Samba is an Afro-Brazilian drum, song and dance tradition from Bahia (northeastern Brazil) that was urbanized in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Pagode is a Carnival form.
Women’s Samba
Annette A. Aguilar & StringBeans, with guests Randy Brecker and Ada Rovatti, play Brazilian and Latin Jazz and Salsa at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx on Sat, Apr 2 at 8pm. Live $20 ($5 students). Streaming $10. cuny.edu 🇧🇷🇮🇹🇳🇮
Previously
It’s Brazilian Carnival Night with Te Encontro no Samba featuring Mambembe at Drom in the East Village on Wed, Feb 16 at 7pm. $20. 🇧🇷
Afro Latin Jazz Alliance Tambor Tuesdays features People of Earth, Mambembe, and Kikiriki Biquey playing Salsa/Timba and Samba/Reggae at Drom in the East Village on Tue, Dec 21 at 8pm (7pm doors). $10. 🇨🇺🇧🇷
Luan Barbosa’s Roda de Samba plays Brazilian Samba and Pagode at Drom in the East Village on Sun, Oct 3 at 7:30pm. (6:30pm doors). $20. 🇧🇷
Hostos Center is One of the Northeast’s Top Latin Culture Performing Arts Centers
Cuban, French, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Spanish, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Dominican, Cuban MUSIC, DANCE, COMEDY: classical, ballet, jazz, merengue, bachata, reggae, hip-hop 🇳🇮, 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇯🇲 🇵🇷, 🇻🇪, 🇫🇷 🇪🇸
Continue Reading Hostos Center is One of the Northeast’s Top Latin Culture Performing Arts Centers
Samba Festivals NYC
Brasil Summerfest isn’t a samba festival, but presents a lot of samba and music that derives from samba.
Samba New York City
SOB’s Sounds of Brazil isn’t a samba club, but hosts samba events.
SOB’s Sound of Brazil
SOB’s or Sound of Brazil is a legendary downtown nightclub with a preference for Latin music. Everybody…
More Samba
Works & Process Underground Uptown Dance Festival 2023 Brings New York Street Dance to the Guggenheim Museum
Thursday-Tuesday, January 12-17, 2023
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
Upper East Side
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Brasil Summerfest 2022 Brings the Latest Brazilian Music, Dance, Art & Film to NYC
Sunday, July 24, 2022
BAILE FUNK DANCE PARTY
House of Yes
Bushwick, Brooklyn
FESTIVAL
Wednesday, June 29 – Sunday, July 24, 2022
Art, Baile Funk, Dance, Film, Jazz, MPB, Samba
Brooklyn Public Library, DUMBO Archway, House of Yes, Le Poisson Rouge, Lincoln Center, Nublu, Museum of the Moving Image, Steven Amedee Gallery
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Continue Reading Brasil Summerfest 2022 Brings the Latest Brazilian Music, Dance, Art & Film to NYC
Brasil Summerfest 2021 at the DUMBO Archway and Brooklyn Museum
BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY
Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Wednesday, July 14, 2021, 7pm
DUMBO Archway
Brooklyn
Friday-Saturday, July 9-10, 2021, 6pm
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Continue Reading Brasil Summerfest 2021 at the DUMBO Archway and Brooklyn Museum
Seu Jorge
Thursday, January 16, 2020
The Town Hall
MIDTOWN, NYC
The Brazilian samba star and actor visits with a friend. Anat Cohen & Choro Aventuroso open.
Dance Parade New York 2019
FLATIRON, UNION SQUARE, EAST VILLAGE, NYC | Sat, May 18, 2019 | Dance parade & festival | African, Bolivian, Brazilian, Cuban, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Mexican, Panamanian, Puerto Rican & Spanish dances
Uptown Nights Curtis Brothers & Circa ’95 at Harlem Stage
Saturday, March 23, 2019
HARLEM, NYC ~ The Curtis Brothers map the rhythms of the slave trade. Circa ’95 raps in Spanglish about what happened once we landed in El Barrio. For the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) and Carnegie Hall’s Migrations: the Making of America festival. At Harlem Stage
Continue Reading Uptown Nights Curtis Brothers & Circa ’95 at Harlem Stage
Dance Parade 2018
FLATIRON, UNION SQUARE, VILLAGE, EAST VILLAGE | Sat, May 19, 2018 | African, Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Cuban, Dominican, French, Haitian, Italian, Puerto Rican dances and more
Tropicália legend Tom Zé brings Brazilian Bossa Nova to Pioneer Works
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
PIONEER WORKS
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Continue Reading Tropicália legend Tom Zé brings Brazilian Bossa Nova to Pioneer Works
Elza Soares, Brazilian Samba Legend
CENTRAL PARK SUMMERSTAGE | Saturday, August 5, 2017
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Sponsored by Red Bull Music Academy
Brasil Summerfest 2017
Central Park Summerstage, Nublu, NaturaBrasil, Brooklyn Public Library, The Archway, David Rubenstein Atrium, Joe’s Pub, Museum of the Moving Image, The Django, Hester St
Manhattan & Brooklyn
August 5 – 13, 2017
Dance Parade 2017
Saturday, May 20, 2017
EAST VILLAGE, NYC: Flatiron District to Tompkins Square Park
A Child of Candomblé
Samba is purely secular now, but like most human culture derives from sacred traditions. Samba comes from the beautiful Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé.
In the 1930s, the Brazilian government decided to promote Samba to create a shared Brazilian identity. Today it is the root music of Brazil. In the 1950s and 60s, Samba and Jazz mixed into Bossa Nova, the world’s most popular music after the Beatles.
Today Samba is the root music of Brazil. Samba and Jazz mixed in the 1950s and 60s into Bossa Nova, the world’s most popular music after the Beatles.
Tia Ciata
Samba is completely secular now, but originated in the beautiful Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, which blends Kongo and Yoruba traditions.
Baianas looking for work brought Samba to Rio de Janeiro. One woman in particular, Tia Ciata (1854-1924), kept Samba traditions alive at her house in Favela Cidade Nova. She was a Candomblé priestess (Oshun). To throw off the authorities who feared the drum, she would have Choro (Carnival music that sounds like New Orleans Jazz) played in the front of her house and keep the drumming in the backyard.
Everybody in Rio knew Tia Ciata. That’s important because even though men take the credit, it’s women who hold our communities together. That is still true today – even in the USA.
Candomblé is based on the forces of nature and the medicinal uses of plants. When Brazilian President Venceslau Brás (1914-1918) had a leg infection that wouldn’t heal, he turned to Tia Ciata’s medicine. She must have made some good medicine.
In the 1920s, looking for something to unite many different peoples as Brazilians, the government chose Samba and began sponsoring Samba competitions which evolved into Brazilian Carnival.
Samba and Jazz Become Bossa Nova
Samba is characterized by strong percussive rhythms, usually in 2/4 time, simple chord progressions and call-and-response vocals.
It originates in the 1600s in Bahia state, Brazil, the most African state in the country with the second largest African population after Nigeria. In the same way that Cuban son blends African rhythms with Spanish guitar, samba blends African rhythms with Portuguese folk music. It developed further in the escolas de samba (samba schools) of Rio Carnival. The first recording was “Pelo Telefone” in 1917.
Countries often use popular culture as a glue to build the nation. The Brazilian government promoted samba as a core element of Brazilian identity.
Carmen Miranda, the Portuguese-Brazilian singer and actress, popularized a romanticized version of Brazilian culture in the 1930s. It was the first time much of the outside world heard samba. People made fun of her act, but she was the highest paid woman in Hollywood at the time.
Samba has influences far beyond Brazil. Bossa Nova, the world’s most popular music after the Beatles, is a form of samba. Jazz gives and takes with samba. Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso 🇵🇷, the great salsa composer, said he learned his style by listening to Brazilian music. Somehow it is all related.
