SEARCH

Subscribe to our newsletter:

Name:

Email:

where do you live?
UK BRAZIL SOMEWHERE ELSE

Recife: Venice without the Gondolas

Far from the beach, the River Capibaribe is venerated by musicians, poets and writers

Words: Bill Hinchberger
Pictures: Bruno von Söhsten
featured on JungleDrums issue 56 April 2008

For a destination often sold to tourists as a sun-and-sand beach town, Recife boasts a pretty rich collection of verse by native extolling the virtues of (and sometimes the faults with) its rivers and bridges.

“Rios, Pontes e Overdrives” (Rivers, Bridges and Overdrives) was the signature track of the late manguebeat kingpin Chico Science and his roots-rock fusion band Nação Zumbi a decade ago. In a song simply called “A Ponte” (The Bridge) which he co-wrote with Lula Queiroga, singer/songwriter Lenine gives new meaning to concrete poetry: The bridge isn’t made of concrete; it isn’t made of iron/It isn’t cement/ The bridge is where my thoughts lead.

The repertoire of the veteran roots band Quinteto Violado includes a tune that hails one of the city’s rivers: It drowns the days of the calendar/Shipwrecks men in their salaries/ Runs full through empty hands/ The Capibaribe River".

Most famously, JoĂŁo Cabral de Melo Neto sends his poor migrant hero from the rural scrublands along the Capibaribe and into Recife in his classic narrative poem Life and Death of Severino, published in 1954.