Minas Meets Forró
A joint project of Toninho Horta and Felipe Cordeiro, Com o Pé no Forró is Toninho Horta’s direct incursion into forró, a genre not very much associated with his homeland of Minas Gerais. Back in 1994, though, Toninho recorded Foot on the Road, which clearly had forró influences. As for Felipe Cordeiro, his 2000 Outra Esquina beautifully bridged northeastern music and that of Minas Gerais. Back then, Felipe Cordeiro’s idea was to feature his original songs through performances by Beto Guedes, Lô Borges, Toninho Horta, Zé Renato, Boca Livre, Joyce and several other names from the Ceará music scene, such as David Duarte, Érico Baymma, Kátia Freitas and others. The chemistry that developed by putting together those two musical corners of Ceará and Minas Gerais stayed in the minds of these two artists and gave birth to Com o Pé no Forró. The album is as much Toninho Horta’s as Felipe Cordeiro’s (though the cover makes no mention of Felipe’s name). Toninho’s guitar style is present everywhere in the cd and makes for a very unusual and appealing forró album. As for Felipe’s lyrics, you can only get better material if you go back to masters such as Luiz Gonzaga and Humberto Teixeira. So, it’s no wonder that the album opens with “Asa Branca” and also includes “A Vida do Viajante.” Other than those, everything else is original music by Toninho and Felipe. Dividing the honors of performing these gems, we have Dominguinhos, Fagner, Elba Ramalho and even a special appearance by Felipe Cordeiro himself. The album was recently nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Brazilian Roots/Regional category. That in itself is a great accolade for such a fine release.
The combination of Minas Gerais and Ceará through Toninho and Felipe’s music is a captivating experience. Forró never sounded so smooth as it does here. You can hear samples of Com o Pé no Forró in either Felipe Cordeiro‘s or Toninho Horta’s web sites.
ALBUM INFORMATION
Toninho Horta
Com o Pé no Forró
Minas Records MR 006/04 (2004)
Total time: 56’00”
Tracks:
All music by Toninho Horta with lyrics by Felipe Cordeiro, except where noted.
- Asa Branca (Luiz Gonzaga – Humberto Teixeira) – w/ Dominguinhos
- Com o Pé No Forró – w/ Dominguinhos
- Castanhão (Toninho Horta – Raimundo Fagner – Felipe Cordeiro) – w/ Fagner
- Pecém – w/ Miguel Cordeiro
- A Magia do Olhar
- Festa em Olinda – w/ Elba Ramalho
- Morena Bonita – w/ Chico Pessoa
- Uma Canção na Estrada – w/ Felipe Cordeiro
- Sanfona Sanfoneiro – w/ Paulo Viana
- Amar Como Te Amo – w/ Liv de Moraes
- Viva Dominguinhos (Toninho Horta)
- A Vida do Viajante (Luiz Gonzaga – Hervê Cordovil) – w/ Dominguinhos
- A Magia do Olhar – w/ Thais Nara
