Réplica ao articulista

Mario Marques generously offers something that he had no part in creating: ‘Fique à vontade para reproduzi-la como quiser.’

Gee, Mario, thanks for nothing!

The list from EMI Music Publishing Brazil that you made available is almost completely useless.

I say ‘almost completely’ because this EMI list was useful on one little count: it informed me that the Guinga song that Expresso 25 recorded not too long ago is ‘Você, Você.’

In addition to this Expresso 25 recording, there are eleven (11) other recordings in the EMI list that don’t appear in my discography. But the EMI list is not a discography–it’s an internal document generated from a database, listing authorizations to record Guinga¹s compositions, arranged alphabetically by song title, with no album titles and no release dates.

In other words, from the EMI list it’s impossible to tell if the proposed recordings actually took place, in which albums they were recorded, and whether they were ever released.

I sent the downloaded file to Washington Costa at EMI Music Publishing Brazil and asked him if this is a public document available to anyone who wants it. He replied:

‘Este documento é apenas uma listagem de obras com gravações do nosso sistema do autor Guinga que possivelmente foi solicitado para algum trabalho e nós disponibilizamos.’

I sent Mr. Costa a separate list of the eleven unknown recordings with the question:

‘Você sabe dizer se as músicas seguintes da listagem da EMI foram em fato gravadas e lançadas em disco pelos artistas listados?’

His answer:

‘Se consta na listagem é porque houve autorização para gravação.’

That’s it in a nutshell.

Now for the interesting part. The recordings in my discography that do not appear in EMI Music Publishing Brazil’s database.

As I recall, Mario Marques stated recently that his assistant obtained the EMI list before his book went to press, but he chose to use my discography because it contained seven (7) additional recording.

As usual, Marques leaves me to do the work. And I did. I counted them all. How many additional recordings are there?

Seventy-two (72) additional recordings in 59 albums or soundtracks. That’s 72 recordings of Guinga tunes that are listed in my discography but not in Guinga’s music publisher’s database.

Missing altogether from the EMI list are all the recordings of ‘Choro pro Zé,’ one of Guinga’s most frequently recorded tunes.

And it’s not the only missing tune.

So much for copying.

Now for the format.

Need I say more?

Actually, yes:

Mario Marques disingenuously insists on presenting my discography as a stand-alone item I have put up on my weblog (for the

record: neither the discography nor anything to do with Mario Marques has ever been published in my weblog).

So I will remind him and his lawyer:

This discography was originally part of the article ‘Guinga rising,’ published in November 2001 by Brazzil magazine in both its print edition and its website. The article, which runs to more than 9,400 words, includes my review of Guinga’s life and career; analysis of his music; interviews with the composer and with other musicians; testimonials by artists who have worked with Guinga; song lyrics in the original Portuguese with parallel English translations; and a discography in two parts: Guinga’s own discs and recordings of Guinga’s compositions made by other artists. It is the most comprehensive document about the composer ever published on the Internet or printed in any magazine. ‘Guinga rising‘ <http://www.brazzil.com/musnov01.htm>

The policy of Brazzil magazine as regards reproduction is simple and clearly stated in every issue:

You may quote from or reprint any of the contents with proper copyright credit.

Marques both quoted and reprinted, to the tune of 12 pages in his book. And he did it without proper copyright credit either to me or to Brazzil magazine. He reproduced my text verbatim, in the same format, with English words carelessly left in, and including some of my assumptions about versions and attributions that I had since concluded were erroneous and corrected in my Brazzil article online, but that remain in the magazine’s print edition. Marques didn’t make the slightest effort to check or correct any of the data, being content to use it off the shelf, as it were.

Marques can’t even pretend that he didn’t know the discography was part of a magazine article, because when he first wrote me, my website Musica Brasiliensis did not yet exist. Until his book came out, the only version of this discography was the one in the Brazzil magazine article.

It was not until 23 July 2002 that I published the updated discography in Musica Brasiliensis and sent an announcement to the Agenda do Samba & Choro:

Marques also can’t pretend that he knows nothing about Brazzil magazine, because on Tuesday, 27 January 2004, he sent the magazine through Laboratorio Pop that infamous e-mail ‘Um caso de leviandade,’ carrying the subject header to be published at google and informing one and all:

‘Nervosa e histérica, já que é tida como uma pessoa desequilibrada no meio artístico, tendo sido inclusive internada por vezes, a sra. Thompson acusou o jornalista de plágio, sendo ela mesmo a plagiadora da listagem.’

Two final questions to Mario: since you are an old friend of Guinga and say you had the list from EMI Music Publishing Brazil for two years now, why didn¹t you look after your friend¹s interests and inform his music publisher that there are so many unauthorized recordings of his work?

And since you’re so generous with information, why didn’t you let me know about the items missing from my discography, so I could complete it?

******

Daniella Thompson on Brazil: The Magazine of Brazilian Music & Culture ; Musica Brasiliensis: