February 6, 2002

9:29 AM

Not Flying Down To Rio For The Carnival?Never mind! Beat the crowds but catch the beat by listening to this year's terrific sambas before the rest of the world can. This is the real shanty-town stuff, not the watered-down touristy rubbish[WindowsMedia required]that passes for Samba. This year my favourite for first prize is Mangueira. What's yours? The Brazilian Carnival[learn all about it here] starts Saturday and goes on straight through to Tuesday. For the latest inside information - including the Bin Laden Mask controversy - O Globo's special web site[In Portuguese]is unbeatable. Enjoy!
posted by MiguelCardoso (13 comments total)

Here's that second link again - damn unbrazilian browser!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:32 AM on February 6, 2002

And, finally, here's that Portuguese-language 2002 Carnival web site...one hour it took me to post this. All those Shift and Christian Science Monitor guys coming to see what the fuss is about...grmbrgrr...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:38 AM on February 6, 2002

Those songs are wonderful. Thanks for the links.
posted by treedream at 9:57 AM on February 6, 2002

Thanks, MC!
posted by groundhog at 10:01 AM on February 6, 2002

Ah. samba!! Here in Bridgeport with our huge Porugese/Brazillian population(BTW Miguel you have any relatives up my way?) it's not uncommon to hear samba blasting out a car window down on Capitol Avenue.
Actually with the boom in Latin music worldwide and the cross-pollination of international music styles the samba(not to metion rhumba, merengue and salsa) has been getting better and better.Agradecimentos para a ligação, camarada.
posted by jonmc at 10:03 AM on February 6, 2002

johmc...and much louder at Seaside Park, no?
posted by Postroad at 10:10 AM on February 6, 2002

Postroad - Ah, seaside park. drug supermarket for generations of Connecticut delinquents like myself. All this nostalgia is making me verklempt. *sniff*
posted by jonmc at 10:22 AM on February 6, 2002

i'm going with samba 'caprichosos de Pilares'. sadly, i have no idea what they are singing about, but i like their style.
i have a carnaval in my head!
posted by asok at 10:22 AM on February 6, 2002

Bacana, Miguel!

Also worth looking at is the Worldwide Samba homepage. For an introduction to samba and other Brazilian musical styles, check out Slipcue's site. There are some good links here too, as well as lists of the best Brazilian albums. Alternatively, get this excellent book, and perhaps this one about Tropicalia, the late 60's style beloved by Beck and others (listen to samples with text translation). For portuguese speakers, there's a good encyclopedia of Brazilian music. Finally, all bow down to the genius that is Caetano Veloso.

I like Brazilian music.
posted by liam at 4:39 PM on February 6, 2002 [2 favorites has favorites]

Oops. Bad Caetano link. This should work; click on intro (flash or no flash) and it offers english, along with portuguese and spanish, as an option.
posted by liam at 4:48 PM on February 6, 2002

An article on Caetano Veloso.
posted by liam at 5:40 PM on February 6, 2002

Here are some brief english descriptions of the sambas linked to in Miguel's post.
posted by liam at 6:16 PM on February 7, 2002

Actually, the site I linked to in my last comment has full translations of each song. asok, this is what Caprichosos de Pilares are singing about - the city of Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil, its history and Gaucho traditions. Miguel's favorites, Mangueira, are singing a hymn to the northeast of the country, and predicting a rebirth (it's very poor up there).
posted by liam at 6:43 PM on February 7, 2002