MM0004 Maracatu Nação Encanto da Alegria – Baque Forte (2006)
This is the 4th release of the BPF series (Brasil Passado Futuro), the second about Maracatu Nação Encanto da Alegria. This is justified due to the importance of the members of Encanto da Alegria, especially for the history of Mestre Toinho, who nowadays is a reference between the past and the future of Recife’s Maracatus, and also for the group’s own articulation in the making of this album.
Through this record, several songs that were “almost” forgotten, because only Toinho can sing, and now are part of the mankind legacy and help tell the history of our people, especially a “form” of playing Maracatu is recorded and resisting in a world that is speeding up by each moment and Maracatus are not out of these changes.
Another important factor: During most of the album recording, the older members were not able to participate, but the quality was not compromised because the transmission of the knowledge and rites by the elders to the new generation is already done, and certainly the release of the first album of Encanto da Alegria by Selo Mundo Melhor influenced the young people to acknowledge the importance they have as followers of this tradition.
With this album, these songs cease to be only in public domain and become the collective domain of the communities that practice this tradition. That is our intention in doing this work.
Much still has to be done by these people in order to improve their lives in a real way, but this goes beyond our performance, as it is a matter of public policies, which in this case involves not only the groups, but also the poor classes of our country, therefore affirmative actions must be made, such as pensions for Mestres and Brincantes who dedicated their whole lives to it and today make the bridge of the past with the future. The municipalities should better pass on the funds to these communities and give real support to the parties held by these groups. And as citizens, we should have an ethic in approaching these communities and seeking to learn the meaning of the rites. Drums are not just drums; the dances bring much more than body movements and the content of the songs say much more than we can understand. We must, above all, live together and learn from them to build a better World.