Dora Lopes – Enciclopédia da Gíria (1957 Mocambo)

Dora Lopes – Enciclopédia da Gíria
Mocambo / Rozenblit 1957

Is this a Pride Month post?  Sort of, because Dora Lopes was possibly the first “out” singer in Brazilian popular music.   But this record was  before anyone outside Rio scenesters knew or cared about her sexuality, and even before she was the proprietor of O Caixotinho, one of Rio’s first lesbian nightclubs that served the Copacabana area beginning in the second half of the 60s.  This 1957 album is notable for other reasons, like being released on the small Recife imprint Mocambo, and for the fact that Dora gets composer credits on all but a couple songs here in a era when women songwriters were not the norm.  The songs and arrangements fit more in the jazz-samba world than the nascent bossa nova scene.

1. Dicionário da Gíria (Dora Lopes / César Cruz)
2. Bom Mulato (Zeca do Pandeiro / Ari Monteiro)
3. Engolobada (Zeca do Pandeiro / Geraldo Serafim)
4. Banca de Brabo (Dora Lopes / Franco Ferreira)
5. Galã Continental (Dora Lopes / Franco Ferreira)
6. Nega Odete (Aldacir Louro / Dora Lopes)
7. Falso Cabrito (Dora Lopes / Franco Ferreira)
8. Conversando na Gíria (Zeca do Pandeiro / Arthur Montenegro)
9. Tostão Não Tem Troco (Dora Lopes)
10. Baiuca do Leleco (Dora Lopes / Zeca do Pandeiro)
11. Diploma de Otário (Dora Lopes / Ari Monteiro)
12. Ninando Muriçoca (Ari Monteiro / Zeca do Pandeiro)

Enciclopédia da Gíria is also notable for being Dora’s first long-player release after a decade of being in the music business.  Dora Freitas Lopes made her name singing on the radio and in nightclubs, and released a respectable amount of singles (78s and 45s) that brought her critical and popular praise, but this was her first LP.  The opening track is a case study in hip slang of the late 50s.  The whole record is a lot of fun.  That’s not her on the front cover, by the way.  In fact it is not even the original cover — I’m not sure where it originates but it seems like a generic postcard image of Rio that got used for reissues.  The original is below Dora’s portrait —

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