Samba
Brazil's national rhythm and the heartbeat of Carnival.
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Samba
An Afro-Brazilian tradition of coupled dance and music
4 min read
Bahia and the Afro-Brazilian Roots of Samba
From the rodas of the northeastern interior to the global circuits of Brazilian music
5 min read
Samba de Gafieira Partnering
Technique, History, and Contemporary Context
5 min read
Alcione: “A Marrom”
The powerhouse voice from Maranhão who became one of samba’s greatest stars
3 min read
Etymology and naming
1 article
Origins
3 articles
Bahia and the Afro-Brazilian Roots of Samba
From the rodas of the northeastern interior to the global circuits of Brazilian music
5 min read
Estácio and the Making of Modern Samba in the 1920s
The late-1920s reinvention of Carioca samba in a working-class neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro
3 min read
Samba Arrives in Rio and the Morros
Origins, urban migration, and the making of a national dance
5 min read
Musical anatomy
2 articles
Technique
2 articles
Variants
4 articles
Pagode
Rio de Janeiro's percussion-forward, slang-rich reinvention of samba
3 min read
Samba de Gafieira
A Brazilian salon-and-ballroom partner dance within the samba family
5 min read
Samba de Roda
The circle samba of the Bahian Recôncavo and its place within Brazilian samba
5 min read
Samba Rock
A dance-floor offshoot of Brazilian samba, sparsely documented in the reference literature
3 min read
Pioneers
25 articles
Alcione: “A Marrom”
The powerhouse voice from Maranhão who became one of samba’s greatest stars
3 min read
Ary Barroso and "Aquarela do Brasil"
The composer who painted Brazil in sound and created the samba-exaltação
4 min read
Ataulfo Alves
Mineiro composer and singer of samba's mid-century Golden Age
4 min read
Beth Carvalho – Pioneer of Modern Samba and Pagode
Brazilian samba singer, guitarist, and cavaquinho player — the 'madrinha do samba'
4 min read
Bezerra da Silva: The Voice of the Favela
The partido-alto master who turned samba into a chronicle of the marginalized
3 min read
Caetano Veloso: The Voice of Tropicália
The Bahian singer-songwriter who reinvented Brazilian popular music
2 min read
Candeia: Guardian of Authentic Samba
The Portela master who fought to keep samba a Black art of resistance
3 min read
Cartola
Angenor de Oliveira: Poet, Composer, and Architect of the Mangueira Tradition
5 min read
Chico Buarque: Poet of Brazilian Song
The singer-songwriter who turned samba and MPB into literature — and resistance
2 min read
Clara Nunes: The Queen of Samba
The voice of Portela who broke the barrier for women in Brazilian music
3 min read
Dona Ivone Lara: The First Lady of Samba
The composer who broke into the all-male world of the samba schools
3 min read
Donga: Pioneer of Recorded Samba
Ernesto Joaquim Maria dos Santos (1890–1974), composer of 'Pelo Telefone', the first commercially recorded samba.
3 min read
Dorival Caymmi: The Bard of Bahia
The songwriter who set the sea, the fishermen, and the soul of Bahia to music
3 min read
Elis Regina: The Greatest Voice of Brazil
The fiery "Pimentinha" who defined MPB before her death at thirty-six
2 min read
Elza Soares: The Voice of the Millennium
From a Rio favela to a BBC honor, the samba singer who turned pain into power
2 min read
Ismael Silva
Samba composer of post-abolition Rio de Janeiro (1905–1978)
4 min read
João Gilberto: The Father of Bossa Nova
The Bahian guitarist whose hushed voice and gentle beat invented a new way to sing samba
2 min read
Jorge Ben: The Inventor of Samba-Rock
The Rio singer-guitarist who fused samba with soul, funk, and African groove
3 min read
Martinho da Vila
The Vila Isabel sambista who carried the carnival-school tradition into the modern recording era
7 min read
Nelson Cavaquinho: The Tragic Poet of Samba
The Mangueira composer who sang death, faith, and despair in two fingers
3 min read
Noel Rosa
The carioca composer who made urban samba a medium of irony and social observation (1910–1937)
7 min read
Paulinho da Viola: The Poet of Samba
The Rio sambista whose refined harmonies bridged samba, choro, and MPB
3 min read
Pixinguinha
Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho and the consolidation of choro as a Brazilian art form
8 min read
Antônio Carlos Jobim: The Composer of Bossa Nova
The Rio songwriter who married samba to cool jazz and wrote "The Girl from Ipanema"
2 min read
Zeca Pagodinho
Singer-Songwriter and Principal Voice of Rio de Janeiro's Pagode Revival
6 min read
Venues and scenes
2 articles
Cultural context
2 articles
Recordings
10 articles
Água de Beber: A Bossa Nova Born in Brasília
Jobim and Vinícius's 1961 standard came from the rippling water of a new capital
3 min read
Águas de Março: Brazil's Greatest Song
How Jobim's 1972 "Waters of March" turned a Rio rainstorm into a collage of images — and the cycle of life
2 min read
Aquarela do Brasil: The Song That Painted a Nation
Ary Barroso's 1939 anthem launched samba-exaltação and became Brazil's most famous song
2 min read
Aquarela do Brasil (1939)
Ary Barroso's samba-exaltação and its international afterlife
3 min read
Chega de Saudade: The First Bossa Nova
João Gilberto's 1958 recording of a Jobim–Vinícius song launched a whole genre
3 min read
Desafinado: Bossa Nova's Witty Manifesto
Jobim and Mendonça's 1959 "Out of Tune" answered the critics — and became a jazz standard
3 min read
Garota de Ipanema: The Girl Who Conquered the World
Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes's 1962 bossa nova became one of the most recorded songs in history
2 min read
"Mas Que Nada": Jorge Ben’s New Kind of Samba
The 1963 song that updated samba — and became Brazil’s most globally recognized tune
3 min read
Pelo Telefone: The First Recorded Samba
The 1917 record that gave samba its official birth certificate
2 min read
Pelo Telefone (1916)
The contested first recording of Brazilian samba
5 min read
Performers
3 articles
Alcione
Brazilian samba vocalist studied among the genre's defining voices
3 min read
Jorge Aragão
Brazilian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of samba and pagode
3 min read
Martinho da Vila
Brazilian sambista and composer, a pioneer of modern samba and MPB rooted in the Vila Isabel Carnival tradition
4 min read