Miriam Batucada

Miriam Ângela Lavecchia, better known as Miriam Batucada (28 December 1946 – 2 July 1994), was a Brazilian singer, composer, and TV presenter. Beginning her career as a performer on various TV shows, she was given her nickname from TV host Cidinha Campos for her batucada abilities. She transitioned into a musical career, going as Miriam Batucada, releasing several albums to modest sales.

She is best known for her participation for her participation on the album Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista Apresenta Sessão das 10, drawing from various influences, released on 21 July 1971 with the record label Discos CBS, together with Edy Star, Sérgio Sampaio, and Raul Seixas. Miriam Batucada would attempt to develop her career to little success in the years that followed. She released two more studio albums - Amanhã Ninguém Sabe, with label GEL; and Alma da Festa, independently released - without much public or commercial success. She died in 1994, but her works gained further notoriety due the rediscovery of the "kavernistas" beginning in the 2000s. With the relaunching of the original album, musicians began creating tributes and later released compilations with unreleased material from CDs.

Biography

Miriam Batucada was born on 28 December 1946, in the neighborhood of Mooca in São Paulo, with which she would be identified with later on in her career, due to her form of speech being typical for people of Italian background in the region. However, her birth was registered on the first day of the following year so that she could "gain a year", as was common at the time, becoming her official birth date on public documents. Her grandparents, on both sides, were of Italian background.

When she was 17 years old, Batucada met a girl whose nickname was "Chacareira", in the salon of the hairstylist Dona Adelina, on Rua da Mooca; it was this childhood friend that taught her how to do percussion - for her to do batucada - with her hands. In the beginning, she would just do a slow rhythm, but after three months of practice, she was able to create very rapid rhythms, being able to reproduce the measures of any samba song. In the future, this would be her most recognizable feature during her musical career. Before attempting to begin her career, she took courses in typing at IBM and worked at the home appliance company Arno, not having been able to practice batucada as much due to her work.

Batucada was lesbian, though she did not reveal this during the course of her public life.

Career

Television and music Miriam began her career in 1966, with her participation on TV presenter 's show on RecordTV. On the show, she played various instruments, such as the piano, drums, harmonica, guitar, and the cuíca, along with showing her batucada skills. In the weeks that followed, she was hired by the channel, participating on the show of Blota Júnior's wife, , along with going on to perform regularly on the shows of Hebe Camargo and Ronnie Von on Saturday evenings. She came to present with acts including Os Mutantes, who were a long-running act on Ronnie Von's program at that time. She became famous for being what many considered to be a "show-woman" at the time: doing imitations, telling "stories" and jokes, and singing and playing musical instruments. It was in one of these programs that presenter Cidinha Campos called her Miriam da Batucada, leading to Miriam to adopt this as her stage name.

The following year, she moved to Rio de Janeiro in an attempt to start her musical career, due to the city being seen as the center of the music industry in Brazil, with many record labels being based there. There, she released a duo CD with Odeon Records, including "Linguajar do Morro"; "Depois do Carnaval"; "Puro Amor"; and "Dois Meninos". However, these efforts proved unsuccessful. She went to live, during this period in time, on sporadic appearances, even going abroad to places like the United States and Portugal, and appearing in TV shows.

Legacy and rediscovery The year she died, Miriam was memorialized by the Municipal Chamber of São Paulo by naming a street in Mooca after her. Since the beginning of the 2000s, her music has been rediscovered, along with the other kavernistas, through a new CD edition of the album, putting the catalogue together after nearly 30 years. and even a biography by journalist and historian Ricardo Santhiago being in production, though with no set date for release. New album releases also continue to occur. In 2018, a collection of songs from various discs were released by DGD Records.

In 2020, Santhiago discovered various unreleased songs by Miriam in a trunk that was given by a sister of the singer. Due to this, various invited artists came together to record an album of the songs with production by Sérgio Arara. The participants included Áurea Martins, , , , Edy Star, Juliana Amaral, Leila Maria, , , Maria Alcina, , , Vânia Bastos, Zé Luiz Mazziotti and Zeca Baleiro, along with rare recordings by Miriam herself. In 2023, a tribute of Miriam was made by the theatre group Os Geraldos in "Ubu Rei", directed by Gabriel Vilella.

Discography The discography comes from Discogs, Cravo Albin, IMMUB, and Tratore.

CDs

1967 – Batucando nas Mãos / Plác-tic-plác-plác - Rozenblit (Artistas Unidos) 1971 - Todo Mundo Está Feliz / Chorinho Inconsequente - Discos CBS (B-side only. A-side was sung by Sérgio Sampaio) 1972 – Diabo no Corpo / Gente - Discos CBS 1973 - Decisão / Polichinelo - GEL (Chantecler) 1975 - Você É seu Melhor Amigo / Você Vai se Quiser - GEL (Chantecler) 1975 - Sotaque Paulista - A Lua de Ontem / Abacaxi - RGE (Young) 1979 – Ajoelhou (A Mulher e o Cabrito) / Marcha do João - RGE (B-side only. A-side is sung by O lado A é cantado pelo Chacrinha) 1980 - Sinal De Vida / Batucada, Cachaça e Futebol - Discos CBS A Saia / Pantalona - Musidisc

Duo CDs

1968 - Linguajar do Morro / Depois do Carnaval / Puro Amor / Dois Meninos - Odeon 1974 – Acertei no Milhar - GEL (Chantecler)

Studio albums

1971 – Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista Apresenta Sessão das 10 (with Raul Seixas, Sérgio Sampaio and Edy Star) - Discos CBS 1974 – Amanhã Ninguém Sabe - GEL (Chantecler) 1991 – Alma da Festa - RIC

Compilations

1967 - Seleção de Sucessos - Rozenblit (Artistas Unidos) (strip 12) 2018 - A Batucada não Morreu - DGD Records