This ethnography concerns a musical performance by Cajuina, a San Diego based Brazilian music group, that took place on 25 November 2017 at Café 21. In this paper, I am first going to briefly discuss the historical context and general characteristics of Brazilian music genres that were featured in the performance, namely samba, bossa nova, MPB, samba-funk, samba-reggae, and forró. I will then describe the performance in detail, focusing on the location, the performers and the music ensemble, the instrumentation, the music itself and the audience.
Urban popular Brazilian music genres
Samba
Samba is a popular music and dance genre in Brazil with its origins closely tied to African traditions. The folk samba, with its characteristic umbigada dances and responsorial singing, is believed to form the basis of the urban samba. The first commercially successful recording that is recognised as samba is “Pelo Telefone”, composed by Donga (Ernesto dos Santos) and recorded in 1917. Béhague emphasises the involvement of Afro-Brazilian musicians in developing the urban samba during the 1920s in Rio de Janeiro (362). In particular, Sinhô (the ‘King of Samba’), Caninha, and especially Pixinguinha, all had substantial influences on the popularity of the genre.
The first samba school (escola de samba), Deixa Falar, was established in 1928 by a group of samba musicians from the same association with the same name. Since then, samba schools have functioned as important carnival institutions. Samba schools are associated with different subgenres of samba, such as samba de morro (samba from the hill), batucada (a percussive dance music genre developed from samba de morro), and samba de enredo (samba with narratives used in parades during the 1930s). Again, Béhague states that throughout the history of samba schools, Afro-Brazilian musicians and musical aesthetics have had a massive impact on the national popular culture.
In the 1930s, catalysed by the spread of radio, samba became “a quasi-national phenomenon” (Reily 343). With the popularisation of samba and rising demand for the genre, samba-canção and samba-choro, mainly ballroom and nightclub genres, were formed by white middle-class composers such as Ary Barroso and Noel Rosa. Their lyrics were of sentimental character, often dealing with “love and unhappiness, often melodramatically” (Béhague). The urban samba had not undergone substantial changes until the emergence of bossa nova in the late 1950s.
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a stylistic renovation of classical urban samba in the late 1950s, adapting to the new audience mainly comprised of middle- and upper-class youth who spent their nighttime in nightclubs. Bossa nova musicians avoided emotional overflows and over-emphasis on the melody of the singer; the “subdued”, “timid and quiet vocal style” was rather favoured that allowed the music to feel “more intimate and sophisticated” (Béhague; Reily 344). Another key feature of bossa nova is its rhythmic complexity, achieved by “the mellow sound of the guitar and the soft percussion” (344).
Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto are two influential figures of bossa nova. In fact, the first recording of bossa nova “Chega de Saudade” was made in 1958 with the music written by Jobim. Gliberto not only had a “nasal, speechlike vocal style that ideally suited to bossa-nova aesthetics”, but also demonstrated his unique guitar technique called the “stuttering guitar (violão gago)”, which was done by “slotting the chords between the syncopations of the melody, avoiding coincidences” (344-345).
MPB
MPB or música popular brasileira, literally meaning “Brazilian popular music”, is a musical movement started from the 1960s that combines traditionally recognised Brazilian music genres, like samba and bossa nova, with foreign influences such as rock, jazz and funk. Musicians also began to incorporate social context within their music, portraying inequality, race and class divisions, and contradictions in the society through lyrics. A notable trend within MPB was the tropicalia movement of the late 1960s, led by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, which “depicted Brazilian society as an amalgam of diverse and contradictory elements” (Reily 345).
Samba-funk
Also emerged during the late 1960s, samba-funk is a fusion of samba and North American funk, created by Dom Salvador and his band.
Samba-reggae
In Salvador de Bahia, following the afoxé (Afro-Bahian Carnaval associations) phenomena, blocos afros (Afro-Brazilian drum ensembles) were established in the 70s and 80s, emphasising the black consciousness; notable groups include Ilê Aiyê and Olodum (Béhague 364). By introducing different drumming patterns in the mid-1980s reminiscent of Afro-Carribean rhythms and especially the Jamaican reggae, Olodum developed a new genre known as samba-reggae (366).
Originally published 15.10.2019.