''Cantigas do Maio'' (English: "Songs of May") is the fifth studio album by Portuguese singer-songwriter

José Afonso José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos (2 August 1929 – 23 February 1987), known professionally as José Afonso and also popularly known as Zeca Afonso or simply Zeca, was a Portuguese singer-songwriter. One of the most influential folk and ...

. It was released in December 1971 by Portuguese label Orfeu. It is widely considered the best of Afonso's career and one of the all-time greatest albums of

Portuguese music Portuguese music includes many different styles and genres, as a result of its history. These can be broadly divided into classical music, traditional/folk music and popular music and all of them have produced internationally successful acts, with ...

. It contains Afonso's most iconic song, "

Grândola, Vila Morena "Grândola, Vila Morena" (English: ''Grândola, Swarthy Town'') is a Portuguese song by singer-songwriter José Afonso, recorded in 1971. It was originally released in Afonso's 1971 album ''Cantigas do Maio'' and later released in an EP of the sam ...

", which was used as a radio-broadcast signal by the Portuguese

Armed Forces Movement 230px, A mural dedicated to the MFA, it reads: "Towards freedom. Long live the 25th of April!" The Armed Forces Movement ( pt, Movimento das Forças Armadas; MFA) was an organization of lower-ranking, politically left-leaning officers in the Por ...

during their

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...

operation in the morning of 25 April 1974, which led to the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

and the transition to democracy in Portugal.

Recording

''Cantigas do Maio'' was recorded between 11 October and 4 November 1971 at the Strawberry Studio in

Château d'Hérouville The Château d'Hérouville is a French 18th century château located in the village of Hérouville, in the Val d'Oise département of France, near Paris. The château was built in 1740 by "Gaudot", an architect of the school of Rome, from the re ...

, in Hérouville,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Release

The album was released in Portugal during the Christmas season of 1971. It was re-released in CD and

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

, and made available for the first time on

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

platforms, in April 2022.

Legacy

In 1978, the Portuguese weekly-magazine ''SETE'' awarded ''Cantigas do Maio'' the "Award for Greatest Album Ever of Portuguese Folk Music" (Prémio Melhor Disco de Sempre da Música Popular Portuguesa). In 2009, Portuguese music magazine ''

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

'' named ''Cantigas do Maio'' the greatest Portuguese album of the 1970s, in a list ranking the best Portuguese albums of the past four decades.

Track listing

All songs written by

, except where noted.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's inner notes. * José Afonso – vocals * Carlos Correia (Bóris) –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, chorus, steps * Michel Delaporte –

darbuka The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet- ...

, Berber bongo, tumbas, Brazilian tamborim,

adufe The adufe is a traditional square tambourine of Moorish origin, which is used in Portugal and Galicia. History A Portuguese percussion instrument, it was traditionally used in the Beira region of Castelo Branco. It was also used in many other ...

* Christian Padovan –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Tony Branis –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Jacques Granier –

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

* Francisco Fanhais – chorus, steps, whistles, Jew's harp *

José Mário Branco José Mário Branco (25 May 1942 – 19 November 2019) was a Portuguese singer-songwriter, actor, and record producer. Biography José Mário Branco was born in Porto, the son of primary school teachers, and became politically involved in the ...

– chorus, steps,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

, Fender piano Production * José Mário Branco – arrangements, musical direction * Gilles Sallé – recording, mixing * Christian Gence – recording, mixing * José Santa-Bárbara – cover, graphic design * Patrick Ulmann – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1971 albums Portuguese-language albums José Afonso albums