Banda do Casaco was a Portuguese prog-folk band active from 1974 to 1984 considered by some to be one of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

's greatest

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

bands. Their seminal album was ''Hoje há Conquilhas, Amanhã não Sabemos'', released in 1976.

Beginnings

After the failure of the Filarmónica Fraude project, António Pinho (singer) and Luís Linhares (keys) joined the ex

Plexus In anatomy, a plexus (from the Latin term for 'braid') is a branching network of blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, or nerves. The nerves are typically axons outside the central nervous system. The standard plural form in English is plexuses. Al ...

members Nuno Rodrigues (vocals and guitar) and Celso de Carvalho (cello and double bass) to form the group Banda do Casaco. Many guest musicians passed through the band in their active period and many used the band as a springboard for their own careers.

Career

The first album released was ''Dos Benefícios dum Vendido no Reino dos Bonifácios'' in 1975, followed by ''Coisas do Arco da Velha'' in 1976 which won the "Album of the Year" award in Portugal, notable for the appearance of

Cândida Branca Flor Cândida Branca Flor (12 November 1949 – 11 July 2001) was a Portuguese entertainer and traditional singer whose career spanned four decades. Biography Cândida Branca Flor was born on 12 November 1949 in Beringel, Beja municipality, Alentejo ...

on vocals. The singer would leave Banda do Casaco to pursue a successful solo career. Their most renowned and considered by some, their most experimental, album was their 1977 release ''Hoje há Conquilhas, Amanhã não Sabemos'' which featured António Pinheiro da Silva on guitar, Rão Kyao on saxophone and Gabriela Schaaf on vocals. They went on to release '' Contos da Barbearia'' in 1978 followed by ''No Jardim da Celeste'' in 1981 which featured the inclusion of female singer

Né Ladeiras The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

and

Jerry Marotta Jerome David Marotta (born February 6, 1956) is an American drummer who resides in Woodstock, New York. He is the younger brother of Rick Marotta; Rick is also a drummer and composer. Career Marotta was a member of the bands Arthur, Hurley & ...

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

's former drummer. The band played live on only three occasions: at Aula Magna, Festa de S. Mateus in

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the Viseu District, district of the same name, with a population of 100,105 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões Interm ...

and Casa do Povo in

Cacia Cacia is a civil parish in the municipality of Aveiro. The population in 2011 was 7,354, in an area of 35.75 km². History There are no clear indications of the first peoples to inhabit the region; João Gaspar suggests that they could have ...

. In 1982 Pinho left the group to write for girl band

Doce Doce was a Portuguese pop all-female band founded in 1979, one of the first of its type in Portugal and in Europe. Its name is the Portuguese word for "sweet" and its core lineup consisted of Lena Coelho, Laura Diogo, Teresa Miguel and . The ba ...

but the band continued and released ''Também Eu'' in 1982. The band's final studio album was ''Com Ti Chitas'', released in 1984, which featured Ti Chitas (

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). The group disbanded shortly after.

Style

The group joined traditional

Portuguese folk music Portuguese music includes many different styles and genres, as a result of Music history of Portugal, its history. These can be broadly divided into classical music, traditional music, traditional/folk music and popular music and all of them hav ...

with

and their lyrics were often

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

and included

social criticism Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general. Social criticism of the Enlightenment The origin of modern ...

, approaching the idea of crossing modern

urbanisation Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It can also ...

with Portuguese

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

history. The band consisted of eight members with instruments including brass, keyboards, strings (violin, cello, contra bass) and vocals (two female vocalists: Judi Brennan and Helena Afonso).

Modern Day

In 1993,

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

re-released the band's first two albums on CD. In November 2006, their third album, ''Hoje Há Conquilhas, Amanhã Não Sabemos'', was also re-released by the Companhia Nacional de Música.

Discography

Compilations

References

* Majority of this article is translated from the original Portuguese wiki entry

External links

General Information (in Portuguese)
{{Authority control Portuguese musical groups