Samba Latin Songs
Kansas Eiffel
In a much-loved song, Arlindo Cruz, one of the greatest modern poets of Samba, describes his neighbourhood and home. Everyday life in the community, memories, hopes and dreams, tradition and respect for his roots and African heritage, are all there.
Nunes sings how the Indigenous, African and Portuguese people intertwined and through an interchange of war and peace, were unified under the painful history of the Brazilian Nation. Nunes, has left a legacy singing about the power of Orishas and Rolling Stone Magazine named her one of the most powerful voices of Brazil.
One of the most loved carnival songs (Samba Enredo) of Mangueira School of Samba, released in 1994. It is a hymn to its origins, and pays homage to the Tropicalista movement and its founder musicians Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Maria Bethnia.
A party- classic, and a well known traditional Samba from So Paulo. It speaks about the drama of the young romance; How can they spend the night together when they live so far away in the vast city of So Paulo?
Foteini Foteinaki is Samba dancer and an Arts teacher with a Masters Degree in Arts in Education by the Institute of Education in London, and currently lives in Paris where she is a passista for Aquarela de Paris samba band.
I know that there are questions on samba chords, samba rhythm, samba shapes and samba melody but, as far as I am aware, this site does not have a question about the tonality and harmony of samba music.
To expand on my comment - don't be afraid to plagiarising chord progressions. Most of the blues canon is based on the same three chords in the same order. There are hundreds of classics we just wouldn't have, if people had been unwilling to duplicate chord progressions.
It's tempting to think that you must do more than loop through three chords over and over again -- Amy Winehouse's Back To Black proves that it can be enough. Or, to drag us back to Latin America - La Bamba.
My suggestion is to try writing a Samba based on a II-V-I progression. It's OK if it's a bad song -- writing a bad song is better than writing no song. You can expect to write lots of bad songs for every good song you come up with.
Then see if you can improve it by adding some different chord progressions. Maybe the same chords in a different order, for a chorus; maybe introduce one more chord. Decide whether what you've done is an improvement, or not. La Bamba wouldn't be improved by the addition of another chord.
You want samba or bossa nova? These styles are quite different, almost as distinct genres. I assume you are talking about some "ready-to-export" samba music made throughout the 1970-80s (which culminated into some crappy lounge music for couples making out). That said, I suggest you listening to some samba music more extensively (in historical order, if you can; the following are subgenres of samba): Samba de Roda, Samba de Barraco, Samba-Enredo, Partido Alto, Samba-Cano (this last one is where Bossa Nova comes from). Then you will see that samba goes far beyond "II-V-I" (a rather simplistic way for analyzing it), and has rather approached such proggression very sparsely.
That said, samba has been deeply developed, explored, exploited and abused. The worst way to start at it is by trying to be original. You learn by mimicking the greats, unless you are an utter genius ahead of your time (I am not saying you are not one).
Side note: lyrics are a great part of the construction of samba. Such genre was born as song-oriented, and has a distinct prosody, vocabulary and phraseology. That's why samba appears to be so plastic-ish and snubbish when translated/versioned to anglo-saxonic languages.
The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States.[1] Latin American music also incorporate the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.[2] Due to its highly syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, son, and tango. During the 20th century, many styles were influenced by the music of the United States giving rise to genres such as Latin pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, and reggaeton.
Geographically, it usually refers to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of Latin America,[3] but sometimes includes Francophone countries and territories of the Caribbean and South America as well. It also encompasses Latin American styles that have originated in the United States such as, salsa, New Mexico music, Tejano, various forms of country-Western, as well as Chicano rock, Nuyorican rap, and Chicano rap.[1] The origins of Latin American music can be traced back to the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the Americas in the 16th century, when the European settlers brought their music from overseas.[4] Latin American music is performed in Spanish, Portuguese, and to a lesser extent, French.[5]
It is unclear on the birthplace of tango, though musicologists collectively agree that it most likely originated in Germany in 1860 as a form of religious music in organless churches.[6] Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges believes the genre to have originated in brothels in the country, though editors of World Music: The Rough Guide (2000), called Borges' statement "a little presumptive". They pinpoint the early developments of tango to the porteo people in Buenos Aires, most likely at bars. Tango became an urban music scene, which was a result of a melting pot of European immigrants, criollos, blacks, and native populations. Tango is influenced by Andalusian flamenco, Spanish contradanse, southern Italian melodies, Cuban habanera, African candombe and percussion. German polkas, Polish mazurkas, and Argentine Guanchos milonga. In its early history, tango music was associated with brawls at brothels and knife-wielding womanizing men.[6] By 1914, men outnumbered women in Argentina by 100,000, leading to an increased rate of prostitution and the brothel lifestyle that came with it. Men would often dance at cafes and bars and try to outdo one another with improvised dance steps in an attempt to attract a woman.
Their dances were characterized by "showy yet threatening, predatory quality, often revolving around a possessive relationship between two men and one woman". In its original form, tango music included the violin, guitar, and flute. By the end of the 19th century, the bandoneon was introduced. One of the instrument's early pioneers, Eduardo Arolas, was called the "Tiger of the Bandoneon". Arolas believed the instrument was made to play in tango. Vicente Greco is credited with standardizing tango with his group, Orquesta Tipica Criolla, by using two violins and two bandoneons. The instrumentation of tango remained largely unchanged until the 1940s. Tango music began playing in populated areas such as fairgrounds and streets in Buenos Aires. It contained lyrics that were "sometimes obscene and deeply fatalistic". Similar to families in the United States during the rise of rock and roll, families in the area tried to shield their children from tango.[6] Upper-classmen began taking an interest in tango, writer Ricardo Guiraldes performed tango during a tour of Europe in 1910 and has been credited with introducing tango in Europe. Guiraldes' introduction made tango the first Latin dance to gain popularity in Europe. Actor Rudolph Valentino performed the tango in his film The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1926), with Hollywood taking advantage of "[Valentino's] charisma, the magnetism of tango, and the attraction they both had on a huge public".[6]
Other styles of music in Argentina include the Chacarera, Milonga, Zamba and Chamam. Modern rhythms include Cuarteto (music from the Cordoba Province) and Electrotango. Argentine rock (known locally as rock nacional) was most popular during the 1980s, and remains Argentina's most popular music. Rock en espaol was first popular in Argentina, then swept through other Hispanic American countries and Spain. The movement was known as the "Argentine Wave".
Bolivian music is perhaps the most strongly linked to its native population among the national styles of South America. After the nationalistic period of the 1950s Aymara and Quechuan culture became more widely accepted, and their folk music evolved into a more pop-like sound. Los Kjarkas played a pivotal role in this fusion. Other forms of native music (such as huayos and caporales) are also widely played. Cumbia is another popular genre. There are also lesser-known regional forms, such as the music from Santa Cruz and Tarija (where styles such as Cueca and Chacarera are popular).
Brazil is a large, diverse country with a long history of popular-musical development, ranging from the early-20th-century innovation of samba to the modern Msica popular brasileira. Bossa nova is internationally well-known, and Forr (pronounced [foˈʁɔ]) is also widely known and popular in Brazil. Lambada is influenced by rhythms like cumbia and merengue. Funk carioca (also known as Brazilian funk) is also a highly popular style, including tamborzo rhythms.[7]
Many musical genres are native to Chile; one of the most popular was the Chilean Romantic Cumbia, exemplified by artists such as Americo and Leo Rey. The Nueva Cancin originated in the 1960s and 1970s and spread in popularity until the 1973 Chilean coup d'tat, when most musicians were arrested, killed or exiled.
In Central Chile, several styles can be found: the Cueca (the national dance), the Tonada, the Refalosa, the Sajuriana, the Zapateado, the Cuando and the Vals. In the Norte Grande region traditional music resembles the music of southern Per and western Bolivia, and is known as Andean music. This music, which reflects the spirit of the indigenous people of the Altiplano, was an inspiration for the Nueva cancin. The Chilo Archipelago has unique folk-music styles, due to its isolation from the culture centres of Santiago.
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