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Topic: Brazilian Steel Guitar - Poly (Ângelo Apolônio) |
Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 6 Mar 2007 8:27 am |
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I've wanted for some time to mention a few steel guitarists whose music I've come across over the last year or so. Many of these players are relatively unknown in the US and may be more well known for playing other instruments (case in point, Marcel Bianchi). I've encountered the music of Poly and I just wanted to share some of it with you.
Poly (Ângelo Apolônio) was quite well known in his home country of Brazil. Born in São Paulo in 1920 (died in 1985), his career began in the 1930s, when he played violin, cavaquinho and mandolin for the Regional set of the São Paulo Radio. In the 1940s, he began playing interpretations of popular foxtrots on Hawaiian steel guitar. He went on to tour the world in various groups and continued making recordings in Brazil, where he also entertained in several nightclubs in São Paulo.
He was a prolific and ground-breaking artist in Brazil, where he introduced guitar and Hawaiian guitar to music that never had it before. He played not only foxtrots and popular songs, but also Samba, Tango, Sertaneja and even Choro.
I've acquired quite a few of his LPs and I'm going to be presenting some of these recordings for your listening pleasure. Today, these recordings would most likely be filed in the "Exotica" category. Whatever you call it, I like to think it's fun to listen to. Not a lot of improvisation going on, but very melodic playing.
The featured track, Siboney, is from Poly's 1960 LP, Show.
Go to MySpace and select the last song in the Music Player.
I've added a new song to this thread--I will continue to do so, so just scroll down the messages here.
Note to self--Don't wear white socks with a black suit while playing lap steel.....
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links
Last edited by Mike Neer on 7 Mar 2007 12:03 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 6 Mar 2007 10:54 am
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Mike,
Thanks! Never heard of this guy after living 7 years in SP and in the realm of steel here in Brazil he is all but forgotten. I wonder where those boats were, it might have been on the river here which is so polluted now that when you drive by the stench is so strong that you have shut the windows.
M. |
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Gerald Ross
From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Fred Kinbom
From:
Berlin, Germany, via Stockholm, Sweden.
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Posted 6 Mar 2007 7:22 pm
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| Matthew Prouty wrote: |
I wonder where those boats were, it might have been on the river here which is so polluted now that when you drive by the stench is so strong that you have shut the windows.
M. |
About the boats, maybe this could have been a translation glitch in some biography somewhere, as "boate" is Brazilian Portuguese for night club?
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www.fredrikkinbom.com - New lap steel album out now - listen here: fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-lap-steel-and-harmonium |
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Fred Kinbom
From:
Berlin, Germany, via Stockholm, Sweden.
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 6 Mar 2007 8:18 pm
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Thanks for clearing that up Fred--yes, it was "boates". I made the change to "nightclubs".
I'll change the tunes every day for the next few days.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Fred Kinbom
From:
Berlin, Germany, via Stockholm, Sweden.
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Posted 7 Mar 2007 8:59 am
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No problem Mike. I lived in Rio de Janeiro for a year, and I remember seeing São Paolo from the air during some stop-over, and it looked like concrete as far as the eye could see. It is also the biggest city I've ever seen (coming from a nation of 9 million  ).
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www.fredrikkinbom.com - New lap steel album out now - listen here: fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-lap-steel-and-harmonium |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Edward Meisse
From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2007 11:38 am
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| Thanks Mike. I don't often comment on your music posts. But I do always enjoy them immensely and even look forward to seeing them. They are both entertaining and educational. A valuable addition to the forum. |
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Don Kona Woods
From:
Hawaiian Kama'aina
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Posted 8 Mar 2007 12:08 am
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Ditto!!
Always an enjoyable experience. 
The steel guitar goes around the world!!! 
Aloha,
Don |
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Todd Weger
From:
Safety Harbor, FLAUSA
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Posted 8 Mar 2007 5:56 am South American rhythms with steel...
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I love the South American/Caribbean feeling rhythms combined with the long, fluid and legato sounds of the steel. I've often wondered what a blend of the two would sound like, and never realized someone was doing this back in 1960. Very cool.
Thanks for posting, Mike.
_________________
Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, E13, A6); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Custom-made 25" aluminum cast "fry pan" with vintage Ricky p'up (C6); 1938 Epiphone Electar (A6); 1953 Oahu Tonemaster; assorted ukuleles; upright bass |
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 8 Mar 2007 6:03 am
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Fred
Good call. Thats a word that is rarely used in São Paulo for clubs. I normally denotes a place of ill repute and thus clubs, normally called just bares or night-clubes are the mainstream words in the concrete jungle. In Rio however, they do use that word more often.
I should have thought of that but I guess my brain is fried from 7 years here.
M. |
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Jeff Strouse
From:
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
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Posted 9 Mar 2007 11:06 pm
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| This was a great cut, Mike! I dig the Latin beats with steel! |
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