Rodríguez, were also important in popularizing this new sound.
The proliferation of salsa-romántica was facilitated by the start of RMM Re-
cords in 1987, founded by Ralph Mercado. The turning point for his company came
in 1989 when a young Nuyorican pianist named Sergio George took over a produc-
tion for Tito Nieves, inflecting it with a unique blend of salsa - romántica, pop, and
soul. The overwhelming popularity of that release, The Classic, propelled the team
of Mercado and George to a dominant position in the New York salsa scene. By
the early 1990s, RMM Records had effectively filled the void left by the closing of
Fania records and was the largest and most influential Latin music record company
in the salsa business. In 1994, they started the RMM All-Stars, modeled off the
Fania All-Stars, which included the singers Jose “El Canario” Alberto, Tito Nieves,
Tony Vega, Ray Sepulveda, Domingo Quiñones, Johnny Rivera, Oscar D’Leon,
Ray De La Paz, La India and Marc Anthony.
George left RMM in 1996 to form his own record and production company, Sir
George Records, and began experimenting further with hip-hop, rap, reggae , and
salsa mixtures. DLG (Dark Latin Grooves) was his first project that proved highly
influential. In 2000, RMM lost a copyright infringement suit and was forced to
close. The absence of RMM records created another vacuum in the salsa scene,
the effects of which still remain. Regardless, salsa dance competitions, studios, and
dancing festivals continue to thrive worldwide and a number of bands from New
York, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Japan, and Africa continue to tour and
perform.
Further Reading
Aparicio, Frances R. Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican
Culture. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
Duany, Jorge. “Popular Music in Puerto Rico: Toward an Anthropology of Salsa.” Eth-
nomusicology 5, no. 2 (1984): 186–216.
Gerard, Charley with Marty Sheller. Salsa: The Rhythm of Latin Music. Crown Point,
Indiana: White Cliffs Media Company, 1989.
Manuel, Peter. Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae. Philadel-
phia: Temple University Press, 1995.
Mauleón, Rebeca. 1993. Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble. Petaluma, CA: Sher
Music Co.
Washburne, Christopher. Sounding Salsa: Performing Latin Music in New York City.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2008.
Waxer, Lise. Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin Popular
Music. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Chris Washburne
356 | Samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian music and dance genre with origins in Western European song
forms and Central/West African rhythm. Though its roots can be traced to musi-
cal styles of the 18th and 19th centuries, samba was not recognized as a specific
genre until the recording of “ Pelo Telefone ” in 1917. Though there has since been
significant debate on the subject, it is generally agreed that the history of modern
urban samba begins around this time. Today samba remains enormously popular
throughout Brazil, especially in the largest cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo,
and is widely considered to be the country’s national music.
As a musical genre samba is a very broad term, encompassing several subgenres
that have emerged in Brazil since the beginning of the 20th century. Though samba
has maintained its essential elements throughout its existence, numerous musical
and instrumental innovations have been incorporated into the genre. From its roots
in the music of enslaved Africans, to its hybridization in contemporary rock and
hip-hop, samba continues to be hailed as the ultimate Brazilian musical expression.
The term samba is likely a variation of semba, the belly-bump dance of Congo-
Angolan origin. The music’s most fundamental rhythmic characteristics and its ac-
companying dance can also be traced directly to the Congo-Angola region of Central
Africa, though it also borrows from the musical legacy of Yoruban West Africans.
Samba is typically played in duple meter with a characteristic heavy emphasis on the
second beat, usually played by the bass drum, surdo. Numerous other instruments,
both percussive and melodic, play syncopated rhythmic variations. There are no ab-
solute standard instrumental configurations in samba, as the music is played with a
variety of instruments in different contexts. Certain instruments, however, like the Por-
tuguese four-stringed cavaquinho (related to the ukulele), and the pandeiro (tambourine), are considered indispensable for samba to be played in its most popular format.
In small groups, the cavaco and pandeiro are usually accompanied by six- or
seven-string violão ( guitar ), the surdo (bass drum), the ganzá (shaker), and the
tamborim (a very small drum with no jingles, played with a stick—not to be con-
fused with a tambourine). During the pre-Lenten Carnival parades, baterias (large
drum ensembles) can consist of hundreds of percussionists that play a thunderous
si batucada . Additional instruments of African origin used in samba include the friction drum cuíca, and the agogô (a double bell of Yoruban origin). European instruments that are also commonly used in samba include the mandolin and various
woodwinds and brass instruments.
The aforementioned first recorded samba was purportedly written at one of the
musical gatherings that regularly occurred at the houses of the tias baianas (Bahian
aunts, matriarchs of the Afro-Brazilian community) in the port district of Rio de Ja-
neiro around the turn of the 20th century. The Little Africa district (as it is today called
by historians) was centered in the growing shantytowns that began to mushroom as
Samba
|
357
the result of migrants pouring in from throughout the country seeking work in the
developing city. Though the migrants came from various parts of Brazil bringing with
them their regional musical styles, a good majority came from the northeastern state
of Bahia. For this reason, it is generally believed that urban samba has a significantly
Bahian musical heritage, though it was born and raised in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
With the advent of radio in the 1930s, and Rio’s primacy as the capital and cul-
tural center of Brazil, samba emerged as the national music. In line with the govern-
ment’s nationalist agenda, samba provided a musical basis for the construction of
a Brazilian national identity. Though dictator (later elected president) Getúlio Var-
gas’s motives seemed to embrace the African heritage that samba embodied, Afro-
Brazilian musicians remained largely in the shadow of dominant society. Radio
stars, predominantly of European descent, sought original compositions from rela-
tively unknown composers, paying meager sums for songs that became extremely
successful commercially. By purchasing the songs, the singers were able to credit
themselves as composers, only occasionally sharing the writer’s credit with the
actual composer of the songs. While their songs played successfully on the radio,
many composers lived in relative poverty.
The predominance of Euro-Brazilian singers and self-proclaime
d composers
continued until the 1960s, when more Afro-Brazilian musicians began to emerge
as artists and composers in their own right. Throughout this period, escolas de
samba ( samba schools) were increasingly emerging from the hillside squatter com-
munities known as favelas, or more politely as morros. Samba schools are large
community ensembles from the morros that parade during the yearly pre-Lenten
celebrations of Carnaval. Many of Brazil’s most revered samba composers, who
were sought after by the radio stars looking to purchase their next radio hit, emerged
from such community samba schools.
In the 1970s, samba experienced a golden age of commercial recording success
with young artists like Paulinho da Viola, Beth Carvalho, Alcione, Clara Nunes,
and Martinho da Vila achieving phenomenal record sales. Older artists such as
Nelson Cavaquinho and Cartola, who had been previously known only by their fa-
mous compositions, recorded their debut albums in the 1960s. Conversely, with
the increasing commercialization of the yearly Carnaval pageant, samba schools
became increasingly gentrified, alienating community members. As the price of
participating in a samba school’s float came at a premium, the coveted spots were
being taken by celebrities and wealthy patrons who otherwise had no connection to
the communities that had nurtured the samba schools for decades.
By the end of the decade, a new generation of sambistas (samba practitioners) had
left their beloved samba schools to form their own blocos (smaller, community samba schools, or blocks). Young musicians also began sharing new samba compositions
in small gatherings that typically occurred in backyards or in small bars, reminis-
cent of the gatherings at the houses of the tias baianas at the turn of the century. One
particular group from the Ramos suburb in Rio de Janeiro had created a new sound,
358 | Sanfona
with aggressive percussion and introducing several new instruments. Among the in-
strumental innovations was a banjo version of the cavaquinho, as well as handheld
versions of samba school drums previously played with mallets and sticks. The new
instrumentation revitalized samba as a fresh new sound deeply rooted in tradition. The
Ramos musicians caught the attention of well-known recording artist Beth Carvalho,
who then recorded with them on several of her albums. They eventually formed the
collective Grupo Fundo de Quintal (The Backyard Band), initiating a successful re-
cording career for the group as well as for several for the movement’s original members.
After several highly successful albums by musicians from Ramos, the new sound
was informally labeled pagode, named after the musical gatherings ( pagodes ) that
gave birth to the movement. Soon after, the recording industry usurped the term,
releasing hundreds of pop pagode bands, most with little or no connection to the
original movement, fueling criticism from traditionalists. Today, there are hundreds
of traditional pagodes throughout Rio and other major cities in Brazil. Participants
gather around a table with musicians at the center singing an incredible repertory of
sambas that date back to the beginnings of the genre nearly one hundred years ago.
Further Reading
Browning, Barbara. Samba: Resistance in Motion. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1995.
Galinsky, Philip. “Co-Option, Cultural Resistance, and Afro-Brazilian Identity: A His-
tory of the ‘Pagode’ Samba Movement in Rio de Janeiro.” Latin American Music Review
17, no. 2 (1996): 120–49.
McGowan, Chris, and Ricardo Pessanha. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and
the Popular Music of Brazil. New edition. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.
Raphael, Alison. “From Popular Culture to Microenterprise: The History of Brazilian
Samba Schools.” Latin American Music Review 11, no. 1 (1990): 73–83.
Vianna, Hermano. The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music and National Identity in Bra-
zil. Translated by John Charles Chasteen. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina
Press, 1999.
Beto González
Sanfona (Acordeão)
Sanfona is the popular name in Brazil for the musical instrument known as accor-
dion ( acordeão in Brazilian Portuguese). Sanfona refers to either a piano accordion or a button accordion. The adjective sanfonado, meaning in the shape of a
sanfona, has to do with the shape of the bellows: layers of folds that are responsive
to squeezed air, as the word concertina in English. The bellows are known as fole,
a male noun that can also designate any of the instruments in the accordion family.
European immigrants introduced accordions in Brazil around 1836. By the time
of the Paraguay War (1864–1870), they were diffused throughout the country. The
Saya | 359
first types were button accordions, also known as pé-de-bode (goat’s foot) or fole
de oito baixos (eight-bass accordion); they were customarily used to play instru-
mental music. This version of the instrument was very popular among lower class
people, mainly in the Northeast region where it is in the roots of what is called the
authentic forró music, the forró pé-de-serra (bottom-of-the-hill, hill’s foot forró ).
In the 1950s, the piano accordion became the central instrument in the trio forma-
tion called trio nordestino , created by Luiz Gonzaga (1912–1989). Gonzaga used
the instrument to accompany vocal music with lyrics. Today, the university forró
movement that began in São Paulo city, new groups searching for the roots of the
genre, turned their attention to button accordions. One such group is the Mestre
Ambrósia group, who feature one of their younger members, Hélder Vasconcelos,
on the button accordion. Despite this, most young musicians are wary of the instru-
ment, considering it to be old-fashioned, folkloric, difficult to play, and associated
with old, unfashionable performers.
Some of the well-known accordion players in Brazil, past and present, are: Si-
vuca, Hermeto Paschoal, Oswaldinho do Acordeon, Waldonys, Camarão, Arlindo
dos Oito Baixos, Renato Borghetti, Dominguinhos, Genaro, Flávio José, Targino
Gondim, Raimundinho do Acordeon, Jorge Lunguinho (or Jorginho do Acordeon),
Mário Zan, Pedro Sertanejo, Chiquinho do Acordeon, Enok Virgulino, Joca, Zé
Gonzaga, Valdir do Acordeon, Luiz Gonzaga, and others.
Further Reading
Schreiner, Claus. Música Brasileira: A History of Popular Music and the People of
Brazil. New York: M. Boyars, 2002.
Adriana Fernandes
Saya
Saya is the best known Afro-Bolivian music and dance genre and it is performed by
singers and percussionists. In call-and-response style, solo vocalists alternate with a
group, whose chorus is also referred to as saya. The percussionists play three types
of drums. The tambor mayor, the largest and most prestigious drum, is used to play
the basic duple pulse. Interlocking with this part, the tambor menor player adds trip-
lets while the gangingo (also spelled gangengo ) performer contributes with quick
rolls on the smallest drum. A typical saya ensemble also includes a bamboo scraper
( guancha or cuancha ) and two types of bells (male and female cáscabeles ), which the dance lead
ers wear on each leg.
Afro-Bolivians revived the almost extinct saya tradition sometime in the late
1970s or early 1980s. The genre became the main identity emblem for black Boliv-
ians, largely through the efforts of the politically active Movimiento Negro (black
movement). Around the same time, Bolivian youths of non-African descent began
360 | Schottische
dancing the caporal in highland festivals wearing flashy outfits and accompanied
by brass bands. Saya is often confused with caporal, a mestizo genre based loosely on Afro-Bolivian traditions. Bolivian musicians such as the superstar group Los
Kjarkas have added to the confusion by labeling caporales as sayas (or caporal-
sayas ) on hit recordings. Afro-Bolivians have countered with their own recordings
of the real saya.
Further Reading
Templeman, Robert Whitney. “We are People of the Yungas, We are the Saya Race.” In
Blackness in the Americas, edited by Norman Whitten and Arlene Torres, 426–44. Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
Fernando Rios
Schottische
Although the schottische derives its name from the German word for Scottish, its
ultimate origins are contested; what is clear is that this quick, duple-meter dance
form gave rise to a vibrant set of Latin American variants. While some scholars
identify the schottische as rooted in 19th-century German and Bohemian round
dances, others link it to the French ecossaise, a contradanse (country dance) dating
back to the 1700s. All agree that by the mid-19th century versions of the schottische
for couple dancers entered the repertory of the international ballroom dance fashion
radiating from Paris. Like other ballroom dances, it was adopted around the world
and acquired regional names.
In Spain, the schottische became the chotis (also chotís, schotís, chote ), a signature dance representing cosmopolitan Madrid and a featured number in countless
zarzuelas . In the 19th century, the chotís also circulated throughout Spanish-
speaking regions of Latin America and the United States where it entered the rep-
ertory of popular instrumental ensembles performing social dance music and also
became associated with rural popular music. In Mexico the schottische ( chote ) gained popularity during the reign of Maximilian. Reflecting this legacy, the chote
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 61