A Musical Tour of Brazil

Brazil – football, beaches and samba, right? Not quite. With a land area about the same as the USA, and a population of over 200 million, there is in fact a stunningly rich diversity of music across this fascinating country.

Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte is the capital of the state of Minas Gerais and about a 6 hour drive – or a short plane ride – from Rio. BH is renowned as the birthplace of the Clube da Esquina (Corner Club) movement. With a patchwork of Brazilian and international influences including rock, jazz and bossa nova, musicians such as Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta revolutionised Brazilian popular music in the post-bossa nova era.

Brasilia

Brazil’s capital, famously growing in only 50 years from nothing into a city of three million people, has spawned one of the biggest names in the huge Brazilian rock scene; Legião Urbana (Urban Legion). A huge creative force in Brazilian music, Legião Urbana’s sound changed and evolved over their 14-year recording career, drawing unmistakeably on the sound of bands such as U2 and The Smiths, whilst exploring at times controversial political and social themes.

On the traditional side, Brasilia’s Clube do Choro hosts some of the best choro and Brazilian jazz around, such as sax/flute maestro Carlos Malta.

Curitiba

Amongst the key figures to emerge from Curitiba two names that stand out are singer/songwriters Carlos Careqa and Chico Mello.

Chico Mello’s fascinating style fuses Brazilian guitar and vocals elements with contemporary classical music, experimental sounds and dream-like moods.

Carlos Careqa has lived and worked in New York and Berlin as well as Curitiba and Sao Paulo, and his eclectic, often humorous style could be compared to artists like Tom Waits –although he’s a true original. Curitiba is also the home to one of the finest young groups working in the choro tradition, Trio Quintina.

For even more on Curitiba’s music past and present click here for a great in-depth look by music writer Daniella Thompson.

Cuiaba

Located in the state of Mato Grosso, in the geographical centre of South America, Cuiaba is about 1250 miles from Rio by road – about the same as driving from Manchester to Madrid! Famous musical exports include pop singer Yasmin Lucas and classical conductor Marcelo Bussiki.

Cuiaba is also strongly associated with Sertaneja music – Brazilian country folk music most traditionally characterized by the sound of the “viola caipira” (a 10-stringed guitar rather similar to a 12-string acoustic) and two male voices singing in harmony. Huge festivals such as Villa Mix feature the biggest names in Sertaneja such as duos Jorge e Mateus and Humberto e Ronaldo.

Fortaleza

Fortaleza is about 1350 miles by air from Rio – to put that, and Brazil’s huge size, into perspective, it’s about a quarter of the way back to London, starting in Rio! The capital of the state of Ceará, Fortaleza is in the heartland of forró, the accordion and triangle-driven country style heard throughout Brazil but particularly associated with the Northeast. But there’s much more to the region’s music than forró; Ceará’s greatest artists include singer/songwriters Fagner and Ednardo, and of the younger generation accordionists Waldonys and Adelson Vianna and London-based guitarist Luiz Morais.

Manaus

With a population of around 2 million, Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, is not only the a hub for one of the world’s most extraordinary regions of natural beauty and diversity but also a major economic and cultural centre. At the heart of the city is the beautiful Teatro Amazonas opera house, opened in 1896, which hosts the Amazon Opera Festival.

By way of total contrast, the Caranaboi festival celebrates “boi-bumbá”, an extraordinary carnival tradition particularly strong in the North and Northeast of Brazil, which revolves around the tale of a bull (a costumed dancer) dying and coming back to life. Boi-bumba is particularly associated with the tiny town of Parantins, about 300 miles east down the Amazon, whose two rival carnival groups Garantido and Caprichoso also perform in Manaus’ Carnaboi.

Natal

A little over 1600 miles from Rio, Natal is renowned for its many miles of stunning beaches and its huge dunes of white sand. It’s also the home of the Carnatal, Brasil’s largest off-season carnival (known as a micareta). Instead of having samba schools like the carnivals of Rio and Sao Paulo, Natal’s Carnival is famed for its “Trio Eletricos” – huge trucks carrying bands (they don’t have to be trios!) with mobile sound systems, followed through the city’s streets by thousands of revellers. The bands play axé, forro and other northeastern styles, and big names include Chiclete com Banana and Cheiro de Amor. Natal is also the home of one of Brazil’s best young singers, Roberta Sá.

Porto Alegre

Almost 1000 miles from Rio and the capital of Brazil’s southernmost state Rio Grande Do Sul, Porto Alegre is the birthplace of many of Brazil’s greatest musicians, from composers and songwriters such as Lupicinio Rodrigues and Radamés Gnattali to accordionist Renato Borghetti, guitar virtuoso Yamandu Costa and Elis Regina, considered by many to be Brazil’s greatest singer. Porto Alegre’s growth in the 19th century was fuelled by immigration from Germany, Poland and Italy, and the accordions and rhythms of the region’s characteristic Música Gaúcha often have a distinctly European flavour as well as similarities with the music of neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay.

Recife

Recife, almost 1500 miles north-east from Rio, is the capital of the state of Pernambuco. Along with the historic neighbouring city of Olinda it is, even by Brazil’s standards, a musical centre of stunning richness, with extraordinary traditions such as Maracatu, Caboclinhos, Mangue Beat; musicians such as Capiba, Dominguinhos, Nacão Zumbi, Chico Science and countless others.

The exhilarating frevo, traditionally a fusion of Afro-Brazilian rhythms with frenetic brass band tunes, was born at the end of the 19th century when military bands joined in the city’s carnival, and on the cobbled streets of Olinda the tradition is truly alive and well.

Frevo is also the beat of the world’s biggest carnival parade (according to the Guinness Book of Records), the Galo do Madrugada, for which in 2013 some 2.5 million people turned out!

In recent years the Spok Frevo Orkestra have taken frevo worldwide – even as far as London’s Ronnie Scott’s.

Rio De Janeiro

It’s almost impossible to know where to begin when talking about music in the “Cidade Maravilhosa” (the “Marvellous City”) as Rio is often known! Samba, baile funk, bossa nova, choro; Lapa, Madureira, Santa Teresa, Oswaldo Cruz; almost every street and neighbourhood has its own vibrant musical history.

If you’re lucky enough to get to the stunning Maracana stadium during the World Cup (or any other time for that matter) then you’re only a short walk from one of Brazil’s greatest musical landmarks, the home of the Mangueira Samba School.

Founded in 1928 Mangueira gave birth to many of the elements that became essential parts of the Rio carnival such as the use of a unifying theme for the group’s parade, and the appearance at the head of the parade of a female dancer carrying the samba school’s flag (the porta-bandeira), accompanied by a male dancer who symbolically “hosts” the parade (the “mestre-sala”).

Mangueira’s rehearsals are regularly open to the public, so if you want to want to get to the heart of Rio where it beats strongest – go!

Salvador

The capital of the state of Bahia; Bahia’s musical gifts to Brazil, and beyond, are far too numerous to pay proper respect to here; any list couldn’t fail to include Gilberto Gil, Luis Gonzaga, Caetano Veloso, Dorival Caymmi, Joao Gilberto, Gal Costa, Maria Bethania, Daniela Mercury, Ivete Sangalo, Olodum, Ilê Aiyê…

So many of Salvador’s very streets and landmarks have been eulogised in classic song lyrics that the city itself can seem like a living history of Brazilian music, from the Baixa do Sapateiro street that Ary Barroso sang about in his eponymous 1938 hit samba to Vinicius de Moraes’ bossa nova classic “Tarde em Itapua”, a love letter to the idyllic beach neighbourhood of Itapua, to Mangueira samba school’s “Lendas do Abaeté” of 1973.

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in the entire southern hemisphere, and, with its huge metropolitan area having a population almost the same as the whole of Australia, or double that of Portugal, it’s one of the most vibrant cities on the planet. It’s way beyond the scope of this article to capture even a tiny fraction of the city’s kaleidoscopic musical life, so instead, with apologies, here are just two brief glimpses:

Like Rio, São Paulo has a Sambodromo – a purpose-built carnival arena – and although not as well known internationally as Rio’s, São Paulo’s samba schools, including Rosas de Ouro, Vai-Vai and Academicos do Tatuapé, have all the overwhelming vibrancy of their Carioca cousins.

São Paulo’s huge bar and club scene covers every musical style imaginable, and with almost half the adult population of the city having been born outside the state of São Paulo, the whole range of Brazil’s music can be experienced there if you know where to look!

Finally, if you’re ever in the “Centro” on a Saturday afternoon (perhaps if you’re enjoying a couple of days getting to know the city after seeing England thrash Uruguay on 19th June!) drop by the Contemporanea music shop in Santa Ifigênia, where some of the city’s finest musicians meet in a modest back room to play choro – enjoying and sharing one of Brazil’s most beautiful traditions purely for love of the music.

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Written by Jon from Brazil Connection, one of Function Central's most popular Latin/Brazilian bands for hire. Jon is a guitarist, arranger, composer, teacher and writer, and plays traditional Brazilian seven-string guitar with various UK-based choro projects. Get in touch with Jon via Function Central.