Los Indios Tabajaras
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Los Indios Tabajaras are two guitar playing brothers from northern Brazil.
Their beginnings are not clear, though most stories have them becoming accomplished guitar players after finding a guitar near Ceará, Brazil. Playing in Rio de Janeiro they found success as Natalicio and Antenor Lima and dressing in ceremonial Indian costumes. Using classical guitars and playing transcriptions of classical violin and piano works, they were soon playing all over South America.
In 1943, RCA's Latin American arm signed them to a contract. In the early 1950s they both took a break from performing and went back to study the guitar. After returning to the stage late that same decade, they released an album in the United States on an RCA-owned label named Vox.
Through out this period they had a steady stream on releases on RCA in Mexico and one of these, a Mexican folk tune named "Maria Elena" (named for the wife of a Mexican president), became a success throughout Latin America and was released in the US in 1958. It spent 14 weeks in the top ten in the US and had similar success in the United Kingdom. Los Indios Tabajaras continued to tour throughout the Americas and Europe and in 1958 they had another release, "Always in My Heart". This failed to replicate the success of "Maria Elena" though it did make the top 100 on the singles chart.
Their fluent guitar playing caught the ear of Chet Atkins and, along with pianist Floyd Cramer, recorded an instrumental album in Nashville. They also recorded and released material with singer Don Gibson including the song "Oh, Lonesome Me"
RCA released albums by Los Indios Tabajaras into the 1980s. Though Antenor retired from performing, Natalicio Lima continued to perform into the 1990s with his wife, Michiko.
