The music of Brazil

Latin Beat Magazine, August, 2002 by Mark Holston

It's 4 a.m., and endless rounds of Cerveja Skol have begun to take their toll on the small knot of percussionists seated around an oblong wood table at a hillside bar in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Tijuca. Led by a cavaquinho player, who plucks chords on the small Brazilian guitar that's similar to the Cuban tres, the group croons samba tunes while couples dance under an open sided canvass canopy. The rhythms may not be quite as crispas they were hours earlier when the impromptu jam session began and since some of the better players departed for home or other bars. But the spirit of Rio's Afro-Brazilian favela (shantytown) dwellers is still very much alive as the party finally shows signs of winding down.

As more cerveja arrives at the table, the group is energized by the presence of one of Brazil's reigning samba singers, Beth Carvalho, and the ace cavaquinho player from her band. After an hour of sitting on the sidelines, chain smoking, sipping beer, and signing autographs, Carvalho is ready to join the party. Noted for dropping in on late night community jam sessions to check out local talent and search for new songs, Carvalho may be one of her country's biggest recording stars, but tonight, she's just another Carioca--a resident of Rio--out for the sound of samba and a good time.

Welcome to a traditional Brazilian pagode--the largely impromptu gatherings of samba musicians and groupies that spring up in Rio's favelas every Friday night where old sounds are revisited and new music is created before your eyes. Like much of what happens musically in Brazil, a pagode is funky and spontaneous. They aren't listed in the entertainment section of local newspapers; visitors who want to plug in to this most Rio-like experience need to dig a little--ask at a music instrument store like A Guitarra de Prata (Rua da Carioca, 37) or find a hip cab driver--or get lucky. During a recent visit to Brazil, my entrée to this gathering came through a propitious encounter with Carvalho while dining at Cais do Oriente. The chic new downtown jazz club features Italian and Brazilian specialties served in an open air courtyard while noted jazz artists like pianist Markos Resende perform in a second story space. "We're going to a pagode a little later," she informed. "Why don't you come along? Here's the address. I'll see you there." After a ten-minute cab drive to where a deserted street dead-ends at the foot of a harbor-fronting hill, we cut the engine and roll down the windows to pinpoint the sound of the pagode in progress several blocks away up a steep path.

No matter what's been read about the central importance of music in Brazilian culture and the pervasive presence of live music in such cities as Rio, São Paulo and Salvador, few will be prepared for what they see and hear when they arrive in this Portuguese-speaking South American nation. Even a taxi ride from Rio's international airport, recently renamed Antonio Carlos Jobim in honor of the late bossa nova composer (how many major airports are named after a musician?), can be an ear opening experience. A current FM station that's in vogue and seems to be tuned in to every taxi's radio dial spins non-stop classic bossa and MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) tracks João Gilberto, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso and other stars. The music provides the perfect soundtrack as such famous visual symbols of Rio as the statue of Christ atop Corcovado Mountain, Copacabana's mosaic tile sidewalks and Ipanema Beach, with its throng of bikini-clad sunbathers, float by.

After the visitor spends a few days in Rio, a keen eye attuned to Brazil's storied music scene will encounter dozens of examples of how Brazilians relate to their greatest musicians and their art. Feel a craving in the wee hours for the latest samba disc? Somewhere in Rio, an all night kiosk brimming with CDs of every style awaits. Want to spend a day at the city's famous Jardim Botanico (botanical gardens)? Don't forget to drop by the Espaço Tom Jobim (Antonio Carlos Jobim Space), a recently created 300-seat natural amphitheater where such well known groups as The Rio Jazz Orchestra and flautist Mauro Senise's combo perform the late composer's classics Sundays at 11 a.m. Want to pay respects to one of Brazil's most important samba and choro composers? Take a deep breath and plunge into a warren of narrow, pedestrian only streets in the heart of downtown Rio packed with shops and Cariocas and seen by only the most intrepid traveler. On Travessa do Ouvidor, just steps from Livaria da Travessa, one of Rio's best bookstores, you find the famous--but seldom visited--bronze statue of tenor sax tooting Pixinguinha (Alfredo da Rocha Vianna, Jr.).

And the list goes on and on. Tucked away on a quiet one way street in the residential part of Botafogo, one of Rio's loveliest neighborhoods, in one of the few remaining homes from the colonial era, is the abode of classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos that now serves as the late maestro's museum. On almost a nightly basis, traditional Brazilian music and classical fare are presented in the small courtyard under the supervision of the museum's director, well known classical guitarist Turibio Santos. The museum (Rua Sorocaba, 200, Botafogo, telephone 2266-3894) is seldom visited by tourists (most cab drivers don't know where it is by name only) and should be part of any Brazilian music lover's basic itinerary in Rio. I paid the equivalent of $12 to become a "Friend of the Villa-Lobos Museum," which is good for a year's admittance to such events.