Maria Rita Stumpf: the Brazilian vocalist who pioneered ethereal Amazonian rhythms
Throughout history, the South American nation of Brazil has always been at the forefront of pioneering new styles of music, constantly pushing the boundaries of sound and popular music. The advent of bossa nova music brought Brazilian music into the global consciousness, but its popularity soon waned. For years, the world of bossa nova was seen as being stuck in its ways. One of the prominent figures who dedicated themselves to moving the world of bossa nova music forward was Maria Rita Stumpf – or Maria Rita, to you and me.
Born within the idyllic countryside of Aparados da Serra in the South of Brazil, far away from the bossa nova ground zero of Rio de Janeiro, Maria Rita seemed destined for musical greatness from a very young age. Beginning to write poetry and compose at only 12 years old, Rita quickly established her own unique voice after entering various singing contests and local festivals during her teenage years. Given that she was born in the countryside, the singer was able to incorporate a unique range of influences, often drawing upon traditional indigenous sounds and rhythms.
After relocating to Rio de Janeiro in 1985, Rita set about getting her unique and innovative sounds out into the wider world. This led her to the creation of the seminal 1988 record Brasileira, an album years ahead of its time. From the opening bars of ‘Cântico Brasileiro No.3’ to the end of ‘O Amor’, the album is uncompromising and utterly captivating. As a listener, you cannot help but hang off every word sung by Rita. Even if you do not speak the language, her words seem to carry such emotion and meaning.
A triumph of the post-bossa nova period, Basileira pays tribute to those musical influences, while simultaneously incorporating modern influences of electronica and ethereal Amazonian rhythms which were virtually unheard of within the realm of popular music. This seamless blinding of seemingly disparate influences gave the album something of a timeless quality; it could easily have been released last week, rather than nearly four decades ago.
The Amazonian atmosphere of the album was clearly very important to Maria Rita, and it is a major contributing factor to the quality of the record – alongside the clear vocal beauty of the singer herself. Reportedly, that atmosphere arose largely from the variety of homemade and natural instruments which were utilised by the likes of Marco Antonio Guimarães and Paulo Santos on the album. According to Rita, who spoke to Mr. Bongo Records in 2023 following their reissue of Brasileira, “The only native instrument in the whole album is a zampoña, a kind of flute from the Andes in ‘Cântico Brasileiro No 3’ played by Elmo Sepulveda.”
“Brasileira is a fruit of friendship, love, and generosity,” the singer went on to say, and that certainly comes across when listening to the album. Despite its clear genius, the record failed to make much of a mark on the music scene of Brazil during its initial 1988 release. Speaking to its enduring quality, though, the record has since been reevaluated by record collectors and MPB obsessives, leading to various reissues which introduced the unforgettable tones of Maria Rita to an entirely new generation.
Shortly after the release of her second studio album, Mapa Das Nuvens, in 1993, Rita embarked upon a long hiatus from writing or recording music, but her influence never totally faded away. In recent years, the singer has returned with 2020’s Inkiri Om, an album which showcases the fact that the singer never lost her wonderfully experimental ideology or wonderful vocal ability.
