of Rio de Janeiro are famous the world over and samba schools can be found in
many major cities throughout the world.
Further Reading
McGowan, Chris, and Ricardo Pessanha. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and
the Popular Music of Brazil. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2009.
Morales, Ed. The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from Bossa Nova
to Salsa and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003.
Beto González
38
|
Biguine
Biguine
The biguine is a lively Creole music and closed couple dance genre that originated
in Martinique, but became very popular all over the French Antilles and in France
during the 19th century. The popular history of the biguine goes back to the mid-
19th century, just following the Martiniquan emancipation of slaves in 1848. Big-
uine reached its apex during the 1930s through the 1950s and became perhaps the
most popular dance among the Creole population during this latter period. By the
second half of the 19th century, the mazurka and waltz became creolized ( mazouk
and valse creole) and together with the biguine, the three were known as mizik
kwéyòl . Through transformations and modernization, the biguine became one of
the main progenitors to zouk music in the 1980s.
Like the other creolized dance genres, the biguine is a syncretic mix of layered Af-
rican rhythms, which produce a complex composite rhythm blended with European
melodies and harmony. The texts to the songs are sung in Creole. In the 1940s and
1950s dance hall music provided the majority of exposure to biguine audiences. Live
orchestras were hired to provide music for social dancing. In this period, the instru-
mental composition of these orchestras consisted of a singer, saxophones, trumpets, a
guitar, violins, drums, and a double bass, and occasionally, piano and maracas . Well-known biguine ensembles from this period include Roger Fanfant’s Fairness Jazz and
Brunel Averne’s El Calderon. While these orchestras played a repertoire of tangos ,
waltzes, and other internationally popular dance music from sheet music, their cre-
olized repertoire was written and performed in a non-literate tradition from memory.
There were two types of biguine practiced in this golden age (ca. 1940–1960):
the biguine classique (in moderate tempo) and the biguine vidé (faster tempo). An-
other biguine, biguine piqué, is now rarely performed. The biguine classique was
the more popular subgenre, and the following remarks refer to the more popular
bigune classique.
The rhythm of the biguine went through a series of subtle transformations from
the 1940s to the 1960s, which included changes in the percussion section. While
earlier orchestras created their rhythm from a layering of drum set, guitar, and bass,
the later versions from the late 1950s and early 1960s made more use of Afro-
Cuban percussion instruments like clave , maracas, bongos, and timbals added to the texture. The composite rhythm is closely related to the Cuban cinquillo and
tresillo .
The melody and harmony of the biguine is diatonic, revolving usually around
tonic and dominant harmonies, with the melody playing a repetitive and syncopated
rhythm. Structurally, the music consists of eight-bar periodic phrases that form al-
ternating couplets and refrains. After a short introduction on the guitar, the band
would play alternating refrain-couplet phrases for two passes, and then the vocal
soloist would enter singing texts to the same melodic structure given previously
Bloco
Afro
|
39
by the instrumentalists. The lyrics of the biguine usually comment on daily life,
or refer to the beauty of one’s homeland. Into the 1960s, some of the texts became
more overtly sexual, using double entendres to make pornographic allusions.
Beginning in the 1950s, the biguine began to be influenced by foreign reperto-
ries, including American jazz, calypso, Haitian popular music, and Afro-Cuban
music. As a result, the biguine started to go through a period of transformation
that gave the genre a more modern sound. Soon the biguine was becoming ap-
propriated by other genres, which resulted in a series of hybrid forms such as
boula ka, a cross between Guadeloupean gwo ka and biguine. By the late 1970s and 1980s, elements drawn directly from the biguine, along with cadence-rampa
and cadence-lypso, resulted in a new hybrid genre known as zouk. Today, biguine
can be heard by orchestras that play old-time repertoire to nostalgic audiences,
and also among folkloric groups that see the genre as part of the repertoire of
roots music.
In the United States, Cole Porter had a tremendous commercial success with
a song entitled “Begin the Beguine,” which besides being a misspelling was also
originally sung to the rhythm of a bolero . The misnomer continued throughout the
1940s and 1950s, and bolero rhythm was often inappropriately labeled a beguine.
Further Reading
Benoit, Édouard, “Biguine: Popular Music of Guadeloupe, 1940 to 1960.” In Zouk:
World Music in the West Indies, edited by Jocelyne Guilbault, 53–67. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1993.
Desroches, Monique. “Musical Tradition in Martinique: Between the Local and the
Global.” Transcultural Music Review/ Revista transcultural de musica, 2 (1996). Online
Journal. http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/a279/musical-tradition-in-martinique-between-the-
local-and-the-global, accessed June 2, 2012.
Gerstin, Julian and Dominique Cyrille. Liner Notes for Martinique: Cane Fields and
City Streets, recorded in 1962 by Alan Lomax with the assistance of Antoinette Marchand.
1 CD, Rounder Records CD 11661 1730 2, 2001 (Caribbean Voyage Series).
George Torres
Bloco Afro
The bloco afro is a type of Carnival organization that originated in the city of Sal-
vador da Bahia in northeast Brazil in the 1970s as part of the widespread renais-
sance of black cultural forms and political consciousness. The blocos afro tradition
rose to national and international prominence in the 1980s via an overt sociopoliti-
cal agenda of black empowerment and an influential hybrid music style known as
samba-reggae associated with the bloco afro Olodum.
40
|
Bloco
Afro
Olodum
The musical ensemble Olodum is a bloco afro based in the heart of Pelourinho,
a historic neighborhood in Brazil. They are known for popularizing the rhythm
samba-reggae and for their innovative blends of Bahian street percussion with
rhythms of the African diaspora, especially those from the Caribbean. They
have collaborated with Paul Simon, Michael Jackson, and Spike Lee and per-
formed throughout the world. Olodum was founded in 1979 as a community
Carnival association of diverse individuals continuing in the footsteps of Bra-
zil’s fi rst bloco afro, Ile Aiye. The name Olodum is derived from the deity Olo-
dumare (supreme god) from the Afro-Brazilian religion candomblé. Olodum
has thousands of members but the main performing ensemble usually consists
of 18 musicians and expands to 200 for Carnival. Their ensemble includ
es vo-
cals, a rhythm, and brass section, and percussion consisting of caixa, repique,
surdo, timbals, timbau, and conga. Olodum’s songs vary between a percussion-dominated sound and a pop axé music style. Many songs contain intricate
percussion breaks with catchy melodies and choral refrains while their lyrics
address issues such as racial equality, social injustice, and black pride.
Further Reading
Crook, Larry. “Northeastern Brazil.” In Music in Latin American Culture: Regional
Traditions, edited by John Mendell Schechter, 192–235. New York: Schirmer
Books, 1999.
Thomas Rohde
The rise of the blocos afro in the early 1970s reflected a conscious attempt
among members of Salvador’s black community to create a uniquely African-
related cultural space for Salvador’s majority black population during the city’s
annual carnival celebrations. Proclaiming and denouncing the history of dis-
crimination and marginalization of the black population in the city—indeed,
throughout Brazil—leaders of Ilê Aiyê (the first bloco afro ) formed a community
group in the neighborhood of Curuzu, Liberdade, and first paraded in the carnival
of 1975 to, in a translation of their own words, “express the values of the black
race.” Influenced by the United States’ civil rights movement, black nationalist
movements, and the spread of African American popular music of the 1970s, Ilê
Aiyê quickly became a powerful cultural mechanism for Salvador’s black com-
munity, especially its youth, to reinterpret black Brazilians’ contemporary and
Bloco
Afro
|
41
historical connections to Africa and to other African diasporic communities. A
mixture of local and international Afro-related elements of music, poetry, cho-
reography, and visual symbolism played a vital part in Ilê Aiyê’s parades and
performances.
Ilê Aiyê’s musical dimensions drew primarily on the samba schools of Rio de
Janeiro and the afoxé Carnival tradition of Salvador. A powerful drum-line with
large surdos (bass drums), repiques (tenor drums), shekere (beaded gourd shakers), and other percussion instruments accompanied lead and chorus singers while
dancers and other participants (all costumed in textiles and accessories that evoked
a noble and heroic African heritage) marched in the streets of Salvador proclaim-
ing the beauty of being black. Ilê Aiyê sang songs whose lyrics mentioned African
chiefs, decried racial discrimination, and highlighted the inherent value of the black
race. Through the mainstream media, Ilê Aiyê’s members were accused of racial
agitation. In essence, the group had touched a nerve deep in the Brazilian national-
ist ideology, which proclaimed Brazil as a racial democracy. Ilê Aiyê’s formation
was the initial salvo in an emerging socioesthetic revolution to construct a socially
engaged Afro-Brazilian identity in Salvador and in Brazil. By the early 1980s, Ilê
Aiyê’s grassroots success had stimulated the founding of several other blocos afro
(Olodum, Malê Debalê, Araketu, Muzenza) and by 1983, there were 16 groups of-
ficially parading in Salvador’s Carnival and perhaps another 20 or so participating
unofficially. Chief among these groups was Olodum.
Olodum (founded in 1979) was particularly influential and promoted a racially
inclusive ideology for the blocos afro and proposed a distinctly diasporic notion
of African identity. The international spread of reggae and other contemporary
Caribbean-linked musical styles (especially merengue and salsa ) exerted considerable influence on members of Olodum and other blocos afro organizations. In the
mid-1980s, Olodum musical director, drummer Antonio Luís de Souza (Neguinho
do Samba), began mixing bloco afro drumming patterns with a variety of Afro-
Caribbean rhythms. Along with his drummers, Neguinho do Samba created new
drumming patterns (one dubbed meringue and another reggae ) and a new perfor-
mance style that became known as samba-reggae.
Olodum’s 1987 carnival song “Faraó, Divindade do Egito” (words and melody
written by Luciano Gomes dos Santos and set to the samba-reggae performance
style by Neguinho do Samba) became a national hit and catapulted Olodum and its
musical group to unprecedented success. By the late 1980s, Olodum and other blo-
cos afro from Salvador da Bahia were establishing themselves in the national and
international music industry. Olodum went on to record with Paul Simon and Mi-
chael Jackson in the 1990s. Simultaneously, a number of Bahian musicians tapped
into the street-level energy of the bloco afro tradition and translated it into a world
music format that was marketed as axé music in the 1990s.
42
|
Bolero
Toña La Negra
Afro-Mexican singer Toña La Negra (Maria Antonia del Carmen Peregrino Al-
varez), (1912–1982) is chiefl y remembered for her interpretation of boleros,
although she originally trained as an opera singer. She fi rst became famous for
her rendition of Agustin Lara’s “Enamorada.” Lara wrote “Lamento Jarocho”
especially for her and she received seven encores when she fi rst performed
it at the Esperanza Iris Theater. She performed throughout her career with
her brother, tres guitar player Pablo “El Negro” Peregrino, and his band Son
Clave de Oro. Toña toured the United States and Cuba, had a successful fi lm
career, and was heard regularly on station XEW, which made her one of the
o sol. She went on to sing “Alma de Veracruz” in the fi lm Maria Eugenia, and
“Eternamente” in Konga Roja. She contracted with RCA Victor and recorded
with Orquesta Gigante de Chucho Zarzosa, Juan Garcia Esquivel, and her brother
Pablo Peregrino.
Further Reading
Strongman, Roberto. “The Latin American Queer Aesthetics of El Bolereo.” Cana-
dian Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Studies 32, no. 64 (Nov. 2007): 39–78.
Rebecca Stuhr
Further Reading
Crook, Larry. Brazilian Music: Northeastern Traditions and the Heartbeat of a Modern
Nation. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005.
Crowley, Daniel J. African Myth and Black Reality in Bahian Carnival. Los Angeles,
CA: Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, 1984.
Moura, Milton Araújo. “World of Fantasy, Fantasy of the World: Geographic Space and
Representation of Identity in the Carnival of Salvador, Bahia.” In Brazilian Popular Music
and Globalization, edited by Charles A. Perrone and Christopher Dunn, 161–76. Gaines-
ville: University Press of Florida, 2001.
Larry Crook
Bolero
The Latin American bolero is a song and dance form that originated in Cuba in the
19th century. Its name originates from the Spanish bolero, though few surface simi-
larities exist between the two. Having migrated to the broader part of Latin America
Bolero
|
43
in the early 20th century, the bolero eventually became the dominant genre for ro-
mantic baladas in Latin America from the 1930s to the 1950s. Since the 1980s the
bolero has enjoyed a new popularit
y of old repertoire among younger listeners, thus
continuing to serve as a dominant genre of Latin American popular music.
The early history of the bolero goes back to the migration of the Spanish bolero,
a song and dance form that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries. This Spanish
version is typically in 3/4 with musical characteristics similar to the seguidilla and
fandango. One of the more noticeable features is the rhythm of an eighth note fol-
lowed by two-16ths and four-eighths.
In Latin America, the bolero originated in Cuba as a duple-meter song and dance
form during the last half of the 19th century in Santiago de Cuba, most likely from
musical characteristics drawn from the early Spanish bolero. Nevertheless, on the
surface, early Cuban boleros would appear to have more in common with the Cuban
contradanza and danzón than with the Spanish bolero. The bolero then became part of the evolving family of 19th-century Cuban genres whose lineage includes
the habanera , contradanza, and danzón. The first bolero in Cuba is credited to Jose
“Pepe” Sanchez, whose “Tristezas” was written in 1885, though some could point
to the term bolero being applied to other non-Spanish examples as early as 1830.
The genre at this time remained in the provinces and outside of Havana until around
the 1920s. At this time, traveling orchestras as well as advances in the media, in-
cluding radio and sound recording, helped bring the bolero not only into Havana,
but also into a wider audience throughout Latin America via Mexico.
Throughout much of Latin America, there was a strongly felt part of colonial-
ism that continued to favor European tastes of more indigenous styles. During the
period between Mexican independence (1821) and the Mexican Revolution (1910–
1920), there was very little appreciation for indigenous Mexican music among the
upper classes. Because of this, the canción mexicana would play an important role
in urbanizing the bolero in Latin America, and thus lend an important hand in ex-
tending its appeal beyond rural audiences.
timbals/maracas
bass
An example of bolero rhythm. (George Torres)
The canción mexicana had two basic styles: one that is part of a mestizo tradi-
tion and one that belongs to a more European bel canto style of singing. It is this