Ataulfo Alves

Son of the violeiro (Brazilian viola player), repentista (verse improviser), and harmonica player Severino Alves de Souza, Ataulfo Alves at age eight already was responding in verses to his father's desafios (cutting contests). Becoming an orphan at age ten, he worked in several jobs, moving to Rio in 1927. There he continued to work, frequenting rodas de samba in his leisure hours. At that time he already knew how to play the violão (acoustic guitar), the cavaquinho, and the mandolin, and organized a group, which played in the neighborhood. Alves then became the diretor de ha...