Samba is a name or prefix used for several rhythmic variants, such as samba urbano carioca, samba de roda, amongst many other forms of samba, mostly originated in the Rio de Janeiro and Bahia states. Samba is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, having continued its development on the communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Having its roots in Brazilian folk traditions, especially those linked to the primitive rural samba of the colonial and imperial periods, is considered one of the most important cultural phenomena in Brazil and one of the country symbols. Present in the Portuguese language at least since the 19th century, the word "samba" was originally used to designate a "popular dance". Over time, its meaning has been extended to a "batuque-like circle dance", a dance style, and also to a "music genre". This process of establishing itself as a musical genre began in the 1910s and it had its inaugural landmark in the song "Pelo Telefone", launched in 1917. Despite being identified by its creators, the public, and the Brazilian music industry as "samba", this pioneering style was much more connected from the rhythmic and instrumental point of view to maxixe than to samba itself.
Bossa nova is a relaxed style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a calm syncopated rhythm with chords and fingerstyle mimicking the beat of a samba groove, as if it was a simplification and stylization on the guitar of the rhythm produced by a samba school band. Another defining characteristic of the style is the use of unconventional chords in some cases with complex progressions and "ambiguous" harmonies. A common misconception is that these complex chords and harmonies were derived from jazz, but samba guitar players have been using similar arrangement structures since the early 1920s, indicating a case of parallel evolution of styles rather than a simple transference from jazz to bossa nova. Nevertheless, bossa nova was influenced by jazz, both in the harmonies used and also by the instrumentation of songs, and today many bossa nova songs are considered jazz standards. The popularity of bossa nova has helped to renew samba and contributed to the modernization of Brazilian music in general.
João Gilberto was a Brazilian guitarist, singer, and composer who was a pioneer of the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s. Around the world, he was often called the "father of bossa nova"; in his native Brazil, he was referred to as "O Mito" . In 1965, the album Getz/Gilberto was the first jazz record to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It also won Best Jazz Instrumental Album – Individual or Group and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Gilberto's Amoroso was nominated for a Grammy in 1978 in the category Best Jazz Vocal Performance. In 2001 he won in the Best World Music Album category with João voz e violão.
Joyce Moreno, commonly known as Joyce, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Daniela Mercury is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, dancer, and producer. In her solo career, Mercury has sold over 11 million records worldwide, and had 24 Top 10 singles in the country, with 14 of them reached No. 1. Winner of a Latin Grammy for her album Balé Mulato – Ao Vivo, she also received six Brazilian Music Award, an APCA award, three Multishow Brazilian Music Awards and two awards at VMB: Best Music Video and Photography.
Axé is a popular music genre originated in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in the 1980s, fusing different Afro-Caribbean genres, such as marcha, reggae, and calypso. It also includes influences of Brazilian music such as frevo, forró and carixada. The word Axé comes from the Yoruba term àṣẹ, meaning "soul, light, spirit or good vibrations". Axé is present in the Candomblé religion, as "the imagined spiritual power and energy bestowed upon practitioners by the pantheon of orixás". It also has ties with the Roman Catholic Church and the Lenten season, which represents the roots of Bahian Carnival.
Samba-canção is, in its most common acceptance or interpretation, the denomination for a kind of Brazilian popular songs with a slow-paced samba rhythm.
Héctor Julio Páride Bernabó was an Argentine-Brazilian artist, researcher, writer, historian and journalist. His nickname and artistic name, Carybé, a type of piranha, comes from his time in the scouts. He died of heart failure after the meeting of a candomblé community's lay board of directors, the Cruz Santa Opô Afonjá Society, of which he was a member.
João Donato de Oliveira Neto was a Brazilian jazz and bossa nova pianist as well as a trombonist from Rio Branco. He first worked with Altamiro Carrilho and went on to perform with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto. Because of the area he grew up in Brasil he was able to hear Cuban music on the radio. This influence would manifest itself in many of his compositions, piano, and trombone playing. Donato's most well-known compositions include: "Amazonas", "Lugar Comum", "Simples Carinho", "Até Quem Sabe" and "Nasci Para Bailar".
Nora Ney was a Brazilian singer. She is also the most notable singer of the samba-canção music style and a pioneer of the Brazilian rock.
Nana Caymmi is a Brazilian singer. Caymmi was born in Rio de Janeiro, the daughter of Dorival Caymmi and Stella Maris. Her first appearance on record was on her father's album Acalanto. She married Venezuelan doctor Gilberto Aponte Paoli and moved there in 1959. She and her husband divorced in 1966, at which time she moved back to Rio. At this time, she became involved with the Tropicalia movement; she became romantically involved with Gilberto Gil, whom she married in 1967 and divorced the year thereafter. In 1966, she sang "Saveiros" at the first Festival Internacional da Canção in Rio, and won first place in the national phase of the competition, despite boos from the crowd, who preferred Gal Costa's rendition of Gil's "Minha Senhora".
Dorival "Dori" Tostes Caymmi is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, guitarist, arranger, and producer.
Pedra do Sal is a historic and religious site in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Saúde. The site was originally a quilombo village. An association group still lives there, formally known as the Community Descendents of the Quilombos of Pedra do Sal. The site was recognised in 1984 by INEPAC, the Institute for State Cultural Heritage.
"Na Baixa do Sapateiro" is a famous Brazilian song, written by Ary Barroso. Its title comes from a street in Salvador, Bahia, where many cobblers once worked. It was originally released in 1938 as the B side to Salada Mista, which did not achieve the same level of success. This first recording was sung by Carmen Miranda with Orchestra Odeon. She never released the song on disc in the United States. The song was originally going to be featured in the Carmen Miranda film Banana da Terra (1939), but was replaced with "O Que É Que A Baiana Tem?", because of the high license fee demanded by Ary Barroso to use his song. However the song has been recorded many other times by a large number of artists. The song gained international fame when it was featured in the Disney film The Three Caballeros (1944).
O que é que a baiana tem? is a song composed by Dorival Caymmi in 1939 and recorded by Carmen Miranda.
Banana da Terra is a 1939 Brazilian musical film directed by Ruy Costa and written by Braguinha and Mário Lago. The film stars Carmen Miranda, Dircinha Batista, and Aloysio de Oliveira. It was Miranda's last film in Brazil, before she moved to Hollywood.
Afro-Brazilian culture is the combination of cultural manifestations in Brazil that have suffered some influence from African culture since colonial times until the present day. Most of Africa's culture reached Brazil through the transatlantic slave trade, where it was also influenced by European and indigenous cultures, which means that characteristics of African origin in Brazilian culture are generally mixed with other cultural references.
Ápio Patrocínio da Conceição, known as Camafeu de Oxóssi, was a capoeira mestre, president of the Filhos de Gandhi, Obá de Xangô in candomblé, owner of the famous restaurant in the Mercado Modelo, musician, composer, and an iconic figure in the capital of Bahia, mentioned in books and songs.
Lindinalva de Assis, better known as Dinha do Acarajé, was the most famous maker in the Brazilian state of Bahia of the delicacy known as acarajé, a food of African origin made in Salvador da Bahia from cowpeas or beans and other ingredients, and fried in palm oil. It is served as a street food and also offered to the gods in the Candomblé religion.
A Preta do Acarajé is a song by Dorival Caymmi, recorded by Carmen Miranda on February 27, 1939, with the Conjunto Regional and the participation of Caymmi, released by Odeon Records. It was Dorival Caymmi's first record.
