Brazzil

i remember going to salvadro in 1986 and hearing this really unique groovy ryhthm that had some things like sambao i was hearing in rio , but had its own properties and groove. the surdos had this unique thing going on. i saw a show called "beleza black" on tv with a bunch of dancers dressed in a special kind of costume one at a time dancing to these hypnotic grooves

i found out that these groups were the bloco afros,ile aiye, olodum, the ones talked about in this article...

that groove was distintive and unique and besides the stars mentioned in this article, who used the beat and gained huge success was daniela mercury...

i remember being in a huge condominium complex in the barra in rio and one of danielas cuts with olodum hit the radio...the whole huge four building block was rocking and swaying to the beat of olodum because every one was listening to the radio..it was a wild feeling and meant olodum had arrived in national concience in brazil

the way they integrate the music, dance and culture into a social fabric in salvador, is really impressive. there needs to be a huge amount of that going on in all brazil, it really makes a differance in the peoples lives

basicly the ones with afro brazilian roots...

in recife they have maracatus. there, the deep bass drum is called alfaia , and , it has 300 year old roots in brazil. the alfaia is a rope tuned drum that has european origins, you can see it in portuguese celibrations in portugual. so , things like the maracatus represent this early fusion of african culture with european culture and indian culture . caboclinos in recife have more of that indian influence but still taken over by the force of the call responce sub sahara african groove that dominated any part of the americas african slaves were taken...like cuba, usa, jamaica, trinidad, colombia,bahamas, puerto rico...all have this vibrant call responce cadence that has built in dance moves that also are of african origin, all specialy rolled into a neat unique to their area, dna packedge with the influences of the perspective european colonizer musical influences and indian culture sprinkled in, sometimes less perceptive but yet there. actualy the dinner table has a lot of foods that we got from indian culture...potatos, corn, peppers, aimpim as well as tobaco and cocaine...which were found in egyption mummies from the time of the phorohs....you figure

rio has , of course , these bateria de escola de samba...it is hard to imagine something on this earth that can elicit the type of frenetic visceral sensual ryhthmical impact than these baterias. some of them have 250 drummers, and, syncing up a groove at that tempo as well as these escolas do , is musical genius. throw in the passistas, absolutly on the leval as the highest leval ballet dancer in the world, a dance that requires the stamina of a 440 yard dash olympic sprinter, the complicated steps with ginga and balanca that very few foreingers come close to mastering as well as most of the brazilian population butchers as well, and you have an artistic experiance that can stand the hair up on the back of your neck and send goose bumps up your skin.

no one plays samba like rio, it has its own special attack. and each escola has its own signiture beats it puts into the general samba, like manguira puts the main surdo on a straigt up back beat and then the middle surdo plays a very syncopated cadence and they eliminated the top surdo which slams on the down beat. that way you feel you are piviting off this deep black hole of the bottom surdo slamming the back beat...

is it any wonder , after going to a rio escola de samba reheasal, that classical musicians like yo yo ma said brazil doesnt need to learn any other culture, because it is so rich, bono of u2 said it was more rock than rock and various american jazz musicians have had their minds blown by going to a samba rehersal...

and there are other unique drum ensembles in brazil , tambor de criola, another thing from minas gerais that i dont know the name but have seen it, bumba meu boi, cocos, candomble ensembles, lots cool groovy beats and dances that go with them....

ive seen lots of these things up close and watch any documentary i can about it, and there isnt enough. there should be much more demonstration of these cultures on tv...

basicly the ones with afro brazilian roots...

in recife they have maracatus. there, the deep bass drum is called alfaia , and , it has 300 year old roots in brazil. the alfaia is a rope tuned drum that has european origins, you can see it in portuguese celibrations in portugual. so , things like the maracatus represent this early fusion of african culture with european culture and indian culture . caboclinos in recife have more of that indian influence but still taken over by the force of the call responce sub sahara african groove that dominated any part of the americas african slaves were taken...like cuba, usa, jamaica, trinidad, colombia,bahamas, puerto rico...all have this vibrant call responce cadence that has built in dance moves that also are of african origin, all specialy rolled into a neat unique to their area, dna packedge with the influences of the perspective european colonizer musical influences and indian culture sprinkled in, sometimes less perceptive but yet there. actualy the dinner table has a lot of foods that we got from indian culture...potatos, corn, peppers, aimpim as well as tobaco and cocaine...which were found in egyption mummies from the time of the phorohs....you figure

rio has , of course , these bateria de escola de samba...it is hard to imagine something on this earth that can elicit the type of frenetic visceral sensual ryhthmical impact than these baterias. some of them have 250 drummers, and, syncing up a groove at that tempo as well as these escolas do , is musical genius. throw in the passistas, absolutly on the leval as the highest leval ballet dancer in the world, a dance that requires the stamina of a 440 yard dash olympic sprinter, the complicated steps with ginga and balanca that very few foreingers come close to mastering as well as most of the brazilian population butchers as well, and you have an artistic experiance that can stand the hair up on the back of your neck and send goose bumps up your skin.

no one plays samba like rio, it has its own special attack. and each escola has its own signiture beats it puts into the general samba, like manguira puts the main surdo on a straigt up back beat and then the middle surdo plays a very syncopated cadence and they eliminated the top surdo which slams on the down beat. that way you feel you are piviting off this deep black hole of the bottom surdo slamming the back beat...

is it any wonder , after going to a rio escola de samba reheasal, that classical musicians like yo yo ma said brazil doesnt need to learn any other culture, because it is so rich, bono of u2 said it was more rock than rock and various american jazz musicians have had their minds blown by going to a samba rehersal...

and there are other unique drum ensembles in brazil , tambor de criola, another thing from minas gerais that i dont know the name but have seen it, bumba meu boi, cocos, candomble ensembles, lots cool groovy beats and dances that go with them....

ive seen lots of these things up close and watch any documentary i can about it, and there isnt enough. there should be much more demonstration of these cultures on tv...

yeah, the dances that go with these rythms are so cool.....

anyone dance here ?

i do....man,in just the last 4 or 5 years ive danced samba with gorgeous women ( look, for the idiots who think im bragging about sexual encounters i didnt have sex with any of these mostly afro brazilian dislumbrante females)in a variety of cities from rio to recife to sao paulo to porto de galinhas to florianopolis to salvador even samba in new york and los angeles at casa de samba in la and a samba meet up in new york.....and some axe moves ...some wonderful brazilian dancing to brazilian rythms....

the samba dance is incredible. in brazil, the roots are in the samba da rodas in bahia and when they would make houses they would come in and dance on the mud dirt floors to harden it up...the coco from pernambuco and maceo and other north east places is a cousin and they do the same thing there...

many of these beats and dances evolved out of candomble but they are independent of the religous aspects also, things i have found out by talking with brazilian taxe driver who were percusionists in escolas and from african taxi drivers in new york telling me that the rythyms were used for other things besides just religious uses. sure enough , coco and samba da roda arnt for religious uses also...

i used to think the samba steps themselves were especialy invented in brazil, with african roots, but i saw a documentary of the zulu tribe and some females did a dance remarkably like the samba steps exept their head posture was looking down where the brazilian passista is looking up and out ward...these zulus also did a step remarcably like the bahian axe samba which is kind of out to the side where the rio samba step goes to the back...

then samba came to rio and it was developed to its highest state there where composers like chicinha gonzaga solidified the diretos autorais and starte writing sambas and chorinhos.then there was the first recorded samba "samba do telefone". that led to escola da sambas and the bateria developed from that. passistas actualy came into the picture in the 50's

when i got to salvador in 1986 , the time they are refering to in this article when neghino was evolving these bloco afro beats , they had so many cool dances rolling:
fricote, debouche, tortinho,crocodilo....lots of dances evolved. later on the danca de garrafa camein and it all became quite comercialised and big business and empoyment for lots of people but less dance styles

''Twenty years ago Pelourinho was a decaying, violent slum terrorized by drug dealers and petty criminals, and known for prostitution.''

Now, in 2009 it is the same. Rich people from Vitória or Villas never go to Pelourinho unless they want to get robbed.

Only tourists go to Pelourinho,
and they lose watches and expensive cameras. Enjoy your stay

whether tourists are getting robbed over there or not isnt the most important thing about this article...

its about this artist passing away and the legacy he has left. probably something you dont understand

how can we have a forum about brazil and not talk a great deal of time about the culture? especialy the music and dance...that certainly is one of the reasons ive chosen to live in brazil...the music and dance

culture and music and dance trump whether the business is good or bad, whether its dangerous, whether the political climate is good or bad, corruption, statistics....it trumps all of that, and brazil has plenty of soul enriching culture...

it could be valued much more in brazil itself, since you really have to look for it like some buried treasure. the main stream media wont help, only in minimal exposures, mostly around carnival...then back to the regular media hyped brought to you by the corporations standard tv fare....

but this forum is far too hung up about political and financial and social issues , it should focus much on culture...but you cant really talk about brazil without somewhere along the line having to deal with its powerful culture....

not any differant than when i lived in new york city...i used to have to go up and down 42 street sometines 6 times a day doing my hustle for work ( i lived in hells kitchen)...back in the late 70's and early 80's, they used to send guys in the army who were about to be shipped off to viet nam to walk up 42nd street, the deuce, to get them prepared to walk around a wild crazy situation...

new york was wild then, and there was a lot of culture. like i said , i like to dance. i am absolutly no trained dancer, i was a one year college basketball player until an injury sidelined me, and somewhat atheletic,i got heavy into swimming after the injury,and always liked social dancing ...and always liked mambo and samba as well as american dances....so i heard from a freind that the louis falco (cherographed the movie fame and kiss for prince) dance class had co ed dressing rooms right out in the open...so i decided to take a couple of classes, just to be around the naked women dressing and undressing...i sucked at the modern dance lesson, but, i loved the sensuality , and decided to make it a part of my life...and the states absolutly surpresses sensuality...

and, brazil has unbeleivable sensuality, which really is one of the special things about their culture and dancing. and the dancing is so street and improvisational, something i love compared to the modern dance or jazz dance with every hand up on the one, look right on 2 mentality of that dance ethic....samba passistas imporvise like charlie parker on some be bop....that s**t is just plain deep...yet with a foundation step that is just a mother f**ker to learn, there is so much ginga and balanca that you have to have your hips moving one way and your feet another and your head and neck in another balanca they are all hooked up in a monster groove ...then the top dancers improvise at an unbeleivable pace, dressed in costumes like the dancers from moulon rouge....that is health, vitality , soul and living to the fullest

MY HAT TO PHILLIP WAGNER.
It happens that I know him more than he thinks. But I know him INDIRECTLY ! I wont say more than that.

Here you have truly a very good and deep hearted AMERICAN who is caring more about Brazilians Poors...... than 97 % of brazilians do.
And he has done so FOR YEARSSSSS !

MY HAT AGAIN WITH MY SINCERE RESPECTS AND STANDING OVATION OF APPLAUSES !


Brazilians from this site or wherever should care about their under priviledged co-citizens as much as Phillip Wagner does !

No doubt that Robbing Hook and his many gangs, and 99 % of brazilians citizens will never ever say thank you to HIM !

one of your best posts ever

roda da samba is from bahia and is the root origins of the beats and dance steps of samba in brazil . of course the deep roots are from africa, but,how it developed in brazil to be its own unique culture is what shapes the history of a culture and its people. the bloco afro batidas that this article describes have samba beats at their roots. what neghinho did was slow it down a little and make some deep changes in the aproach of the surdos

coco is also another incredible cousin of the roda da sambas. its like they are attached at the hip and somewhere along the way, broke off with the coco just slightly changing the beat a little

coco is the parent of forro and baio. for me the melodies are very differant and more bluesy or happy calypsoish or sound like black american spirituals. i like their melodies much better than forro or baio. they are very earthy and simple and havent been used in mpb with the same force as forro

what is really interesting is how the melodies are these really incredible call responce lilting groovy sounds hooked to the infectual beats. they use pentatonic scales which sound like blues from the usa or happy intervals that sound like calypso .

the truth is, roda da samba and coco have been around for a long time in brazil. they are like living snap shots of what the culture was like 2 or 3 centuries before in brazil

unlike slavery from north america, where the beats and drums were abolished and practishioners were punished (except congo square in new orleans ), in brazil, drums still were used. concomble was banned but survived hidden behind catholic dieties, and quilimbos with run away slaves would keep their cultures going.the blues and spirituals and work songs are like having their legs cut off by taking away the drums....not so in brazil

places like the usa, jamaica, cuba and brazil and other places in the americas that brought over slaves from sub sahara africa, tried to surpress the culture of the slaves. but, in a strange ironic twist, the rythms and dances of these sub sahara slaves from africa, ended up absolutly dominating the popular cultures of these countries, producing such incredible curlural phenominon like jazz, samba, funk, calypso, reggai, gua gua co, mambo,rock and roll, cha cha cha, rumba, lambado,rythm and blues, mangue beat, coco, maracatu, etc etc etc

as an american,i am staggard to watch in brazil, these living snapshots of the cultural evolution of how slaves reacted and created their own culture in the new lands they were brought to.in brazil the beats and dances are in tact to observe. not like the banned drums of the states where you see the blues without drums, negro spirituals , work songs as its history.jazz invented and brought the drums and dances to the forfront again in the states

and , it just gives me greater insight into american culture to understand brazilian culture...they are parralel universes that have much in common and many deep mysteries about their origins

you just have to dig for the treasure

first, if any one wants to see street frevo played the best , go to you tube and type into search "spok frevo" , that is state of the art street frevo played by some of the best musicians in recife..real music examples are much better than words

i read a book called "frevo ate mangue beat" by jose teles

the history of street frevo in recife is very interesting . it started out in the early 1900's, with various military bands , representing differant neighborhoods, marching down the street in a slower cadence .and when they marched back, they would start picking up the beat to accompany the community who would start getting animated and dancing with the band...not unlike the history of new orleans marching bands who would play slow to a funeral and then come back up the street with a more syncopated beat for the people to celebrate the passing indivicual

some of the people accompaning the differant bands were copoeira gangs. they would be doing their copoeira moves to get close to the oposing copoeira gangs marching band to try to puncture the big bass drums with their machetes..and this would lead to some violent gang fights between these copoeria groups

the passistas that dance the fantastic moves of the frevo dance today , are actualy imitating these copoeria moves, and, the little umbrella they use as part of their dance is a substitute for the machetes that the copoeira groups would use to punture the rival marching bands bass drums

frevo spread out to various parts of brazil in differant ways. the big recorder of frevos in recife, rosenblatt, moved to rio and started recording frevo there. you can hear a frevo style snare drum creep into the escola da samba snare parts and up until the 40's, frevo groups would actualy go down rio branco oposite escola da samba's for carnival...that of course is no more

and in bahia , where neghino is from, the trio electico came in with dodo and osmar and they would play frevo style music. this ,imported from recife ,frevo has gone under a kind of salvadorian transition so it doesnt really resemble the street frevos any more. carlinhos brown even introduced a wild surdo variation called the "gallope" . it is definitly a fixture on the salvador carnival scene

its good to have a thread i can just talk about culture , one of the things that is a big atraction for me to live in brazil...powerful culture...

since this thread is about neginho passing, lets talk about another giant who passed away a few years ago, the great electric bassist , luizao maia

its funny, when he died, i was ready to see all the news channals on brazil have great reports on how incredible luizao was and how great his contribution to brazilian music was.

after all, here is a guy that changed the way bassists aproached playing samba in a big way. when you hear bassists play samba today, if they are doing it the modern way, they are playing 3/4 luizao maia.

what he did was start imitating the surdos in rio as they were changing, and , make a big note on the back part of the beat, just like i described the rio escola de samba surdos above. it was innovative and incredible.

before , most bassists just kind of played a "daduh, daduh, daduh".but luizao made it sound like those surdos and put a groove on it that was infectuas and groovy as all heck

this was a guy best known for playing with ellis regina, but, he was a studio master, getting called to play with just about everyone back then. he did so much studio work that he started getting a bald spot on his head from having to use the earphones so much...

and , he wrote his own music for his own band , banda banzai, and i want to tell you, it is some inspirational music stamped with a big brazil passport...incredible music, that was never released to the public...what a shame and loss ...because the powers that be here dont value instrumental music very much

who they talked about when luizao died was a drummer who died from some forgetable english rock group who wrote the song "julia" that was coverd by some other forgetable brazilian rock band

man , luizao maia,one of the greatest musicians anywhere, could play the hell out of jazz, was an innovator on bass for how to play and aproach samba and recorded with just about all the brazilian stars in his day

we miss you ,luizao

since we are paying respects to neginho and culture, lets talk about one of his contemporaries who died about a decade ago and changed the face of music in recife

chico science and nacao zumbi. as well as id like to mention nacao pernambuco

i first heard about chico science and nacao zumbi and nacao pernambuco on mtv about the time ayrton senna died. i was in a hotel at that time, i didnt have cable at home so i watched brazilian mtv and saw a couple of reports about chico science and nacaco zumbi as well as nacao pernambuco...it really looked fantastic. nacao pernambuco was bringing back the maracatu into focus, revisiting and rescuing foclorico culture that was 300 years old. they were wearing traditional costumes from colonial court times and were bringing the huge alfaias , gongas and caixas and just ripping rhythms and dances that were riviting

later on i would go to their rehersals and watch up close how powerful the drums were and beautiful the dances are

i was in recife for carnival once and got to see silencio de tambors, where 17 maracatu groups parade down the street and stop at a church. everything goes dark and they have a moment of silence

then on the way back i stopped at a very old church that used to be a sanctuary for slaves...a maracatu group was playing and they were in their colonial costumes and dancing to the beat...i really started halucinating..i could really feel the past open up an blow my mind, at this sanctuary for slaves hundreds of years ago..it sent a chill from deep in my bones up my spine...these are true living snapshots...and it makes brazilian culture so valuable

after seeing a little of chico science on mtv, i was really psyched about them, they were mixing these old rhythms with new contemporary grooves from funk and rock and afro pop. then they were on faustao and i got my video recorder ready. it was mind blowing. i love funk and they were laying down the biggest funk groove since james brown with those huga alfayais just ripping down your scalp. and chico was out front just all animated and open. a tremendous charismatic figure who really had something special.lucio maia's guitar was relly ripping the funk feeling and you had this incredible synthesis of brazilian culture with modern funk and dance grooves.

this was called the mangue bit or mangue beat sound. chico and nacao zumbi were the absolute most important band to see from that scene. they were very visionary. after their second cd, chico got into a tragic car accident and died.

a few years later, at a huge immence celibration called madrugada da galo...they usualy do frevos , but this time, after they did some frevos, they did a tribute to chico science and a million people were throbbing to his music...very moving..ill never forget it...

if you ever get to recife, check out nacao pernambuco or nacao zumbi or aurinha de coco or samba coco raiz do arcoverde or spok frevo among many other great groups...recife is amazing

its good to have a thread i can just talk about culture , one of the things that is a big atraction for me to live in brazil...powerful culture...

You are doing a wonderful job talking about the powerful culture. Please do not think that you are talking to yourself. We are all listening. Even Komrade ch.c has made a comment!! The only disappointment so far is your fellow author "Sage" whose silence is deafening.

well, joao, i feel like i have to talk about culture for a minute on here since it is such an important reason i am living in brazil. we all talk politics and social issues a lot and only a little about culture.

barrosinho was a great trumpeter who passed away recently also, hence , fitting to talk about him here in the same thread as the passing of neginho , which the author did such a good job ,there is no need for me to say any more about him.

barrosinho was one of the co founders of the legendary banda black rio, but, he was his own man also, playing very good jazz as well as brazilian culture. he has music in 1990 that was called "maracatamba" a referance to maracatu and samba , fully several years ahead of the mangue beat scene that tried to rescue these foclorico rhythms...

i saw barrosinho play with legends like luizao maia, paulo russo, dom salvador, ricardo mattos , vandeleia perreira, adriano gifoni and many more...

when i came to rio from new york and saw barrosinho playing with his group, they were playing the same hip jazz songs as the cats in new york i would see, and then playing the incredible bossa samba book...

he was a great musician from rio and i will miss him also...

I am very disturbed with this new. I played with Barrozinho back in the days with his group MARACATAMBA. Several performances in Rio de Janeiro and was thinking to bring his performance to NY soon.
He was not just a great musician, he was a wonderful human being who was always inspiring and encouraging youngsters to study music. He never stopped studying.
OMG. I just can't believe it.
Gone too soon!