Word: sambaing
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Born in the jungles of Africa, the samba arrived in Brazil centuries ago with shiploads of Negro slaves. It lived in Negro huts in the Brazilian hills, stirred to life for hilarious nights of song, went careening down to Rio at carnival time...
About 20 years ago Brazilian society began to cotton to the samba, and during the 19305 a refined version elbowed Brazil's long-popular Maxixe out of first place...
...Dance. Neither in steps nor in body motions does the Brazilian samba bear any relation to the Cuban rumba or the fast-fading conga. Whereas the distinctive feature of the rumba is undulating hip movements, of the conga a one-two-three-kick rhythm, basis of the samba is a springy, knee-action rise & fall-a motion heretofore found mainly on ski slopes. The samba's one ironclad rule: a knee-bend on every beat. A ballroomful of bobbing samba dancers suggests a gay polka, but the bobs in the samba are downs & ups, not ups & downs. The weight...
...deaf people can identify Latin American dance music. Its earmark is a varied assortment of strange drums, dried vegetables, bits of wood, which can produce sound combinations as fascinating as static in a transatlantic broadcast, rhythms more intriguing than the clickety-clack of a 60-mile-an-hour express. Samba music is no exception. It has its own Brazilian instruments; some tick off a steady one-two-one-two, others counter with a galloping rhythm...
Most popular and distinctive of samba instruments is the large, roundish cabaca, a gourd around which rattling beans are strung on loose strings. Other noisemakers include the reco-reco (sounds like running a stick along a picket fence), the cuica (a dull squeak). Above them the syncopated samba tunes run their jerky course...