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Brazilian guitarist Rosinha de Valença had her heyday in the 1960s, and was eventually known as one her country’s best guitarists. Her most well-known album is from 1971, and has the very apt title A Guitar in the Foreground.
The band is cooking with gas, but that track, a version of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’, lives or dies by Valença’s playing. Her acoustic guitar is pushed to the front of the mix, and she rips through a multitude of performance styles as she goes. You can hear the passion in the slap of her fingers on the strings and fretboard.
The song is pretty clearly a product of the late sixties, effervescent and cool, but over the course of the album I was impressed by its variety, and the way she attacks each approach. On ‘Zanzibar’ you can hear her biding her time before interjecting stabs and slides.
Born in 1941 as Maria Rosa Canelas, she moved to Rio in 1963, where she met journalist Sérgio Porto. He described her as playing for her whole city - her birthplace of Valença - and so she took it as her stage name.
Bossa nova had originated out of Rio in the late fifties, and was hitting a peak in the sixties, meaning Valença could travel to America to perform with Sergio Mendes, and American musicians like Stan Getz and Henry Mancini.
Occasionally she adds her voice to proceedings, and when she does, on tracks like ‘O Samba da Minha Terra’, it’s as restrained as her playing is fiery.
‘Marinheiro So’ gets the record’s one vocal guest spot from Martinho da Vila, adding gusto to his exchanges with Valença’s conversational guitar licks.
Rosinha de Valença released seven albums between 1964 and 1990, and an additional three live records. The consensus among music writers seems to be that she was underappreciated in her time, which is familiar when reading up on this type of musical figure. Even more so female ones.
Her story has a sad ending: she fell into a coma in 1992, and remained there for twelve years before dying.
She was honoured in Brazil with a tribute concert, and an album of new versions of songs she’d composed. The tracks on A Guitar in the Foreground are mostly covers, but as a snapshot of her incredible technique, it’s a great starting point.
