Word: samba
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...polka-like music) with not-at-all-traditional techno to create a fresh genre, Nortec. In Bogota, Colombia, the rock duo Aterciopelados is mixing old-time accordion-driven vallenato with clubland drum-'n'-bass beats. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the great chanteuse Marisa Monte is smoothly blending samba...
...Janeiro is the city in Brazil that people all over the world know. They know the cathedrals and the samba clubs, the curved white strip of Copacabana beach, the spread-armed statue of Cristo Redentor on the peak of Corcovado mountain. Sao Paulo, on the other hand, is the city that foreigners don't know. They don't know that it is in many ways Brazil's musical center, accounting for 57% of record sales in the country, vs. 13% for Rio. They don't know that, with a population of 17 million, it is not only far larger than...
...think of Brazil without feeling certain rhythms. In the early 20th century, the country gave the world warmhearted samba and such performers as Carmen Miranda and Ary Barroso; in the 1950s and '60s it was soft-swaying bossa nova and Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim, Joao and Astrud Gilberto. Then, in the late 1960s and '70s, the Tropicalia movement marched in, armed with rock guitars and rebel lyrics and led by Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa...
...this tradition, De Castro brings a sound that fluidly, intelligently and winningly blends disparate genres--samba, bossa nova, drum 'n' bass, hip-hop and soul--into futuristic music that echoes the past. On his debut album, Samba Raro (released last year on the Trama label), De Castro's lyrics, all in Portuguese, have an engaging, understated simplicity. The title song compares the movement of a beautiful woman to a samba (Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes made a similar comparison on their bossa-nova standard The Girl from Ipanema). Another song, Pra Voce Lembrar, tells the story...
Another key to Samba Raro's charm is that some of De Castro's songs mix in bits of Brazilian classics. For example, the gritty Afrosamba incorporates elements of Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell's 1966 song Canto de Ossanha. "The techno admirer likes Samba Raro because of the beats," says De Castro. "The soul fan loves my songs because of my soulful guitar, and the traditional Brazilian popular-music admirer catches the influences from Jorge Ben and Wilson Simonal that I put in." Yet De Castro doesn't use the past as a crutch. His originals, such as the elegiac...