Just now I was thinking about Carnivale and the first meeting of the Preservation Cartel in Rio (very PC – a get together of the largest indie record collectors in the world) –  lo and behold an angel (Susan Rakowski) alights (drives up in a Subaru) with a fabulous cache of Brasilian music!

The collection was gathered by Susan’s pal, Bo Ross.  Bo Ross was passionate about the music of Brasil especially Bossa Nova and Musica Popular Brasileira.  She studied Brasilian-Portuguese so she could better enjoy and savor the real lyrics of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque, Edu Lobo, Carlos Lyra and Vinicius de Moraes among many others. During her trips to Brasil Bo developed a collection of music, songbooks, DVDs and books that she was always eager to share with fellow fans.

Bo wore many hats from working in the non-profit arena for David Rockefeller at the Rockefeller Foundation and in the film industry for Alan Pakula but her favorite occupation was her last–contributing interviews and features to key Brasilian media on noteworthy musicians including Joyce, Leila Pinheiro, Rosa Passos, Ivan Lins, Sergio Mendes, Toquinho, Miucha, Jaques Morelenbaum and Eliane Elias.  Bo lost her battle with cancer on this date, 2005.

Thanks to Ms. Rakowski The Bo Ross Collection has found a happy home here at the ARC.  By the way you can go to our focus on Brasilian music here.  Now begins the works of detailed cataloging and digitizing all the material: 263 CDs; 5 LPs (but really good ones); 24 DVDs; 38 Brasilian music books and 16 songbooks.  Until then you can download a handy list of what was donated.