Rosa Passos is a contemporary singer in Brazil who is dedicated to a genuin… Read Full Bio ↴Rosa Passos is a contemporary singer in Brazil who is dedicated to a genuine evolution of Brazilian music, devoid of fashionable trends or commercialism. She has established herself firmly in the country's artistic scenery, acknowledged by such artists as João Gilberto, Maria Schneider, Clare Fisher, Paquito d'Rivera, Johnny Alf, Nana Caymmi (who recorded two of her compositions), and even the number one enemy of bossa nova, the music researcher J.R. Tinhorão.

Passos's father was very fond of music and he started all his six children on an instrument. Passos's perfect pitch capabilities led her to begin playing the piano at the age of 3.

When she was 11, she heard João Gilberto's Orfeu do Carnaval, which changed her life. Passos abandoned the study of piano and decided to be a singer. She began listening to Gilberto compulsively, and learned the violão from listening to Gilberto's records. Her other vocal influences were Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Shirley Horn (who has declared herself to be a fan), Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. However, Rosa's main influences remain João Gilberto and Dorival Caymmi.

In 1968 Passos performed on Salvador-based TV show, Poder Joven. In 1969 she began to participate in music festivals. In 1972, she entered her song "Mutilados" in the Globo Network's Festival Universitário, under a pseudonym and won the first place.

Because she couldn't find any interest in the media for her delicate, swinging, truthful style, she continued to play and compose at home, attending college in the meantime.

In 1978, while living in Brasília, she recorded her debut album, Recriação. The album consisted of compositions that she wrote with the poet Fernando de Oliveira. Eight years later she recorded Amorosa, an explicit tribute to her idol João Gilberto's composition of the same name. In 1994 she recorded Curare, with hits by Antônio Carlos Jobim ("Fotografia," "Dindi," "A Felicidade," "Só Danço Samba," "O Nosso Amor"), Johnny Alf ("Ilusão à Toa"), Carlos Lyra/Vinicius de Moraes ("Coisa Mais Linda"), Ary Barroso, Djavan, and others.

In 1996 she recorded Pano pra Manga, for Velas, using mostly her own compositions, along with some classic hits by Jobim, Chico Buarque, and Ary Barroso.

For label Lumiar, she recorded an album dedicated to Ary Barroso, in the label series Letra e Música. In the next year, she recorded, again for Lumiar, the album, Rosa Passos Canta Antonio Carlos Jobim: 40 Anos de Bossa Nova with 14 Jobim classics.

In 1999 she was accompanied by Paquito d'Rivera on a European jazz tour. In 2000 she released Morada do Samba (Lumiar), resuming her writing work. The album brought eight of her compositions, together with "Beiral" (Djavan), "Lá Vem a Baiana" (Dorival Caymmi), "Calmaria" (Walmir Palma), "Saudade da Bahia" (Dorival Caymmi), and "Retiro" (Paulinho da Viola). For the year 2000, she booked a tour through ten European countries, one show in the U.S. and a tour through Japan.

Never resting, Passos continues to make records, including 2003's Entre Amigos/Among Friends with bassist Ron Carter, a 2004 re-release of her pivotal Amorosa on Sony Classical, and 2006's Rosa on Telarc.

Retrato em Branco e Preto
Rosa Passos Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Já conheço os passos dessa estrada
Sei que não vai dar em nada
Seus segredos sei de cór
Já conheço as pedras do caminho
E sei também que ali sozinho
Eu vou ficar, tanto pior
O que é que eu posso contra o encanto
Desse amor que eu nego tanto

Evito tanto
E que no entanto
Volta sempre a enfeitiçar
Com seus mesmos tristes velhos fatos
Que num álbum de retrato
Eu teimo em colecionar

Lá vou eu de novo como um tolo
Procurar o desconsolo
Que cansei de conhecer
Novos dias tristes, noites claras
Versos, cartas, minha cara
Ainda volto a lhe escrever
Pra lhe dizer que isso é pecado
Eu trago o peito tão marcado
De lembranças do passado
E você sabe a razão
Vou colecionar mais um soneto

Outro retrato em branco e preto
A maltratar meu coração

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Retrato em Branco e Preto" by Rosa Passos deal with the theme of a doomed, unrequited love. The song begins with the singer expressing familiarity with the path that their love has taken, knowing that it will ultimately lead to nothing. The singer acknowledges that they know all the secrets and obstacles that have come with loving this person, and that they will be left alone in the end. Despite their recognition of the reality of the situation, the singer is unable to resist the enchantment of this love that they have denied and avoided, but which always manages to captivate them. The singer is constantly collecting memories and tokens of this love, as if to try to make sense of it all.

In the second verse, the singer concedes that they are returning to this heartbreak once again, like a fool seeking out the pain and sorrow that they already know so well. They reflect on the countless sad days and clear nights they have experienced, writing verses and letters to this unattainable love. The singer knows that this love is forbidden and that they are carrying the scars of the past, but they cannot help returning to it again and again. The song ends with the singer acknowledging the futility of their actions, knowing that they will only collect more melancholy memories and hurt their heart further.

Overall, the lyrics of "Retrato em Branco e Preto" capture the feeling of loving someone who cannot or will not love you back, and the struggle to come to terms with the inevitability of that fact.

Line by Line Meaning

Já conheço os passos dessa estrada
I am familiar with the path of this relationship

Sei que não vai dar em nada
I know that it will not lead to anything

Seus segredos sei de cór
I know your secrets by heart

Já conheço as pedras do caminho
I already know the obstacles in our way

E sei também que ali sozinho
And I also know that I'll be alone there

Eu vou ficar, tanto pior
I'll stay there, even if it's worse

O que é que eu posso contra o encanto
What can I do against the charm

Desse amor que eu nego tanto
Of this love that I deny so much

Evito tanto
I try to avoid it so much

E que no entanto
But, nevertheless

Volta sempre a enfeitiçar
It always manages to enchant me