Samba

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Samba is the most famous of all the music born from African and Portuguese music in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has many types of Samba; more elegant salon dancing, and the wild, uninhibited popular dancing associated with Carnival. The name samba comes from the Angolan word samba, or religious rhythm. Samba evolved as a distinct form in the early 20th century in Rio de Janeiro, influenced by the immigrant black dancers from Bahia.

No one really knows who first created samba, but it was likely to be the group around Tia Ciata, including Pixinguinha and Joao de Bahiana. Then Pelo Telefone was recorded Donga and Mauro Almeida back in 1917. Earlier recordings had been registered as samba but this song is considered the first true samba recording. It broke samba out of the ghettos and into a more more mainstream audience.

In the 1928 Ismael Silva and a group of gangsters/samba composers formed Deixa Falar, the first samba school. They evolved the musical genre to make it fit better with the carnival parade. During this time, radio become hugely popular and increased samba's popularity all over Brazil. Samba became Brazil's official music.

Carmen Miranda popularized Samba outside of Brazil through her movies and introduced Brazilian rhythms to the United States and Europe. Since then the Samba has undergone a metamorphosis, the steps becoming more stylized and standardized.

Artists like the sophisticated Dorival Caymmi, Custódio Mesquita and his elaborate harmonies, Pedro Caetano’s swing, Assis Valente and his tropic list costumes and Herivelto Martins and his luxurious populism led the samba, already driven by the music industry, through different paths. Ary Barroso’s Aquarela do Brazil became the first Brazilian anthem abroad. In time samba metamorphosis in different directions, from the gentle samba-cancao to the drum orchestras so popular in the carnival parade. One style was created by middle class white people ... the bossa nova.

Highly urbanized areas led to the creation of the first popular nightclubs (gafieiras), which produced their own syncopated style - the samba-choro or gafieira samba. Still in the 30s, the samba de breque evolved – using pauses in the music filled in with rap-like speeches. So the gangster persona created by Moreira da Silva was crystallized, as well as the sub-genre samba-canção, or samba-tune. In São Paulo and Bahia, samba would receive tints of the local cultures.

The 60s were samba's golden years. Brazil had political problems and the leftist bossa nova musicians brought samba a lot of attention. Aldir Blanc revolutionized samba in the 60s is still around today.

Ten years later samba was back on the radio. Usurped by disco and Brazilian rock, samba reappeared in the 1980s in suburban Rio de Janeiro as the pagoda, a new samba, using instruments like tam tams and banjos. It used common language, more like everyday slang.

Samba has very distinctive and varied rhythms occurring within every song, which builds richness in the music and excitement in the listening. It is often called the "South American Waltz", as it features a "rise and fall" type of motion which is associated with waltz .