Paulinho Garcia: The Noel Rosa Project Review and Gallery

By: Tony Richards
Photos By: Tyler Ross

On a particularly cold and snowy night, the warmth of Noel Rosa filled the auditorium at the University of Chicago’s International House. The setting was a bar somewhere in Vila Isabel (Rio de Janeiro) back in the 1920s, where musician’s gathered together to enjoy life while playing music. One of those musicians was Noel Rosa, who despite his health problems and lack of money, would become a giant in Brazilian music and culture. Paulinho Garcia and friends set out to tell the story of Noel Rosa and provide perspective on this relatively unknown figure in the United States. Mission Accomplished!

Over the span of a few hours, the musicians played 18 of the roughly 260 songs Noel composed over his short life. Their hearts were in the performance, as each number evoked a warm response from the audience. The narrator, Assir Da Silva, simultaneously chronicled Noel Rosa’s life, described the times he lived in, and gave context for each song. For those unfamiliar with Rosa’s music, this narration provided great insight to the profound, sometimes comical, but always brilliant social commentary in Noel’s lyrics. In addition, the song selection for the evening showed just how wide a musical net Rosa cast. From Samba to ballads, it was all there.

As usual, Paulinho Garcia’s guitar playing was superb and provided the bedrock for the evening. He was accompanied by world-renowned mandolinist Don Stiernberg, who improvised beautifully over each melody as his notes blended flawlessly with tones of Paulinho’s guitar. A great contribution was made by the three percussionists (Heitor Garcia, Geraldo De Oliveira, Dede Sampaio) across the spectrum of the songs. There were also many singers involved and all of them performed with great character, giving deep feeling to their respective songs.

As the evening came to a close, Paulinho reflected on the how much of a giant Noel Rosa is in Brazilian culture and how important it was to him to tell the story of his music and life. The Noel Rosa Project was a huge success in that endeavor.

To learn more about Noel Rosa, please check out this article in Portuguese or this article in English.

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