Pedro L. Mangabeira Albernaz

Here I am, again, in Mar Grande, in the island of Itaparica. Last year’s vacation was so pleasant that my wife, my youngest daughter, her husband, her two children and I decided to reprise it. And I am now sitting on the beach, listening to the sounds of the sea and remembering Dorival Caymmi’s songs. Actually Caymmi’s songs are the sounds of the sea...  A picture of Dorival Caymmi I remember reading a statement by Dorothy Hammerstein, Oscar Hammerstein II’s wife, saying, “ Ol’ Man River was written by my husband. Jerry (Jerome Kern) only added the sounds of the river...” She was partially right; the lyrics that Oscar wrote for Ol’ Man River are superb. But it was Kern’s “sounds of the Mississipi river” that immortalized the song.  Dorival Caymmi was a great genius of Brazilian music who wrote the songs of the sea and Jerome Kern, like Caymmi, was a musical genius who wrote the sounds of the Mississipi river.  Their music is totally different, but they share ...