"There
are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination.
Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle
and elegance, beating drums and luscious jazz harmonics -- there's no
other place like it in the world. And while Rio, or its fame anyway,
tends toward the elegant and sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia
tends
toward the other. Bahia is the land of the drum..."
Bahia-Online/Cana
Brava is located in Salvador, at Rua João de Deus, 22, and in
that Bahia's principal modality for the existence and continuation of
its culture is music, this (along with much more) is something we propagate,
and celebrate.
The Bahian Stimulus Plan
It's tough, this fiscal crisis...it's certainly affected me. From what I hear it's cast quite a pall over much of the United States and Europe. But as bad as things can get -- and I don't wish to underestimate, understate or disparage the suffering of those who are out of work, and/or those who've lost goodly portions of retirement money which had been set aside for years -- it's not nearly as bad as losing everything!
And what did (one particular group of) people who'd truly lost everything turn to? Quite naturally, they turned to something they could produce with nothing...and that was music. What an irony that a music which is arguably the world's most joyous and celebratory was produced by people with nothing at all to celebrate beyond the mere fact that they were alive.
This product of the human spirit under pressure (diamonds are created under pressure) has bequeathed a great and variegated florescence to Brazil, and to the world, and with the burgeoning interest in Brazilian music the products of this florescence are being explored and divulged; Brazilian music can be heard live from Tokyo to New York City to Sydney...with the cruel exception of the very foundation of Brazil's national music, its root, its Holy Grail...samba chula.
So in the wake of the rape of the world's financial markets by selfish and unscrupulous men, we offer The Bahian Stimulus Plan, the inheritance of others centuries ago who lost far more than what was lost this time around and who left in the heads, hands, hearts (and hips) of their descendents their own efficacious and true-blue means of lifting the spirit skyward like a Titan rocket...
Samba Chula, the (highly rhythmic) "Delta Blues" of Brazil
João do Boi Saturno
Alumínio Saturno
The beatification of Kaú (pandeiro)!
The Saturno Brothers...the real-deal Blues Brothers of Brazil
Euterpédia Brasil is one more social network (yeah, I know, who needs one), but for whatever it's worth (and for me it is worth it) this one is built around a theme, and that theme is Brazilian musicians and their music. Of course given this, it's natural that the network should be in Portuguese. But given this, it's also natural that the music in the players should be eminently listenable independent of language spoken. And most non-Portuguese speakers will have little trouble making their way around such orthography as fotos, vídeos, eventos, grupos, blogs, etc.
By the way, the odd name is a combination of the obvious "...edia" section of "encyclopedia" (or enciclopédia, to be more precise), and Euterpe, Euterpe being the Greek muse of music.
I've set the site up myself, utilizing the wonderful technology of Ning. The impetus was a desire to create a central nexus/clearinghouse allowing anybody to find out what's going on with the creators of Brazilian music, where shows are taking place, what's being recorded, what's being researched, etc. etc. etc. And the impetus for this was the difficulty in keeping up with current musical events and happenings for the Bahia-Online What's On page! It's too much calling people up all the time to find out who's doing what, where, and when!
One may notice a preponderance of Bahian musicans there now, and that's of course because Bahia is where I am and these are people I know, but Rio and rest of Brazil will soon follow.
I'm having a hard time getting a lot of the musicians to actually utilize the site's not inconsiderable resources, alas, but I'm going to keep at it, probably doing a lot of the work myself in their stead (like I don't have enough to do -- as much as I love it --with Bahia-Online!).
This is the trailer to Besouro, a Brazilian film based in capoeira, the "story" of legendary capoeirista Besouro Mangangá of Santo Amaro, Bahia.
I was impressed with the trailer and saw the film shortly after its release here in Brazil on October 30th, 2009, hoping that the film in its entirety would fulfill my eager expectations.
What a disappointment! Not only is the script terrible, but the music was terribly conceived.
The story is set in the Bahian Recôncavo, the place where samba was born and where moving and fundamental music is still to be found. Gilberto Gil's theme utilized nothing of this; it was influenced more by heavy metal than anything remotely regional. I mean, give me a break! Shouldn't this guy know better?! And the rest of the insipid soundtrack was no better.
So here's my capoeira movie, THIS DANCE CAN KILL (sorry, no music there, it's all in my head), for which Cana Brava Records was first conceived (although unlike the shop here in Salvador, the fictional Cana Brava Records occupies a space on 125th Street in Harlem, New York City; it was based on Sikhulu's Record Shack, which was forced out of business as a part of Harlem's gentrification). A note on the name's genesis: Cana Brava was a common name for sugarcane plantations in Brazil, one translation being "angry cane" (the small town my wife is from in the interior of Bahia, for example, was originally called "Cana Brava" after the plantation which gave rise to the town's inception). The story is that slaves who harvested the cane were told that it was poisonous, so that they wouldn't partake of the fruit of their backbreaking labor. The theme to This Dance Can Kill then, evinced in the imaginary existence of Cana Brava Records, is a somewhat prodigal son's eventual embracing of his immigrant father's culture. The real-world Cana Brava exists to see that the music risen from this culture (samba chula/samba-de-roda) isn't forgotten.
O grande João do Boi of Samba Chula de São Braz! Here in Cana Brava Records on the night of February 7th, 2010!
Wednesday, February 3rd, we were honored to have Mateus Aleluia, of Os Tincoãs, here in Cana Brava! Os (The) Tincoãs worked with music based in candomblé, in the style of black American spirituals. Absolutely wonderful music!
Bule Bule was here in the shop yesterday (January 18th, 2010) and I got this photo, which I simply had to put up here. Bule Bule is nothing less than The Griot of Bahia, a repository of folk music and poetry, with an almost scary ability to create and sing endless, brilliant, piercingly funny rhyming stanzas on the spot.
Very cool title! A translation would be "Black Magic of the Old Mulata in the New City", a mulata being a mixed-blood --African and European -- woman tending toward darker (as opposed to a morena, tending toward lighter).
I haven't read it yet, gonna see about getting it today, and I'm hoping that Sr. Lopes' fiction is as interesting as his non-fiction, but whatever the case the book is bound to be a trove of fascinating information.
Thursday, January 14th, is the day of the Lavagem do Bonfim. In the immortal words of Paulinho Camafeu, "(He or she) who has faith, goes on foot!". The first to arrive at the Igreja do Bonfim, having walked the 8 kilometers from the Igreja da Conceição, will be the Baianas, closely followed by the publicity-seeking politicians, followed upon by the drumming, dancing, cerveja-imbibing multitudes.
Photo of the Lavagem do Bonfim, from the collection of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, no year given
The celebratory step-washing is touted as, and in some respect in fact is, a manifestation of the syncreticism of Catholicism and Candomblé, but the fact that it's the steps that are washed and not the interior of the church itself is a reflection of a Catholic (and not so catholic) repudiation of the West African beliefs by the church poobahs.
More Samba de Roda from Santo Amaro
Dona Edith's peji (altar)...saints, orixás (candomblé deities), and caboclos (Indian or Indian/African spirits)
Searching for another photo I found this, taken a couple of years ago. It's from Dona Edith do Prato's quarto de santo (saint's bedroom), dedicated to Oxum and the caboclos, in her house in Santo Amaro. Dona Edith passed away last year, leaving the city dimmed by the absence of her ebullience while leavened by the fact that such a great and beautiful soul had resided for so many years there.
She was recorded by Jota Velloso in 2001, at 86 years of age, resulting in the CD Vozes da Purificação (Voices of Purification), released by Maria Bethânia's imprint Quitanda and distributed by the Brazilian label Biscoito Fino (Maria Bethânia is sister to Caetano Veloso, himself wetnursed by Dona Edith).
Dona Edith grew up singing samba-de-roda in the house parties of Santo Amaro -- accompanying herself on a plate scraped with a knife -- from the time she was a young girl through the time she was a mature woman through the time she was no longer able to walk unassisted, never at any point losing her unfailing timing with such common implements rendered musical in such expert hands, wielding so masterly the subtle rhythms of Recôncavo samba.
Viva Dona Edith!
Lady With a Plate
(and a great heart)
Dona Edith do Prato's (Edith Oliveira Nogueira)
eponyminously entitled Dona Edith do Prato is a
result of the delicious collaboration of Dona Edith herself, As Vozes da Purificação (The Voices
of Purification, a group of women singers whose exultant
spirit has only been compounded by their substantial years
on this planet), Maria Bethânia, Caetano
Veloso, and others. Musical direction as well
as the record's beautiful guitar work (in the style so
unique to samba-de-roda) were the provenance of Paulo
Dáfilin.
This
record is samba-de-roda at it's finest, eleven of the
songs being in the public domain (including a song very
well known to capoeiristas: Marinheiro Só)
hence making the recording something of a record of heritage
as well as well as an exquisite work of art.
The
first and last tracks were recorded in the quintal (backyard)
of Dona Canô's house in Santo Amaro (Dona
Canô is Maria Bethânia and Caetano Veloso's
mother), and the remainder were recorded at Elias Filho's Studio Palco Livre in (the Salvador neighborhood
of) Rio Vermelho. The album really begins on the second track (which features Maria Bethânia).
Bahia-Online was created with the idea of the immersion by an outsider into the culture of this fascinating place. I've lived in Salvador for 17 years, and as incredible as it might seem I spent a straight run of 15 years without ever leaving the borders of the state of Bahia (a run broken by trips to Europe with a group of Bahian musicians, dancers, and capoeiristas).
And as incredible as it may also seem, with all these years in Brazil, I've spent just one night in Rio (in the company of Bob Nadkarni, at his wonderful Maze Inn in the favela of Tavares Bastos). And of course Rio de Janeiro is another fascinating place!
Host/Raconteur/Good Guy Bob Nadkarni
So I'm going to be spending time in Rio, approaching the city as I've approached Salvador, delving into interesting places not often pursued by outsiders. And as my particular penchant is for Brazil's Great Art (music), I'll be exploring samba in the becos and botecos, and reporting what I find.
Luiz Gonzaga December 13th, 1912 - August 2nd, 1989
Rei do Baião
Rei do Ritmo
Luiz Gonzaga and Jackson do Pandeiro, the two Reis -- Kings -- of the Brazilian Northeast
It's interesting that of the two great divisions of the music of Brazil's Northeast -- samba and forró (forró being something of an umbrella term including several different rhythms) -- samba is generally considered as having links to candomblé, while forró seems to be something else entirely...
But here's an epiphany from one of the masters (and hey! If it caught Jackson do Pandeiro by surprise, don't feel bad if it catches you by surprise too!).
"Um dia, em Pernambuco, fui ver um xangô e não é que quando cheguei e fui ouvindo o batuque, eu disse, cá comigo: 'Oxente! Isso é um coco!' E era. Mas um coco com agogô, com atabaques...um coco africano. O coco é mesmo que ser brasileiro: um tem um nariz chato, o outro é preto, outro é branco, mas todos são brasileiros. Assim é o coco."
"One day, in Pernambuco, I went to see a xangô (candomblé) and wouldn't you know it but when I got there and heard the drumming, I said to myself: 'Gee! That's a coco (one of the rhythms utilized in forró)!' And it was. But a coco with agogô (rhythm bell), with atabaques (conga-like drums)...an African coco. Coco is like being Brazilian, one has a wide nose, the other is black, the other white, but they're all Brazilians. That's what coco is like."
You've got to hand it to the way Catholic feast days happen here in Salvador. For example, today is the feast day of Nossa Senhora da Conceição -- Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception -- a putative commemoration of the day in 1854 that Pope Pius IX declared it to be dogma that Mary was conceived without the Original Sin resultant from Adam's partaking and sharing of the Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden, ecclesiastic understandings which would lead to theological pronouncements upon unbaptised babies condemned to hell (St. Augustine), later to be modified to eternity in limbo (as explicitly expressed by Pope Pius X, for whom the elementary school I attended was named), limbo later to be waved away by our current Pope Benedict XVI (presumably a great relief for a great many African, Asian, and Jewish baby souls, assuming St. Augustine doesn't have God's ear).
Morning Mass is celebrated in the church in the cidade baixa (lower city) named for this particular designation for Mary, and the rest of the day is beer and music. Original Sin be damned!
S.O.S.! Salve o Samba!
(Save the Samba) Dia do Samba, December 2nd, 2009
December 2nd is Brazil's National Dia do Samba (Samba Day). As for years, the organizer of Salvador's big show (which takes place in the Praça Municipal, a.k.a. Praça Tomé de Souza (in front of the Elevador Lacerda) is Edil Pacheco, and if you ask me, this year he's done it both very right and very questionably.
Right: Among the performers is Nei Lopes, from Rio. Beyond being a great sambista, both performer and songwriter, Nei is a lawyer and a writer. Sitting on the shelf behind me as I write is his tome on the history and present of partido alto (a kind of samba, of course).
Nei Lopes (with Sanny Alves)
Questionably: But the show also features Ivan Lins, master of MPB (música popular brasileira). What's up with that? Well, whatever the case, I'll see you there!
Amazingly, this rare gem has just been released on CD...
Donga is credited with writing the first carnival samba Pelo Telefone (although in reality the samba was conceived by Donga and a number of people singing and playing together at Tia Ciata's house in Rio's Pequena África; the background to this is treated in Once Upon a Night in Brazil...).
It would be hard to find a more All-Star lineup than the one on this record: Pixinguinha, João da Baiana, Bide, Almirante, along with Dino 7 Cordas, Canhoto, Altamiro Carrilho, Abel Ferreira, Joel Nascimento, Marçal, Elizeu Felix, Elizeth Cardoso and others. Choros and old sambas, including Pelo Telefone. Beleza pura!
One thousand were printed for release in all of Brasil...
Following Upon BESOURO (which follows upon this)...
Nelson Rufino
Nelson Rufino is a Bahian composer, living here in Salvador, part of what may now be safely called the "old guard" (safely as long as none of the guys are around to hear it). The clip below is of Roberto Ribeiro singing Sr. Ruffino's composition Todo Menino é Rei (Every Boy is a King), recorded for Brazilian television in 1978. Roberto Ribeiro eventually went blind and was killed crossing the street in Rio in 1996. Nelson Ruffino is alive and well here in Salvador and still writing hits.
The link to the following is of course the capoeira. And getting back to Roberto Ribeiro, his recordings are beautifully pure samba, free of the unwarranted adornments and trappings (strings and synthesizers, etc.) often added to samba recordings in an attempt to make them more commercial. Saravá Roberto! Beleza pura!
And hey! Television announcer guy! That's NOT samba-de-roda! That's partido alto! (which also originated in Bahia)
New additions to the bottom of the Pelourinho page...
Further Personalities, History, Fables and True Tales of Pelourinho & Environs
Camafeu de Oxossi
Camafeu de Oxossi (far right) with Jorge Amado (second from right)
Camafeu de Oxossi was a force-of-nature. Born in 1915 in Gravatá (across the street from Pelourinho), his father died when Camafeu was seven years old, and not liking the way he was treated by his new stepfather he lit out to fend for himself in the streets in and around Pelourinho.
Camafeu was baptized Ápio Patrocínio da Conceição, but according to Jorge Amado "Ápio Patrocínio da Conceição did not exist, it was just a nickname they gave him when he was born." The christening was struck after a lucky run in a jogo de sorte, a gambling game, in Pelourinho. The guy he cleaned out called him "Camafeu" (a camafeu is a bas-relief cameo) after a lucky character in a film in town at the time. The Oxossi part came later, for this: Camafeu had a stall called Barraco de São Jorge in the old Mercado Modelo and São Jorge, or Saint George, is syncretised with the orixá of the hunt in candomblé, Oxossi. Voilà! A name fit for a legend!
Camafeu studied at the Escola de Aprendiz de Artífice close to Praça da Piedade, sold shoelaces, shined shoes, worked as a sailor and then later on the docks of Salvador, eventually coming to own a barraca (stand) at the Mercado Modelo (the first Mercado Modelo, which burned down in 1969, some say at the hand of the mayor).
Camafeu didn't take the business seriously, partied with friends there, and wound up having to sell the place. The mercado's administrator allowed him to put a couple of boards over an old fountain and at this makeshift stall Camafeu sold clothes and used shoes, eventually earning enough money to get back into the game, buying a couple of barracas, and then a couple more, all side-by-side, joining them together. Here he sold materials for candomblé (he was an Obá de Xangô in house of candomblé Ilé Axé Opô Afonjá) and wandered the mercado aisles, berimbau in hand, singing the cantigas de capoeira (he was a highly respected capoeira master). His barraca was, according to Jorge Amado, a meeting place, a nexus, a musical conservatory. Sr. Amado went on to say that culture in Salvador is born, nurtured, and affirmed in some pretty strange places. With his illustrious pen he immortalized Camafeu in several of his books, including O Sumiço da Santa (The War of the Saints), Pastores da Noite (Shepards of the Night), and Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands).
The 1980 Philips records release.
Camafeu was a Filho de Gandhy and was the afoxé's president from 1976 to 1982. He died in 1994 and at his funeral, while being interred in the cemetery of the Ordem Terceiro de São Francisco to the accompaniment of Catholic prayer, a song in Yoruban was lifted to the skies by babalorixá Luís da Muriçoca, and all present joined in.
Igreja da Ordem Terceira de São Francisco, in Pelourinho
Jorge Amado of the Wayward and Picaresque
The writer as intense young man.
Dona Flor and husbands (one dead and one living) descend the Largo do Pelourinho.
The fellow sitting next to Camafeu de Oxossi in the photo in the preceding section is (should you not know) the best known of Brazil's writers, Jorge Amado. Sr. Amado got off to an early start, publishing his first novel O País do Carnaval (Carnival Country) in 1931, when he was just eighteen years old. His second novel Suor (Sweat) was written while he was a student living in Pelourinho (at Largo do Pelourinho 68 -- the old address -- which is actually located on Rua das Portas do Carmo, just around the corner from where Batatinha -- see further down -- lived), and Pelourinho, with its wild and colorful cast of characters and misfits, would become the setting for many of Amado's novels and short stories.
Bright Melancholy and the Diplomat
of Bahian Samba
Batatinha (Oscar da Penha, born on
the 5th of August, 1924 and in his youth a resident of Beco do Motta 2)
played the matchbox and composed many lovely sambas.
Batatinha's childhood home in Pelourinho at Rua Leo Vilgildo de Carvalho (popularly known by the old name Beco do Motta) 2
This is a song with an interesting provenance, a true story: Batatinha as a young man was out in the surging crowds that are part of Carnival in Bahia, when out of the multitudes emerged a lovely young woman, asking if she might borrow Batatinha's small embroidered towel, a standard component of samba school carnival kits back then. Batatinha complied. The moça delicately dried her face, handing the towel back to Batatinha, politely thanking him before disappearing back into the crowds, never to be seen (by Batatinha) again...leaving behind in the towel's weaving her beguiling scent and sweet memories of what might have been...
His LP (recently reissued on CD), named for a song, itself named for a true event during Carnival...
Batatinha died on the 3rd of January, 1997, aged 72
years, leaving behind muito saudade!
Pelourinho's new street lighting, as touted by the Bahian state government. The lamps are much brighter than the old ones, and the quality of the light, in terms of color, is much nicer. And as part of the restructuring of the Old City there will be a series of 130 shows, dances, theater pieces, etc., collectively entitled Tô no Pelô (I'm in Pelourinho) between now and April, 2010. Programming is here (in Portuguese)...
Carolina Soares sings a traditional capoeira song, Praia de Amaralina (Amaralina Beach; Amaralina is an area of Salvador, formerly a fazenda (farm) owned by the Amaral family).
Salve Carolina!
Pérolas Finas (Fine Pearls)
Three artists who spent most of their time here in Pelourinho, at Cantina da Lua, are Batatinha, Riachão, and EderaldoGentil. Above find a clip of the three together singing a song of Ederaldo's, Ederaldo singing and playing guitar to the accompaniment of the others.
Cantina da Lua, hangout
for the Bahian Ratpack: Edil Pacheco, Riachão, Walmir Lima,
Batatinha, and Ederaldo Gentil
As always, Ederaldo's lyrics are touching, movingly wrought. A translation into English follows (for the Portuguese, just listen!).
Gold and Wood
Gold sinks beneath the sea
Wood remains above
Oysters are born of the sediment
Creating fine pearls
I wouldn't want to be the sea
It would do to be the source
Much less be a rose
Simply the thorn
I wouldn't want to be the pathway
Perhaps the shortcut
Much less the rain
Just the dew
I wouldn't want to be the day
Just the dawn
Much less be the field
Just one grain
I wouldn't want to be life
Just the moment
Much less a concert
Just a song
Ederaldo is now 65 years old, living a tragic "end" to his life (or maybe not, if he could pull, or be pulled, out of it; Riachão -- the one with the cap and big smile in the clip and photo above -- is 87 and still going strong!). Ederaldo won numerous competitions for carnival sambas, and entered into a deep depression when samba, incredibly, fell out of favor in Bahia's carnival in the 1980's (replaced by so-called axé music). He is ensconced in his apartment in Brotas, from which he never leaves, cared for by his sister Denise. Samba matters to this man.
World Cup 2014 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Salvador is among the cities which will host the 2014 World Cup, and above is a composite rendering of the Fonte Nova stadium, as it's projected to be after re-doing the existing stadium. The water is the Dique de Tororó.
Photographer Nilton Souza has a new book out this September 22nd, featuring aerial views of Salvador. Lots of such and other gorgeous photos are available on his site at http://www.niltonsouza.com.br.
He passed on early Friday morning (September 11th, 2009), here in Salvador, of stomach cancer, at 45 years of age. He was a consumate musician (a percussionist), researcher, and a very, very nice guy. His death has shocked a lot of people here. The bit below is taken from our music page...
Future Shock!
If you're ever in a spaceship, skimming lowly and slowly
in technodrive over steaming jungle while your jazz-bearded pilot
channels up the chanting, rattling, buzzing and beating from below,
that pilot will almost undoubtedly be Ramiro Musotto.
Ramiro is an Argentine who has been living here in Salvador
for some twenty odd years or so, rattle-buzz-and-beat master to the
likes of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Sergio Mendes, Marisa Monte,
Daniela Mercury... his CD Sudaka melding Afro-Brazilian
rhythms with samples from Camafeu de Oxossi, Ilê Aiyê,
Congo pygmies, the film Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (God
and the Devil in the Land of the Sun), and more. Wild ride!
The man who took Brazilian percussion to American jazz -- Airto Moreira -- at his workshop on Friday, September 4th, 2009, in Pelourinho. We love Airto!
Radio Cana Brava...internet radio from Salvador da Bahia...is an aural rainbow stretching from Bahia's sweet fields of sugarcane in the land where samba was born (in the hands, mouths, hips and hearts of the Bantus), to the hills of Rio de Janeiro where samba-de-morro was composed for radio stars by wonderfully talented men who themselves were relegated to living in the favelas.
The rainbow arcs over Rio's district of Lapa, haunt of such slight giants as Cartola and Noel Rosa...over Praça Onze where Pixinguinha and Donga and friends gathered in the house of Tia Ciata for their choros while the candomblés and sambas-de-roda were conducted out back, away from the eyes of the police. It arcs over Maranhão in the north, and Minas Gerais to the south, over São Paulo's Praça da República, where samba is tapped out by shoeshiners on shoe polish can lids (samba professors to wonderful Germano Mathias), over the jongeiros of the Vale do Paraíba...
The rainbow is hued with the dust of the sertão (backlands) and imbued with the sophisticated dance moves of the gafieiras, Rio dance halls of the 1930's. It resonates with the agogô, the bandolim (mandolin), and the seven-stringed guitar utilized in samba and choro...
This is the soaring sound of the real Brasil...
CRASH PROOF! (but dying; a great music on the verge of extinction)
While the world awaits with trepidation the deepening of the economic downturn, there are some whose lives have never experienced an economic upturn. Brazil has a musical palliative for such material poverty, a rhythmic pearl which is no less a protective device than the lustrous layers secreted by an oyster to defend itself from a grain of sand. Pure joy born in the berth of misery, this would be the sweet mystery called "samba".
One Hot Night in the Bahian Backlands
This is Samba Chula de São Braz, featuring men in black hatsAlumínio and João do Boi (John of the Ox), along with Rita da Barquinha (Rita of the Little Boat) and dancers from the community of Bom Jesus dos Pobres (Good Jesus of the Poor People, a fishing village on the Recôncavo side of the bay where the boat is traditional, villagers sending offerings to Yemanjá out on it every January 1st, hoping to win the goddess's blessings for the year to come), and Dona Nicinha of Santo Amaro. The clip is an excerpt from Jorge Pacoa's excellent documentary Samba de Roda na Palma da Mão.
Samba-chula (or samba-de-roda, there is a slight difference) is a seminal but dying art played nowadays by a mere handful of people. The music fulfilled a role analogous to that of the delta blues in the United States in that it was/is the root foundation for most everything which came after it in Brazil's musical world, from the golden age of radio to bossa nova to tropicália to Brazilian hip hop. And ironically and in total contradiction to the situation of the blues, this cornerstone of culture now finds itself precariously close to disappearing forever (although those last legs certainly do have some life left in them!).
It'd be great to board a time-machine and pay a visit to 1930's Louisiana or Mississippi or Alabama, stepping up to a front porch on a humid summer's evening to clap hands to the rural American version of the above. But alas that time is gone and the time-machine is only a wistful figment of our imagination. Things have "progressed" more slowly here, but soon enough one will never be able to see or hear again what now requires but a journey into the Bahian interior to bear witness (or dance) to, if one knows where to go, and on what night...
Invoker of the Gods
6
In the photo below find Gabi (as he likes to be called) in the flesh (as opposed to the spirit, above)...
Principal drummer of Salvador's most storied terreiro de candomblé, Gantois (where Gabi was made filho-de-santo by Mãe Menininha, granddaughter of the terreiro's founder and iyalorixá whose praises may be heard sung in recordings by Dorival Caymmi, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Ivone Lara, Clementina de Jesus, and Caetano Veloso, among others; Mãe Menininha passed away in 1986).
Gabi later played and recorded with Margareth Menzes and Gilberto Gil, going on to spend nine years as percussionist in Jimmy Cliff's Oneness band.
He is currently head percussionist and arranger for the most celebrated instrumental band in Brazil (Stanley Jordan and Airto Moreira are two of the most recent to sit in), a band styled after the Afro-Cuban jazz bands of Tito Puente, et al, and based in jazz and the rhythms of candomblé, Rumpilezz.
Gabi also teaches percussion and may be reached by telephone at 55 (Brazil) 71 (Salvador):
8884-8548 or 3247-4723.
Although not completely fluent, Gabi does speak English.
All the Way In?
I had a guy in the shop -- the record shop -- a few days ago, an American of a certain age, asking about what's popular with the kids here in Salvador nowadays, what's playing on the radio. When he heard my choleric response he accused me of being a grumpy old man and yeah, well, maybe he's right. But so was I (right, I mean).
Below is a current hit song, Todo Enfiado (All the Way In), heard all over the radio, sung by the song's writer...
The young lady getting her panties grabbed is a school teacher (who lost her job after this video got around).
Years ago I was naively surprised to learn that trash literature was popular in Russia, whereas I'd had the impression that they were all reading Gogol, Chekov, and Pasternak. Likewise, here in the Land of Musical Genius (not that I'm claiming it's the only one, mind you), there is still a lot of ______ (call it what you wish) around (and I'm all for all-the-way-in as much as the next person, under the right circumstances, which to my way of thinking do not include some kid with a microphone chanting it repeatedly).
The Filhos de Gandhy are Back on Sundays in Pelourinho!
This is as traditional as it gets in Bahia, the Bahian version of the Raccoon Club in a sense, in that it is in essence and fact a social club, but built around afoxé, in which the religious music of candomblé is utilized in a secular setting (such as a party, or Carnival).
Opening ceremonies are at 4 p.m. and then music downstairs. Admittance is free, and beer, soft drinks and abarás are served on the lower mezzanine level. The lower level is reserved for dancing, candomblé style, men only.
Definitely worth checking out if one has any interest in the cultural side of Bahia, cool music, fellowship, hanging out, and fun. The headquarters is located on Rua Gregório de Mattos 53, just up from the Largo do Pelourinho. This being Bahia, the place can get crowded and noisy (and hot, on the mezzanine), especially after the party's been running for a couple of hours or so.
More on the Filhos de Gandhy here, and a personal note: At my first Carnival here in Bahia, I stood with my brother watching the Filhos de Gandhy parade by. I was like, what is the deal with these guys with the towels on their heads?! Is that supposed to be a turban? Now I am a years-long member of the Filhos de Gandhy, extremely proud of it, and always look forward to the week before Carnival when the new towels are handed out and one sits to have one's new turban pulled and stitched into form on one's head...and one's new, blue, brocha or estrela sewn on like a guiding star.
Giv Anquetil
For our Francophone friends! Producer Giv Anquetil of France Inter (France's National Radio) spent time here in Bahia preparing this edition of Giv' Me Cuba / Giv' Me Brasil (dealing with the roots of samba). The episode was broadcast nationally (in France) on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009, and will be available for one week after the original broadcast on France Inter's website here.
Épisode BRESIL #3 : Salvador de Bahia, les racines de la Samba
Tout le monde le dit : le Brésil est né à Salvador de Bahia, port d'entrée des esclaves et des sons venus d'Afrique. Bahia la vibrante, où les célébrations et danses venues du continent noir sont restées les plus vivantes. Comme le Candomblé, version brésilienne de la Santeria cubaine, avec ses tambours sacrés et des rythmes qui appellent chacun un Orixa dans la transe. Ou comme le berimbau, cet arc musical fait d’une corde et d’une calebasse qui accompagne encore les rondes de capoeira (leçon de choses avec le musicien Ramiro Musotto).
Après nous avoir initiés aux racines bahianaises de la Samba, le chanteur Raimundo Sodré nous embarque pour une virée dans le Recôncavo, au fond de la Baie de tous les saints. C’est là où la Samba est vraiment née, avant de se développer à Rio de Janeiro, quand les esclaves affranchis sont allés y travailler en hommes libres. Avec son ami Pardal le disquaire-fou, Raimundo nous emmène ensuite jusque chez Bule Bule, chanteur, compositeur, poète, cordelista et repentista, à la longue barbe blanche.
In Brazil, tough guys do dance!
What the hell did Norman Mailer know about it anyway?!
Speaking of which it looks like NYC is finally catching up to Brazilian style, rather than the other way around, for a change. Now maybe they oughtta loosen up, get light on their feet, catch that sway*, and learn to samba!
Would it take a Broadway run? (hey if they could do it with Irish stepdancing...)
Meanwhile, the book is in the works (mine, not Norman's, obviously), and until it's done there's always (in a different, though related vein) the screenplay for THIS DANCE CAN KILL (which puts a trio elétrico -- Carnival soundtruck/stage -- on 125th Street in Harlem in the final scene, a chance for New Yorkers to do exactly the above*).
Bahia Chic!
Anybody who's spent any time on this site knows that my taste runs to samba-chula and cachaça with fishermen and fieldworkers out in the Recôncavo, and samba-de-morro from the Rio hills, music barely heard for the past sixty years or so. But we must give the arbiters of another world their due (especially when our disparate worlds meet).
Ergo, Calvin Klein's (Brazilian) creative director on his trip to Salvador in his New York Times featured blog...
Now, back to that rusty metal standup street bar on a Salvador side-street!
Passion Blooms in Bahia
Donald Duck hangs in Pelourinho with Zé Carioca and gets all steamed up over Carmen Miranda's baby sister Aurora as she sings magnificent Ary Barroso'sOs Quindins de Yayá ("Yayá's Sweets"; Yayá is an archaic African-Bahian term of respect for a woman). The clip is from Disney's 1944 release The Three Caballeros.
Can you blame the guy?!
Valeu Gary Pozner! What a wonderful whirled we live in!
Radio Cana Brava is provided through a service called Live365, home to thousands of great "stations" run by enthusiasts who are in it for the love, not the money, and we're crazy about a number of these musical outlets. As time goes by I'm going to be adding to the list below...
Absinthe Radio plays great swing music of the '20s and '30s. It's not a nostalgia trip (although it could be I suppose, if you've got enough experience under your belt), it's simply great music! And man! Swing they did!
Here's Vai Chover (It's Gonna Rain), written by Boghan Costa (seated next to his also-musician brother Leo in the photo below, Boghan in white) and sung by Daniela Mercury.
Just about every time it starts to rain and I'm with my (poor, long suffering) children, I'll start in with an off-key version of the refrain of the same. So one not-so-fine day I happened to be having a beer outside with Boghan after a rehearsal when, as fate would have it, it began to rain and (forgetting my children weren't around) I began to sing...and Boghan winced, asking me "Do you by any chance know who wrote that song?"
Boghan Costa & Leo Bit Bit happy to back in Bahia after three months in Europe
Salvador,
Bahia: Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Ash Wednesday...the party's over...memento homo, quia
pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris...
CARNIVAL 2009 BEGINS TODAY, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH!
Tonight Rei (King) Momo will receive the keys to the city and Carnival will reign (this year's Rei Momo is incarnated by Gerônimo, of the music-on-the-steps on Ladeira do Carmo on Tuesday nights; has there ever been a better choice for Rei Momo?).
Rei Momo 2009
The theme is afoxé, and the streets are adorned with the blue-and-white strung beads of Bahia's largest afoxé, the Filhos de Gandhy.
A circuit must be selected...Dodo being the Barra-Ondina circuit, Osmar being the Campo Grande-Praça Castro Alves circuit, and Batatinha being the Pelourinho area circuit.
Samba-de-Roda's Beloved Muse Has Passed Away
Dona Edith Oliveira Nogueira, who picked up a plate and knife at four years of age behind her house in Santo Amaro, Bahia and began to scrape out the rhythm of a samba playing on the radio, and who went on to light up the parties of Santo Amaro for decades, singing and playing the sambas of the region, passed away in the early morning of Friday, January 9th, 2009.
Dona Edith was a sweet and lovely woman who in her capacity as sambista had an unfailing sense of rhythm, and more importantly, an unfailing sense of life. She was recorded by Jota Velloso -- a magical CD entitled As Vozes da Purificação -- a name taken from the group of women who sing choir in Santo Amaro's church Igreja da Nossa Senhor da Purificação and who also acted as Dona Edith's call-and-response backup singers.
Dona Edith do Prato
Caetano Veloso participated and the record was released on Maria Bethânia's Quelé label (distributed by Biscoito Fino).
God bless you Dona Edith!
Carnival Primer
Yesterday (Thursday, November 27th, 2008) I had the honor of meeting one of Bahia's great bambas (sambistas), a man so profoundly affected by the fall of samba from its place as the premier popular music of Bahia (to be replaced by what is now commonly called "axé music") that he spun into a deep depression and for years hasn't left his apartment, rarely seeing anybody but his immediate family (principally his sister Denise, who cares for him)...
Now, one might question the...stability or whatever one would like to call it...of somebody who would be so far derailed over the falling-from-popularity of one's musical style, and the story is a complicated one (more complicated than I myself know), but Ederaldo Gentil had a good distance to fall.
He was born in the area of Largo Dois de Julho and as a child was raised in the nearby central Salvador neighborhood of Tororó during a time (the '60s) when Salvador had samba schools. Ederaldo belonged to the Filhos de (Sons of) Tororó.
In 1967 his samba enredoDois de Fevereiro won the school's yearly contest, meaning that this was the principal song which the school would march to during Carnival. In the same year won Salvador's contest for Best Carnival Song with a composition entitled Rio de Lágrimas (River of Tears). He went on to win the competition for Best Carnival Song for the next three years in a row.
In 1969 Ederaldo had some sort of a disagreement with the Filhos de Tororó, resulting in the amazing fact (amazing to me, certainly) that of the ten samba schools marching in Bahia's 1970 Carnival, nine of those schools went out singing an Ederaldo Gentil composition as their samba enredo! The only one that didn't go out singing one of his songs was the one he'd had the disagreement with!
In 1972 he got back together with his companheiros in the Filhos de Tororó, and the school went out that year with an Ederaldo Gentil composition celebrating the 50th birthday of Bahia's most beloved mãe-de-santo (candomblé priestess) Mãe Menininha do Gantois, the samba In-Lê-In- Lá. This song also won that year's competition for Best Carnival Song.
In the years to come a number of Ederaldo's songs were sung by Brazilian recording stars of national stature, including Alcione, Leny Andrade, Eliana Pittman, and others, and Ederaldo recorded several albums of his own. He was an established member of Bahia's bamba royalty (I call them the Bahian Ratpack), a group which played together and drank together (usually at Clarindo Silva's Cantina da Lua, on the Terreiro de Jesus) and which included Batatinha, Riachão, Walmir Lima, and Edil Pacheco, all great sambistas.
The Bahian Ratpack in days past: Edil Pacheco, Riachão, Walmir Lima,
Batatinha, and Ederaldo Gentil
In the late '80s Carnival changed, and in Carnival '91 Ederaldo and some of the other bambas tried going the axé music route, on top of a trio elétrico. It was a flop and that was the last straw. Ederaldo withdrew.
1999 a group of distinguished musicians including Gilberto Gil, Beth Carvalho, Elza Soares, João Nogueiro, and Carlinhos Brown recorded a record (CD) of Ederaldo's compositions entitled Pérolas Finas in order to help him out financially. It has since become a collector's item.
And so there I was, sitting in his apartment, addressing the man. He suffers from clinical depression. I asked him if he still plays his guitar, and he answered no. According to his sister he has good days and bad days. He's sixty-five years old but surprisingly enough looks a good deal younger. I told him he isn't forgotten, much to the contrary. Among the cognoscenti of samba, he's a legend. I don't think it registered. But I'm going back.
And before moving on to the modern Bahian Carnival, how about lingering a bit in the past and reprising THE BIG Carnival hit of 1930? The song was written by a young composer (he was nineteen when it was recorded) by the name of Noel Rosa, who would go on to become one of Brazil's most prolific composers ever in spite of dying at 26 years of age.
Noel was a white kid from a not-poor-but-far-from-rich neighborhood (Vila Isabel, on Rio's north side) who moved freely up in the morros (hills where the poor people lived) and among the lowest-class botecos (bars), where he was accepted as one of theirs in spite of his own disadvantage. During a difficult birth he'd been pulled from the birth canal by forceps, suffering a broken jaw in the process. The jaw never did heal correctly, remaining crooked and underdeveloped for the rest of his life (there was some paralysis of the facial muscles on one side too), and although he was uncomfortable with his odd visage, that unmistakeable profile would become iconographic to the point where nowadays who would want Noel (setting his personal feelings aside) to have been one more guy with boring, standard-issue good looks? Brazil, from the sophisticated jazz-influenced bossa novistas in Ipanema to the roots sambistas in the morros, LOVES him the way he was, and is!
So, back to the Carnival hit...
Self-Portrait
Noel's mother wasn't too happy with all this samba stuff (she wanted him to study medicine instead, something he briefly tried), and knowing that he was planning to go out to a festa with his friends on what would become one propitious evening, hid his clothes. When the galera (gang of friends) showed up at the house yelling up for him to come down, he leaned out of the window (I imagine him plaintively bare-bottomed, but it probably wasn't quite like that ) asking "Com que ropa eu vou?" (With what clothes will I go?). The question inspired a monster Carnival hit!
I've included two recordings below, the first being the original, sung (in September, 1930, by Noel himself, and the second (so that the song can be heard with modern recording values) by the Grooveria galera of now-defunct Trama Records).
Comedian Kenny Kramer (left) was Seinfeld producer Larry David's across-the-hall neighbor and inspiration for Cosmo Kramer in the series, while keyboardist Howie (aka "Jaui") Schneider wrote Ray Barretto's hit La Cuna. Great guys and fellow Brazilian music fans!
"La Cuna" is "The Crib", by the way.
Sunshine? No...Shoeshine! Made in Brazil!
Getting beyond Bahia, the irrepressible Germano Mathias (seated above) learned to play samba as a kid in São Paulo's Praça da Sé, from the shoeshine men there. He's back at it here, with three real-deal shoeshiners from the praça.
For some reason, Bahia-Online/Cana Brava is given to (almost) lost causes and dying genres of great music (per samba-chula)... Germano is the absolute main man for samba sincopado, a very earthy close-to-the-roots São Paulo style seldom heard anymore.
I LOVE THIS GUY!
The Roots of Samba in Candomblé
This is an interesting clip demonstrating the connection between candomblé and samba. On the left is Luizinho do Gêge, ogã and principal drummer (runtó) in the house of Bogum (of the Gêge nation), and on the right is Gabi Guedes, ogã and principal (alagbê) drummer in the house of Gantois (of the Ketu nation; I love Gabi's little dance at the beginning!). They are playing a rhythm variously called "cabula", "kabila", and "samba de caboclo", while a traditional samba-de-roda is sung (specifically in order to show the connection).
This is from the Perc Pan 2008 Rumpilezz workshop (Rumpilezz is a marvelous percussion/wind-instruments ensemble based in candomblé and jazz; these guys are part of the group), on Friday, September 19th.
Masters of Afro-Bahian Percussion: Ogãs Gabi Guedes & Luizinho do Gêge
Out of the Ashes
Nicolas Farruggia ("Nico" to us) was one of the owners of an absolutely wonderful venue here in Salvador, a place which unfortunately closed its doors last year....Casa da Bossa. Nicolas was able to take solace though in the fact that he then found the time to rededicate himself to his own music and compositions (he's a classically trained guitar player), and here he is, wishing us a Feliz Primavera (Happy Spring; it of course being spring here in the southern hemisphere!).
DORIVAL CAYMMI IS DEAD!
Long live his music!
The man whose music embodied Bahia passed away at 94 years of age on Saturday, August 16th, 2008, in Rio de Janeiro after a long battle with cancer.
Dorival Caymmi went to Rio as a young man, leaving behind him a Bahia where employment was scarce and happily for the world taking his guitar with him. He practically fell into the music business and became the consumate myth-maker, incorporating the African sambas of Bahia into his music, and candomblé, and life as it was (and in many places still is) lived here.
Adoiá Dorival! Saravá!
A Mãe da Chula
(Chula's Mother)
Laura Rosa Brandão, born July 22, 1911 in the interior of Bahia, played guitar and was a repository of chulas, Bahian sambas. She taught these chulas -- and the intricate guitar style which accompanies them -- to her son Raimundo Sodré, who would go on to master this art form and make it heard throughout Brazil.
Raimundo's rock-star-like fame has subsided (he exploded in Brazil in 1980), but his mastery has only grown deeper with time, and through him the chulas of Laura Rosa's childhood have been kept from disappearing from the world forever.
The chulas in the first link below were passed on from Laura Rosa to Raimundo Sodré to Roberto Mendes...
This site -- Bahia-Online -- goes hand-in-hand with a record shop based here Salvador, Bahia, a place by the name of Cana Brava. This real Cana Brava is based on an imaginary record shop in the screenplay below...and that record shop is in turn based on a real record shop on 125th Street in Harlem, New York City...a place by the name of the Record Shack (sometimes the Harlem Record Shack, sometimes Sikhulu's Record Shack; located across the street and down from the Apollo Theater). Owner Sikhulu Shange (below) is a South African emigrant to the United States, and the screenplay's character "Joe" was in part based on him. Sikulu is fighting eviction...trying to survive the gentrification of Harlem.
One seminal Harlem record shop that didn't survive and just recently closed down forever was Bobby's Happy Shop (Bobby Robinson's place, located down the street and around the corner from Sikhulu's). Doesn't sound like a cool place? Well think again! (Hint: Bobby produced Elmore James, King Curtis, the Shirelles, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Grandmaster Flash, among many others.) Venerable Bobby was a client of mine back when I was in the music business in New York.
And the screenplay?
Capoeiristas? Nah... But the guy on the left knew something about dancing, and according to him the guy on the right was really the... (picking up from page 18)
SONNY
An' what about the greatest?
RHAKEEM
Muhammad Ali?
SONNY
JOE LOUIS!!! The Brown Bomber! Louis was his middle name. His real name was Joe Louis Barrow. Now what was the problem with "Barrow"? And come to think of it...what was the problem with "Black"? The Black Bomber!
RHAKEEM
Yeah! That's some pretty heavy sounding shit!
SONNY
Too heavy for them times. But look...the way I see it...there's a difference here. It's one thing if you don't like the way a name sounds, or what it stands for. But it's somethin' else if you don't like a name because what it stands for...is you.
Going to Rio? Want to stay in the same place where Quincy Jones, Alan Parker, George Martin (who recorded a part of Rhythm of Life here), and Stephen Frears have all stayed (among numerous other artists of various stripes)? And you're not a millionaire director, producer, or musician (or even if you are)? Well go to Bob Nadkarni's Maze Inn! Double rooms are 100 Brazilian reais per night (like, 40 euros).
Host/Raconteur/Good Guy Bob Nadkarni
Is there a catch? Yes, there is...a very interesting one: The Maze Inn is situated in a favela. This, however, is a very safe favela (Tavares Bastos, in the area of Catete, minutes away from Lapa), and in that the guesthouse is located at the top of a very big hill it has a spectacular view over Rio that absolutely no other lodging establishment in the city has (soon to be seen in a scene -- shot right in the guesthouse -- from the upcoming Incredible Hulk 2). This is a place like no other in the world!
* From the hanging-out area...not from the rooms themselves.
** Disclaimer: Bob does not pay me for this blurb, although he plied me with free beer and caipirinhas when I was there.
Intrigue, Inspiration, and More Intrigue
Although rarely visitied, Maracangalha is by far Bahia's most storied community...
The now closed-down Cinco Rios sugar factory obliquely inspired this fame, thusly...
Dorival
Caymmi
Bahia's premier sambista Dorival Caymmi had a close friend by the name of "Zezinho", and Zezinho had -- in addition to his wife and family proper -- a lover and four children living in another area of the city. Dorival asked his friend one day what excuse he gave when going to visit his second family...
Zezinho would send a telegram to himself, his friend replied, informing him of business requiring his attention in Maracangalha. Upon returning home to his "official" family Zezinho never failed to take along with him a large sack of sugar as evidence of where he'd been. Dorival, intrigued with the poetry in the name of the community used in this subterfuge, composed "Maracangalha" in one sitting...
Young men when the samba was written, Mestres Pedro Alves & José Grora of SAMBA-CHULA DE MARACANGALHA
continue the tradition of their communty's association with great music!
Unfortunately, the intrigue around Maracangalha grew last year to include far more than one man's family life...
An airplane carrying millions of reais (Brazilian currency; it was also the equivalent of millions of dollars or euros) crashed onto a ranch just outside the municipality, killing the pilots and security men and spreading money around the immediate area...
The aftermath of this affair included plunder, murder, kidnappings, and torture; involving local residents, homeless members of a nearby "tent city", police, and men posing as police...but as all this is outside of what I consider to be the scope, provenance, and purview of this site, I'll leave it at that.
