Rosinha de Valença
Encyclopedia
Maria Rosa Canelas better known as Rosinha de Valença, was a Brazilian composer, arranger and musician. She was considered one of the best acoustic guitarist in Brazilian music and played with many famous artists, such as Baden Powell
, Sérgio Mendes
and Sivuca
.
, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her artistic name was created by Sérgio Porto, a journalist from Rio de Janeiro, who used to say Canelas plays for her whole city. So, he called her Rosinha de Valença.
When she was a child, Valença became interested in playing acoustic guitar as she saw her brother playing it. She learnt on her own, listening to musics on the radio. At 12 years old, she played along many artists of her town, in bars and on the Radio Valença. In 1960, she stopped studying to devote herself to the musical career. However, the first years were difficult for the musician. As she was a woman, her family do not like the idea of her playing guitar. In fact, when she started her career, only a few people gave attention to her.
In 1963, Valença moved to Rio de Janeiro
. There, she met Sérgio Porto, who created her artistic name and present her to Baden Powell
and Aloísio Oliveira, a Gravadora Elenco's producer. The former started with her the new way of playing guitar in Brazilian music. The last one liked her work and invited her for recording an album. It was named Apresentando Rosinha de Valença and was released in that same year. After it, she was invited to play for eight months in Bottle's nightclub and to perform in TV shows and on the radio. One year later, she performed in the big show O Fino da Bossa, at Paramount Theater, São Paulo. She also played with Nara Leão
and Quarteto em Cy
.
In that same year, 1964, she travelled to United States
for playing with Sérgio Mendes
and Brasil 65. This tour took eight months and, during it, Valença recorded two albums with Mendes and his band. In 1965, she travelled to Europe as soloist of a Brazilian group. This band visited and performed in 24 countries in Europe and Japan. In 1968, Valença travelled again for a long tour which ended in 1971, when she came back to Brazil. Between these years, Maria Rosa Canelas visited USSR, Israel
, Switzerland
, Italy
, Portugal
and some African countries. She also played, in that period, with Stan Getz
, Sarah Vaughan
and Henry Mancini
.
Back to Brazil, she played with Martinho da Vila
, contributing for four of his albums. In 1974, after another tour abroad, Valença organized her own band, which was composed by famous artists, such as João Donato
, Copinha, Ivone Lara and Miúcha
. In 1977, she performed with Sivuca
, recording a live album with him, name Sivuca e Rosinha de Valença ao vivo. There is other notable album with Waltel Blanco, Violões em dois estilos, released in 1980.
Rosinha de Valença finished her musical career prematurely due health problems: she had had brain damage due to a heart attack. She died in 2004, in her hometown, after 12 years in a vegetative state, of respiratory failure.
In 2000, Valença was honored by a benefit concert, organized by Jalusa Barcellos, member of Secretaria Estadual de Cultura, and presented by Sérgio Cabral. This event was named Uma noite para Rosinha (One night for Rosinha) and counted with contribution of Haroldo Costa, as general director, and Jorge Simas, as musical diretor. Among various artists, the concert counted on Beth Carvalho, Dona Ivone Lara, Francis Hime, Olívia Hime, João Nogueira, Joyce, Leci Brandão, Miúcha, MPB-4, Paulinho da Viola and Quarteto em Cy.
After her death, Maria Bethania
produced the album Namorando a Rosa, co-produced by Miúcha. This CD counts on the participation of many friends and professional fellows of Rosinha de Valença: Martinho da Vila, Ivone Lara, Alcione
, Miúcha, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Joanna
, Bebel Gilberto
, Hermeto Pascoal
, Turíbio Santos
and Yamandu Costa
. Each artist recorded a song composed by Valença, remembering their relationship with the guitarist.
Rosinha de Valença's songs were also recorded in other works by famous artists, such as Martinho da Vila, Joanna, Zezé Motta, Rui Maurity, Tito Madi, Nana Caymmi, César Camargo Mariano, Wanderléa, Leci Brandão, Maria Bethânia and Paulinho Nogueira.
Baden Powell de Aquino
Baden Powell de Aquino usually known simply as Baden Powell, was one of the greatest Brazilian guitarists. He explored the instrument to its utmost limits, playing it in a distinctive, unique manner, incorporating virtuoso classical techniques together with popular harmony and swing...
, Sérgio Mendes
Sergio Mendes
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
and Sivuca
Sivuca
Severino Dias de Oliveirawas a Brazilian accordionist and guitarist.In addition to in his home state of Paraíba, in Recife, and in Rio de Janeiro,...
.
Biography
Maria Rosa Canelas was born in 1941, in ValençaValença
Valença , also known as Valença do Minho, is a municipality and a town in Portugal with a total area of 117.1 km² and a total population of 14,324 inhabitants...
, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her artistic name was created by Sérgio Porto, a journalist from Rio de Janeiro, who used to say Canelas plays for her whole city. So, he called her Rosinha de Valença.
When she was a child, Valença became interested in playing acoustic guitar as she saw her brother playing it. She learnt on her own, listening to musics on the radio. At 12 years old, she played along many artists of her town, in bars and on the Radio Valença. In 1960, she stopped studying to devote herself to the musical career. However, the first years were difficult for the musician. As she was a woman, her family do not like the idea of her playing guitar. In fact, when she started her career, only a few people gave attention to her.
In 1963, Valença moved to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. There, she met Sérgio Porto, who created her artistic name and present her to Baden Powell
Baden Powell de Aquino
Baden Powell de Aquino usually known simply as Baden Powell, was one of the greatest Brazilian guitarists. He explored the instrument to its utmost limits, playing it in a distinctive, unique manner, incorporating virtuoso classical techniques together with popular harmony and swing...
and Aloísio Oliveira, a Gravadora Elenco's producer. The former started with her the new way of playing guitar in Brazilian music. The last one liked her work and invited her for recording an album. It was named Apresentando Rosinha de Valença and was released in that same year. After it, she was invited to play for eight months in Bottle's nightclub and to perform in TV shows and on the radio. One year later, she performed in the big show O Fino da Bossa, at Paramount Theater, São Paulo. She also played with Nara Leão
Nara Leão
Nara Lofego Leão was a Brazilian bossa nova and MPB singer and occasional actress. Her husband was Carlos Diegues, director and writer of Bye Bye Brasil....
and Quarteto em Cy
Quarteto em Cy
Quarteto em Cy is a Brazilian girl group originally composed of four sisters hailing from Ibirataia, a town located in the Brazilian state of Bahia: Cybele, Cylene, Cynara and Cyva - their real first names. They started performing in 1959, appearing on local television in that year...
.
In that same year, 1964, she travelled to United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for playing with Sérgio Mendes
Sergio Mendes
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
and Brasil 65. This tour took eight months and, during it, Valença recorded two albums with Mendes and his band. In 1965, she travelled to Europe as soloist of a Brazilian group. This band visited and performed in 24 countries in Europe and Japan. In 1968, Valença travelled again for a long tour which ended in 1971, when she came back to Brazil. Between these years, Maria Rosa Canelas visited USSR, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and some African countries. She also played, in that period, with Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
and Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
.
Back to Brazil, she played with Martinho da Vila
Martinho da Vila
Martinho da Vila is a Brazilian samba musician...
, contributing for four of his albums. In 1974, after another tour abroad, Valença organized her own band, which was composed by famous artists, such as João Donato
João Donato
João Donato de Oliveira Neto is a Brazilian jazz and bossa nova pianist from Brazil, probably best known for his numerous albums as bandleader in the idiom...
, Copinha, Ivone Lara and Miúcha
Miúcha
Heloísa Maria Buarque de Hollanda , whose artistic name is Miúcha, is a Brazilian singer and composer. She is the daughter of historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda by Maria Amélia Cesário Alvim and sister of the singer and composer Chico Buarque and two other singers Ana de Hollanda and Cristina...
. In 1977, she performed with Sivuca
Sivuca
Severino Dias de Oliveirawas a Brazilian accordionist and guitarist.In addition to in his home state of Paraíba, in Recife, and in Rio de Janeiro,...
, recording a live album with him, name Sivuca e Rosinha de Valença ao vivo. There is other notable album with Waltel Blanco, Violões em dois estilos, released in 1980.
Rosinha de Valença finished her musical career prematurely due health problems: she had had brain damage due to a heart attack. She died in 2004, in her hometown, after 12 years in a vegetative state, of respiratory failure.
Tributes
Since Maria Rosa Canelas went into a coma, many artists recorded her songs as tribute to her.In 2000, Valença was honored by a benefit concert, organized by Jalusa Barcellos, member of Secretaria Estadual de Cultura, and presented by Sérgio Cabral. This event was named Uma noite para Rosinha (One night for Rosinha) and counted with contribution of Haroldo Costa, as general director, and Jorge Simas, as musical diretor. Among various artists, the concert counted on Beth Carvalho, Dona Ivone Lara, Francis Hime, Olívia Hime, João Nogueira, Joyce, Leci Brandão, Miúcha, MPB-4, Paulinho da Viola and Quarteto em Cy.
After her death, Maria Bethania
Maria Bethânia
Maria Bethânia Vianna Telles Veloso , better known as Maria Bethânia , is a singer and sister of Caetano Veloso. She started her career in Rio de Janeiro in 1964 with the show "Opinião"...
produced the album Namorando a Rosa, co-produced by Miúcha. This CD counts on the participation of many friends and professional fellows of Rosinha de Valença: Martinho da Vila, Ivone Lara, Alcione
Alcione
Alcione Dias Nazareth is one of the most successful female sambists in Brazil who first claimed international recognition in the late 1970s, and has had 19 gold records and two platinum records.- Biography :She was born in São Luís, Maranhão...
, Miúcha, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Joanna
Joanna
Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from Koine Greek Iōanna from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה meaning "God is gracious". Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna...
, Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto is a Brazilian popular singer often associated with bossa nova. She is the daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha. Her uncle is singer/composer Chico Buarque...
, Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a greatly beloved musical figure in the history of Brazilian music, known for his abilities at orchestration and improvisation, as well as being a record producer and...
, Turíbio Santos
Turibio Santos
Turibio Soares Santos is considered one of the best Brazilian guitar players alive.He established himself with a wide repertoire of pieces by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ernesto Nazareth, Francisco Mignone, and by accompanying musicians like Clara Sverner, Paulo Moura and Olivia Byington on many CDs.At...
and Yamandu Costa
Yamandú Costa
Yamandu Costa , sometimes misspelled Yamandú, is a Brazilian guitarist and composer. His main instrument is the violão de 7 cordas, the Brazilian seven-stringed nylon guitar....
. Each artist recorded a song composed by Valença, remembering their relationship with the guitarist.
Rosinha de Valença's songs were also recorded in other works by famous artists, such as Martinho da Vila, Joanna, Zezé Motta, Rui Maurity, Tito Madi, Nana Caymmi, César Camargo Mariano, Wanderléa, Leci Brandão, Maria Bethânia and Paulinho Nogueira.
Studio albums
- 1964: Apresentando Rosinha de Valença (Elenco)
- 1970: Rosinha de Valença apresenta Ipanema Beat (RCA Victor)
- 1971: Um violão em primeiro plano (RCA/BMG)
- 1973: Rosinha de ValençaRosinha de Valença (album)Rosinha de Valença is a 1973 album recorded by the Brazilian musician Rosinha de Valença. Produced by João Melo, this album was released simultaneously in Brazil, for Som Livre, and in France, for Barclay...
(Som Livre) - 1980: Violões em dois estilos (Som Livre), with Waltel Blanco
Live albums
- 1966: Rosinha de Valença ao vivo (Forma)
- 1975: Rosinha de Valença e banda ao vivo (Odeon)
- 1977: Sivuca e Rosinha de Valença ao vivo (RCA Pure Gold), with SivucaSivucaSeverino Dias de Oliveirawas a Brazilian accordionist and guitarist.In addition to in his home state of Paraíba, in Recife, and in Rio de Janeiro,...
As contributor
- 1965: Brasil 65 (Capitol), by Wanda de Sah featuring Sérgio Mendes Trio
- 1965: In person at El Matador (Atlantic/Fermata), by Sérgio Mendes and Brasil 65