Her full name is Maria Waldelurdes Costa de Santana Dutilleux, better known as Daúde. She was born in Salvador, Bahia, the pulsing heart of African Brazil, and spent her first eleven years there. “I was born in a blessed place,” she says. “I lived in Candeal, a favela (ghetto) where the songs of the crickets and the roosters, and the sounds of the swamp were a pure symphony. Maybe that’s why my soul is cleansed and full of music. I moved to Rio when I was 11.”
Daúde spent her childhood listening to her grandfather and his serenading uncles, who played and sang the music of Sinho, Lupiefnio, Luiz Gonzaga, Erivelto Martins, Nelson Goncalves, Orlando Silva, Jararaca e Ratinho and many others. “My father, with his record collection, introduced me to Martinho Vila, Mestre Marcal, Monsueto, Jackson, Pandeiro, to “sertanejo” music, Pixinguinha, Villa-Lobos, to all military anthems (the Navy anthem was the most beautiful) to the big bands, to sambas de roda and to his sax and clarinet repertoire.”
Her aunts offered him the sounds of Roberto Carlos, Jerry Adriani, Wanderley Cardoso, Vanderlbia, Vanusa, Antonio Marcos, Gil, Gal, Bethania, Caetano [Veloso], Chico Buarque, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Serge Gainsbourg, Jorge Ben, Leno e Lilian, MPB 4, Eduardo e Silvinha Araujo, and many others. “My mother offered, with tenderness, Dalva de Oliveira, Angela Maria, Claudia Barroso, Nubia Lafayete, Nicinha Batista, Elizete Cardoso, Dolores Duran, Emilinha Borba e Marlene, all religious hymns and lullabies.”
When Daúde was eleven, the family moved to Rio de Janeiro. In her teenage years, radio culture was essential to her development as an artist. It was there that she heard American soul artists and British blues rockers for the first time, mixed in with her beloved Brazilian music. “Tamoio and Mundial radio stations took upon-themselves to introduce me to Marvin Gaye, Barry White, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Donna Summer, Tanita Tikaran, Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five, Chaka Kahn, Santana, Santa Esmeralda, Slade, Genesis, The Who, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Roberta Flack… I heard Brazilian music exploding on FMs. 0s Novos Baianos, Secos &Molhados… I danced and sang along to all and knew all their songs forwards &backwards. So I decided to sing as well and began to learn the techniques used by the singers. All of these influences are parts of my life. They are naturally present and necessary, almost organic.”
She would dance and sing along – and right then and there decided to become a singer. She started learning technique. Daúde began performing at small caf?s and clubs. When the family moved away again, years later, she stayed, studying singing professionally. Then she took a university degree in Portuguese and Literature.
In 1995 she was able to record her first album. With the self titled Daúde she won two top Brazilian music awards: Sharp de Musica and APCA.
Her eclectic style combines traditional music with contemporary elements. Her CD Simbora featured remixes of her songs.
While many of her peers have been abandoning Brazilian music to undertake rock, hip-hop, techno, and dance, Daude takes the opposite tack. She looks to see how these forms can be brought back to enhance Brazilian music, not to replace it. The mix is all her own and the style she has created is unique.
After a four-year break between albums of new material, she icame back with her first album on Real World Records. “Neguinha Te Amo is really an homage to the Brazilian woman and her strength,” says Daude, “and to the legacy of mixed races, the happiness, humor, and knowing tolerance of the Brazilian people, and, finally, to Africa, expressed naturally and in a modern style. I never doubted what I was doing. Even with the world in such a mess, this is what carried me through the making of the album. Throughout, my challenge was to show another side of Brazilian music.”
The word ‘Neguinha’ is a term of endearment in Portuguese and means little black girl, the album title being therefore ‘Little Black Girl, 1 Love You’. The stories she tells on Neguinha Te Amo are richly varied, and they’re told in the language of the music as well as in the lyrics. Daúde is seeking to re-emphasize the African soul of the music while she bolsters the innately Brazilian. “The African element is natural to Brazilian music,” Daude explains. “It’s expressed through rhythm and often directly in the singing style, vocalization and improvisation. It doesn’t need flourishes and vibrato.”
For Neguinha Te Amo Daúde collected songs that treat romantic topics, but so, too, social and political ones. She explains, “Muito Quenfe, for example, describes how black brothers and sisters can feel about themselves, with positive imagery that’s also full of humor. Crioula, a duet with the great Jorge Benjor, is a celebration of black Brazilian womanhood. And Uma Neguinha describes a personal experience that all women of color will recognize. They will also identify with many other things on the album. The need to make the album went way deeper than just wanting to further my professional career.”
“I like songs that move me,” Daude says. “This emotion isn’t linked to place, it could be Brazilian, it could be from anywhere. With the best Brazilian music, there can often be a perfect marriage of harmony, melody, rhythm, and lyrics.”
Discography:
Daúde (Natasha Records, 1995)
Daúde #2 (Natasha Records, 1997)
Simbora (Natasha Records, 1999)
Neguinha te amo (Realworld Records, 2003)
Código Daúde (Lab 344, 2015)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
