Description

Mesquita, Custodio. Ha Sempre Alguem … Fox – Canção. São Paulo – Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: 1944. Plate number I.7300 V. First edition. One sheet, folded once. Two pages of music and lyrics inside covers. Front cover has a caricature of Custodio Mesquita (1910 – 1945), Carmen Miranda’s favorite pianist. Mesquita was a versatile popular composer and band leader, as well as a performer on several instruments. Among his other musical collaborators were Noel Rosa, Mario Lago, Sadi Cabral, David Nasser, Evaldo Rui and Friere Jūnior. In 1933, Aurora Miranda recorded his march Se a Lua Contasse, which became a hit at the Carnival of the following year. Mesquita’s compositions were recorded by Carmen Miranda, Mário Reis, Sílvio Caldas, Carlos Galhardo, and Orlando Silva. In 1935 Mesquita appeared as an actor in Wallace Downey’s film Alô, Alô, Brasil. He also acted in Bombonzinho (1938) and Moleque Tião (1943). He wrote music for several plays, beginning with O Sambista da Cinelândia. In 1936, Mesquita worked for a season in Argentina as a pianist. For one who died so young, he left a remarkable and enduring legacy of 850 compositions, among them many classics of Brazilian popular music, like Ha Sempre Alguem, which is still performed today in other languages. The cover is soiled and chipped, and the front cover is damp-stained, with a music store stamp and the signature of the American child actor, Glen Boles.