Samba, a rhythm in transition
History
The samba was born in Brazil with the Africans who came as slaves to the country. This rhythm was inspired by tribal and religious sounds, but had acquired a completely new meaning with the people who would one day be named as Brazilians.
It is possible to say that samba is the soul of the people of Brazil. It started in Salvador with the Africans at the same time that Brazil was born as a country in the midst of a cultural fusionism.
The Africans brought it with them their religion named “candomblé”. During their ceremonies they presented many musical rhythms that gave origin to many Brazilian musical styles. Among them, the samba.
The slaves played samba in a circle of people – “samba de roda” – in the senzalas to tolerate the sadness. Many historians attribute to this moment the roots of the well-known Brazilian happiness.
With the black people, this cultural manifestation came to Rio de Janeiro. Bahia had a large part of its black population, and Rio was similar to a European cosmopolitan capital.
Donga, João da Baiana and Pixinguinha were the first samba players of Rio de Janeiro and gathered at Aunt Ciata’s house in Praça Onze. There was batuque, samba roda and good food.
The famous “choro” rhythm – translated to english it means “cry” – was the fusion between European rhythms and samba, the first composer was Pixinguinha. His most famous music is Carinhoso which was widely criticised for its remarkable European influence.
At that time the samba was seen as a trickster and was forbidden, it was seen as the music of slaves and it was not long since slavery was over, so there was a great atmosphere of tension in society and the country was still in search of national identity.
Then Getúlio Vargas, the president of the time not only allowed samba, but encouraged the samba players to play songs that could create a national identity, as long as they spoke in favor of Brazil, with the goal of making samba the rhythm of a democratic nation.
With Vargas at the time of the military regime the songs that did not speak in favor of work and morals were prohibited, because Getúlio wanted to create a white samba image, forgetting the tense past. Songs that spoke the difficult reality of Brazil remained marginalized and were prohibited, this was the samba at root, well-known as “samba de raíz”.