Samba (music)

Samba music
Stylistic origins	Batuque Fandango Purace music
Cultural origins	Brazil, early 20th century
Typical instruments	cavaquinho, tamborim
Subgenres
Samba-canção, Partido alto, Samba-enredo, Samba de gafieira, Samba de breque, Bossa nova, Pagode
Fusion genres
Samba-maxixe, Samba-rock, Samba-reggae, Samba-zouk, Sambass
Other topics
Brazilian Carnival, samba school

Samba (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈsɐ̃bɐ]) is a Brazilian musical genre and dance style, with its roots in Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions, particularly of Angola and the Congo, through the samba de roda genre of the northeastern state of Bahia, from which it derived. Although there were various forms of samba in Brazil in the form of various popular rhythms and regional dances that originated from drumming, samba as a music genre is seen as originally a musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro, then the capital and largest city of Imperial Brazil.

It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival. Considered one of the most popular Brazilian cultural expressions, samba has become an icon of Brazilian national identity. The Bahian Samba de Roda (dance circle), which became a UNESCO Heritage of Humanity in 2005, is the main root of the samba carioca, the samba that is played and danced in Rio de Janeiro.

The modern samba that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century is predominantly in a 2/4 tempo varied with the conscious use of a sung chorus to a batucada rhythm, with various stanzas of declaratory verses. Traditionally, the samba is played by strings (cavaquinho and various types of guitar) and various percussion instruments such as tamborim. Influenced by American orchestras in vogue since the Second World War and the cultural impact of US music post-war, samba began to use trombones, trumpets, choros, flutes, and clarinets.

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Wikipedia