October 5th, 2008

The Best of Brazilian Samba Music - Batucada, Samba Enredo, Pagode

There are many different styles of samba music and sometimes it is hard to know which kind you are looking for. You may know the sound of samba you like but don’t know the name of the style making it very difficult to find the samba music you want. Here are four diffferent styles of samba music. Each eaqually as good and perfect if you are in search of brazilian samba music to use while practicing your samba steps.

I do recommend the Batucada Brasileira CD if you are specifically looking for samba music to use for those who are learning how to dance samba. This samba cd is upbeat, with only percussion and string instruments. I actually use this samba CD in my samba class and my students love it.

The first style of samba music is samba batucada. It is generally mostly percussion, very organic in feel, and speaks to your heart without words.

The second style is samba enredo, the songs samba schools play during carnaval. Samba enredos alwyas have a singer who tells the story of the samba school or the theme the samba school has chosen for the year.

Third is a mix of samba batucada and ultra modern dance music. Not so much a style as it is a mix

The fourth style is of samba music is Pagode (paw-goh-gee), slower style of samba but not like bossa nova. It has a nice samba rhythm and much more danced to by couples. in Brazil you can find this style of samba played often at back yard parties and can easily be pulled of by three people playing the tan-tan, qavaquinho, and padeiro.


Batucada Brasileira CD in action!

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September 22nd, 2008

Portela Samba School 2008 Enredo (theme song)

Every year each of the samba schools Brazil participating in Caranval, must have a new theme song or samba enredo, which every member of the school must know by heart. Here is an example of a theme song everyone in the samba school must sing the entire 85 minutes of their part in the carnaval parade, the 2008 carnaval theme song (samba enredo) of Portela, one of the top samba schools in Rio de Janeiro. The name of the song is “Reconstruindo a natureza, recriando a vida: O sonho vira realidade” which means “Reconstructing nature, recreating life: The dream turns into reality”.

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