Samba Chula de São Braz

Samba Chula de São Braz features men in black hats Alumínio (Antonio Saturno) and João do Boi John of the Ox (João Saturno), with Mário Santana on the atabaques, Kaú (Carlos Antonio da Silva) on the pandeiro, Zeca (José Carlos dos Santos) on marcação, Paulinho (Paulo Roberto da Silva de Souza) on cavaquinho and guitar, and Júnior (Djalma Santana) on rebôlo, all from São Braz, Bahia, a tiny community just outside of Santo Amaro in the Recôncavo (a community which was born as a quilombo, a village/refuge of runaway slaves).

Samba-chula (or samba-de-roda, there is a slight difference) is a seminal but dying art played nowadays by a mere handful of people. The music fulfilled a role analogous to that of the delta blues in the United States in that it was/is the root foundation for most everything which came after it in Brazil's musical world, from the golden age of radio to bossa nova to tropicália to Brazilian hip hop. And ironically and in total contradiction to the situation of the blues, this cornerstone of culture now finds itself precariously close to disappearing forever (although those last legs certainly do have some life left in them!).

It'd be great to board a time-machine and pay a visit to 1930's Louisiana or Mississippi or Alabama, stepping up to a front porch on a humid summer's evening to clap hands to the rural American version of the above. But alas that time is gone and the time-machine is only a wistful figment of our imagination. Things have "progressed" more slowly here, but soon enough one will never be able to see or hear again what now requires but a journey into the Bahian interior to bear witness (or dance) to, if one knows where to go, and on what night...