What is Samba Cancao?
Alan Frank
some examples of it, maybe I already am familiar with it but just not
under that mini-genre. Thanks.
Gerry Scott-Moore
: What is Samba Cancao and how is it different from Bossa Nova? Give me
: under that mini-genre. Thanks.
From Samba Session by Nicolai Glahder and Andreas Ramboll:
Bossa Nova:
Samba de salao has formed many different variants together with other
genres like, for example the romantic cancao (meaning "song"), which has
its roots in Portugal. Samba-cancao is a slow 2/4 rhythm with the accent
on 1 and in the early 50's it formed, together with American cool jazz
and Cuban bolero, the basis of the new bossa nova. Bossa nova was part
of an intellectual movement--it never became generally popular, but
formed the basis of new syles, and it is still played in bars and clubs.
I have a number of books of brazilian music from a 10-volume series by
Mario Mascarenhas (publ. Irmoas Vitale 1982+) that indicates song style
(Samba, Frevo, Choro, etc). These are a few that he indicates as
Samba-Cancao:
Apelo - Baden Powell e Vinicius
Atras da Porta - Chico Buarque e Francis Hime
Nem Eu - Dorival Caymmi
There are quite a few others listed with names I've never heard or
recognize as writers (Dolores Duran) instead of performers, so I don't
know where you'd find them to note.
I also see a number of other "Cancao" types. It means "song" of course.
There is Valsa-Canca and Tango-Cancao, etc. I don't think anybody
projects these others as a "style" per se.
\\\--- Gerry
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| Gerry | Samba salvara' |
| ----- | o mundo! |
| g...@netcom.com | Aliso Viejo, California |
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Paulo Rocha Oliveira
>some examples of it, maybe I already am familiar with it but just not
>under that mini-genre. Thanks.
I think that the main difference has nothing to do with compositional technique
or rhythmic foundation (both based on samba!) but it is strictly a matter of
interpretation. Bossa Nova is playing and singing like Joao Gilberto.
Samba cancao usually means a more melodramatic approach to the music (like
the Cuban bolero) which bossa nova musicians were strongly opposed to. [by
the way, the reference in a previous post saying that bolero was one of the
main influences behind bossa nova sounds fundamentally wrong to me; did I
completely misunderstand that post, or is the guy really saying this?]
As Jobim put it, "Without Joao Gilberto we'd have beautiful sambas-cancao, but
not bossa nova."
Paulo
Louis Jaffe
called "Antologia do Samba Cancao." Each of the 10 cuts is a medly of songs
by a well known Brazilian pop composer. The composers are: Antonio Maria,
Ary Barroso, Garoto, Tito Madi, Jair Amorim, Lupincinio Rodrigues, Herivelto
Martins, Carlos Lyra, Johnny Alf, and Dolores Duran. Most of these writers
were born in the teens or twenties of this century; some are regarded as
precursors of bossa nova.
The album itself features jazzy acapella arangements with very laid back
tempos. Not at all what one usually associates with samba, but a very
pretty album. I don't think it's been reissued on CD.
LJ
Paulo Rocha Oliveira
>of helping you figure out what category they fall into. OK?
Sounds like a bad idea to me. As I mentioned before, the distinction between
samba cancao and bossa nova is mostly in the interpretation, and not in the
composition. Suppose that the guy mentions, for example, the song 'Caminho
Cruzado', by Tom Jobim and Newton Mendonca. Well, if Joao Gilberto plays it
and sings it then it's definitely (and by definition, according to many people)
bossa nova. But Elizeth Cardoso might do a different version of it, without
Joao's 'batida' but with her big voice and her customary melodramatic
interpretation. Now this other version would probably be called a samba
cancao. Then someone like Stan Getz might get Charlie Byrd to play God knows
what on guitar and some drummer who plays a cuban son clave with the second
note on the two-side delayed by a half beat (a pattern that for some reason
unkown to me is known among several North American drummers as bossa nova) and
what do we have now, Latin Jazz?
So what we need is not a song list, but a list of specific recordings of songs.
But even then we could still argue forever about what label to give the music,
because the definitions of the styles aren't very precise and in many cases
they actually overlap! So what we need are precise definitions of these
styles. But if I was to give you one, you might not accept it, because after
all, there isn't a 'correct' definition of samba cancao.
With this in mind, it seems like this discussion is going nowhere. Should we
drop the subject?
Paulo.
P Keehn
that the samba-cancao emphasizes the melody more than the rhythm, and
has sophisticated lyrics tied to sentimental themes. "A cool, softened samba"
I could name you some songs in samba cancao and bossa nova but you
probably wouldn't be familiar with them--I don't know whatyou have in
your record collection. I know you like Carlos Lyra--if you could let me
know the selections on your albums by him, I could look up the titles in
the set that Gerry mentioned in the previous posting.
Ligia by Tom Jobim is labelled a samba cancao, but it doesn't seem so to me.
I just know that when I'm
playing samba cancoes and bossa novas, I can play the former at a pretty
fast clip (depending on my mood) and it swings like a samba, but the
bossa novas that I have--when I try to play them fast they sound terrible.