ZÉ RAMALHO: HARPA DOS ARES from "Paêbirû" 2 x LP (ROZENBLIT RECORDS / SOLAR) 1975 (Brazil)
▼ LULA CÔRTES E ZÉ RAMALHO: TRILHA DE SUMÉ from "Paêbirû" 2 x LP (ROZENBLIT RECORDS / SOLAR) 1975 (Brazil)