SAMBA Book

Samba, Alma Guillermoprieto (1990)

Samba, Alma Guillermoprieto (1990)

Alma Guillermoprieto is a Mexican journalist who went to Brazil to explore the culture surrounding samba and carnival.

She spends most of the book in the Mangueira favela getting to know the people who live there.

Mangueira

favela known for samba where Alma Guillermoprieto stayed.

Verde e Cor de Rosa

Pink and green are the colors of the Mangueira samba school.

Carlos Dória

Carlos Dória was the president of the Mangueira samba school who was assassinated while Alma was staying in Mangueira.

Carlos Cachaça

Carlos Cachaça was the last surviving founder of the Mangueira samba school who also invented the story samba in 1933.

Portela

Portela is Mangueira's rival samba school and they were the first school to be run by a bicheiro/animal banker.

Vila Isabel

Vila Isabel is one of the younger samba schools that was known for having a woman communist president and only occasionally has presidents that are bankers

Império Serrano

Império Serrano is another samba school whose colors are green and white. Their composer, one-armed Beto, shot one of the vice presidents when they placed second

Salgueiro

Salgueiro is a samba school known for having the best costumes. In 1960, Pamplona made the Salgueiro parade focus on Zumbi, an Afro-Brazilian hero but the actual black people in it didn't like it.

Riotur

Rio de Janeiro Tourism board which assigned funds to samba schools

• Held sway over samba schools, had control over broadcast rights and selling of them

Pagodes

“Established pagodes, or samba revival groups, set up parties near the cachaça stands with drums, a cuica and a guitar.

Old Guard started getting together to sing and revive the pagodes after people had practically forgotten how to live with samba.”

Carro alegórico (Float)

• "The ground costumes started getting really skimpy. You can afford to wear something like that when you're young, but after a point it didn't look good on me anymore." Which was convenient for Mangueira, since a trusted school member who was willing to pay for her own extravagant display of rhine- stones was a valuable asset. Marlene was a true Mangueirense and a very professional standout. For her it wasn't just a question of standing there in her glitter; she swayed atop the float, sang, smiled and waved at the audience. "If you don't, you get catcalls. There's training involved, no doubt about it! My secret is, I go to the re- hearsals every Saturday to get in shape for the season, and I tuck a caramel in the back of my mouth so I can keep singing for an hour and a half." As a reward for her commitment she always got the plum parts, like the role of Princess Isabel in the current script.

Cartola, D. Zica

She had been sitting at the directorate table with other women to whom she now introduced me: her grandmother Dona Zica, widow of Cartola, one of the founders and outstanding composers of the Mangueira samba school;

• Cartola chose Mangueira school colors of Pink and Green

• Cartola remained unknown and poor for most of his life, dying in Mangueira - was a main samba composer

Carmen Miranda

Banana lady/dancer/singer. Most famous export.

• contributed to the popularization of Latin American music and culture in the United States.

Francisco Alves

Lacking the true sambista's fertility, the professional singers and song publishers simply copyrighted the songs they liked, made them famous and kept the profits. Francisco Alves — "Chico Guitar" — became particularly known in the favelas for the skill with which he authored songs uncannily like the ones that had become popular on the hills only days before. He devised a system still in use today.

Malandros

From the Italians… vagabond who always happens to have dinner… always well dressed… takes advantage of women… often very charismatic and women take care of him. A sort of hero character! Who does nothing… FOLK HERO/ANTI-HERO

Tia Ciata

• Hilario Jovino’s friend and sponsor and “a pretty, vivacious member of the well-to- do black community whose lavish hospitality was made possible by her husband's income as a doctor.”

“Her house soon became a meeting ground for sambistas from the hills and professional musicians, and for those who had made the transition from one to the other. Sinho, the earliest master of the samba form, was a regular. So was Donga, one of the first samba composers to tour in Europe. The samba chronicler Cold-Feet Turkey never missed a session. It could be argued that it was from Aunt Ciata's house that samba itself made the final leap to respectability.”

Donga (Ernesto do Santos)

One of the first samba composers to tour Europe.

• “Donga toured Europe and returned chuckling over how the French had raved over his "sambage."”

• “The lyrics of "On the Telephone" say a great deal about the new age of detente between the black community and the law, and for sambistas the recording itself was something of a political triumph. Donga saw this clearly, and in an interview long afterward recalled how the police used to make a point of persecuting "what they called the jungle follies," and how police would raid sambistas' homes in order to confiscate their guitars. The change, Donga believed, started with the professionalization of the justice system. "Law graduates were appointed to the office of police commissioner," he noted, and "persecution of sambistas diminished little by little. We wanted to introduce samba to Carioca society. . . . In 1916 we started to lean on Odeon Records to record a samba. That's when they recorded 'On the Telephone.' "”

“Pelo telefone” (On the telephone)

• "Pelo telefone" is a famous samba song that is considered one of the first recorded samba compositions (1917). In 1916, Donga (Ernesto dos Santos) shared his newly composed song with Mauro de Almeida over the phone. This marked the birth of recorded samba and introduced the genre to a wider audience. The lyrics of the song tell the story of a lively and vibrant party happening in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The song is known for its catchy melody, energetic rhythm, and playful lyrics that depict the joyful atmosphere of samba gatherings and celebrations.

“A few months later this samba, "On the Telephone," was recorded by Joao da Baiana under a copyright claimed by Donga and Cold-Feet Turkey. The song was a complete success, even though for the 1917 carnival it was cleansed of any allusion to corrupt officials. ("The chief of police sent me a message / That everyone is free to jump and dance".)”

“Deixa Falar” (Let them talk)

• First samba school, founded in 1928 in Estacio, a city ward which was-and still is-a traditional stronghold of Carnaval. Favela São Carlos for Tia Ciata lived.

• And what would they name the school? They were lumpen, known as thieves and pimps to the white world; they would call themselves Deixa Falar — "Let Them Talk.

Ademar

a wannabe sambista

jogo do bicho

Animal lottery and bicheiro, powerful political figure in facelas, outlawed in the 60s… transitions to sport lottery.

Seu Malandrino

Seu Malandrino was an egun, the spirit of someone who had died. He had the ability to flit between the divine and the human worlds. Omolu was lord of the cemeteries, and he facilitated these connections.

Escola de samba

a group that unites specifically to parade during samba (specific colors)

bamba

a person wise in the ways of the samba world

samba enredo

Samba-enredo, also known as samba de enredo, is a sub-genre of modern samba made specifically by a samba school for the festivities of Brazilian Carnival. It is a samba style that consists of a lyric and a melody created from a summary of the theme chosen as the plot of a samba school.

capoeira

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality.

candomblé

Arose through a process of syncretism between several of the traditional religions of West Africa. There is some influence from the Roman Catholic form of Christianity. They have orixás

origin: África

umbanda

Umbanda is a syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion that blends traditional African religions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and Indigenous American beliefs.

origin: Brasil