Music in Brazil
Ted Goertzel
Rutgers University at Camden
[email protected]
Brazil as presented in the Lonely
Planet Guide Book
• Brazilians are among the most musical
people on the planet
• Wherever you go you will find people
playing music, singing and dancing
• Brazilian music is a collective community
act and celebrations or festas are virtually
inseparable from dancing
Samba, Soccer and National
Identity
• Samba and soccer were central in building
national pride around the benefits of a
racially blended society
• Brazilian music is diverse, shaped by
influences from Africa, native Brazilian
cultures, North America and Europe
• National pride comes from world-wide
appreciation of Brazilian music and soccer
playing
SAMBA
• Originated among black Bahians in Rio de
Janeiro
• First performed at Rio Carnival in 1917
• Roots go back to African rhythms,
particularly the Angolan tam-tam
• The 1930s were the “golden age” of Samba
• Samba became a national music thanks to
radio, which was centered in Rio
So Danco Samba (I Only
Dance Samba)
'Jazz Samba Encore' is a more
muted affair than its predecessors
'Jazz Samba' and 'Big Band'.
Although featuring both men, the
emphasis is more on Luiz Bonfa
than Antonio Carlos Jobim, and
Bonfa's songs 'lack' Jobim's pop
instincts, favouring a restrained,
more groove-based effect, which
can be quietly intoxicating, Getz's
melancholy sax contributing to the
mood. Even more upbeat songs like
'So Danco Samba', despite its title,
are more of a late night shuffle than
a beach monster.
“How did Brazil become the “Kingdom of
Samba” only a few decades after abolishing
slavery in 1888? Anthropologist Hermano
Vianna shows that samba traditions were
invented through complex cultural
mediations. This postmodern approach sets
Vianna’s work apart from most writing on
samba.
From the preface by
translator John Charles
Chasteen to The Mystery of
Samba by Hermano Vianna
“The ‘discovery’
of samba by the
young Brazilian
intellectuals of
the 1920s [in
Rio] provides
examples of ‘the
invention of
tradition’
[Hobsbawm] or
the ‘fabrication
of authenticity’
[Peterson].”
North Zone:
Working Class,
Industrial Suburbs
Central Business
District
Pão de Azucar,
Botafogo Beach
Corcovado
Interactive Map
Southern Zone: luxury beach front
Rocinha favela
neighborhoods plus favelas
Gilberto Freyre,
Anthropologist
Heitor Villa-Lobos,
Classical Composer
Sérgio Buarque de Holanda,
Historian
One evening in 1926, a group of young
intellectuals, including these three and
classical composer and pianist Luciano
Gallet and journalist Pedro Dantas
Prudente de Morais went out for a
night of guitar movement and a drop of
cachaça with three samba players...
Heitor Villa-Lobos,
A Floresta de
Amazonas,
Abertura and
Suite I, Dance I
Patrício Teixiera
The first record (pelo telefone) was registered as a Samba
by Donga in 1916, the first Samba schools started around
1928, but it was derived from other musical forms and
there is dispute about what is or is not a Samba.
The most popular Brazilian
singer at the time, actually
a Hollywood film star.
Bossa nova initiated a
new style of playing and
singing. The more
operatic, florid style of
singing was replaced by a
quieter, more relaxed
sound; remember the
soft, smooth The Girl
from Ipanema, composed
by the late Antonio
Carlos (Tom) Jobim and
Vinícius de Moraes
Caetano Veloso, Onde o Rio e
Mais Baiano
At the end of the 1960s the
movement known as
tropicalismo burst onto the
scene. Tropicalismo provoked
a kind of general amnesty for
all the forgotten musical
traditions of the past. The
leading figures — Gilberto
Gil, Caetano Veloso, Rita
Lee, Maria Betania an Gal
Costa believed that all
musical styles were important
and relevant. All the styles
and traditions in Brazilian
music, plus North American
rock and pop, could be freely
mixed.
Gilberto Gil –
Quilombo or El
Dorado Negro
on Brazil
Classics,
Beleza Tropical
Chegou a hora, chegou chegou
Meu corpo treme e ginga qual pandeiro
A hora é boa e o samba começou
E fez convite ao tango pra parceiro
Chegou a hora, chegou chegou
Meu corpo treme e ginga qual pandeiro
A hora é boa e o samba começou
E fez convite ao tango pra parceiro
Hombre yo non sei porque te quiero
E te tengo amor sincero
Diz la muchacha del plata
Péro nel Brazil és diferente
Yo te quiero simplesmente teu amor me desacata
Habla castellano no fandando
Argentino canta tango
Ora lento, ora ligeiro
Eu canto e danço sempre que possa
Um sambinha cheio de bossa
Sou do Rio de Janeiro
(bis)
O Samba e o Tango
"Chegou a Hora"
(Samba de Amado
Régis)
Antonio Carlos Jobim
and Elis Regina,
Aquas do Marco