Angenor de Oliveira, known as Cartola, is a linchpin of Brazilian music. Co-founder in Rio, in 1928, of the prestigious Estação Primeira de Mangueira samba school, for which he wrote many classics, he spent most of his life working anonymously. Even if he wrote, during the 1930s, hits for the international star Carmen Miranda and for the crooner Francisco Alves, Cartola spent more time working as a mason or a window cleaner than under the spotlights. He had disappeared from the music scene when in 1950 a journalist recognized him in the streets and put him back on the tracks of the music life. The composer bounces back and finds love. The Nós Dois song, present on this disc, has been composed for his wedding with singer Dona Zica. With her, Cartola opens a samba establishment, the Zicartola, which becomes, at the start of the 1960s, one of the favorite havens of the young bossa nova composers. Cartola’s discography did not begin to develop until 1974, when the samba player was 65. Verde Que Te Quero Rosa is his third album, between nostalgic romance and dashes of pure rhythm, it harbors a collection of tender songs, sweet and irresistibly rousing sambas. His title pays homage to the colours he chose to represent the Mangueira, the green and pink which still coat the famous school. He was often told that these tones didn’t match, but his answer was irrefutable: green symbolizes hope, and pink love. Two values that have always undeniably brought him luck. © BM/Qobuz