The drums of the samba, the sound of Rio at 180bpm. The secret weapon of all DJs be they house, techno, jazz or latin orientated. This is the music that provides pulsating cannon that goes off in the house clubs. The most exciting dance rhythm in the world.
This album contains all the essential classics brought together under one roof. From the No 1 much sampled mega-anthem Batucada by maestro Par Ney De Castro, to the in-demand mid tempo burner Batumata with the legendary bongo solo leading to the crash as the Batucada beat kicks in.
Most of the more obscure tracks have been culled from the OLD SKOOL OF BATUCADA: the legendary Fantastic Bateria series on Top Tape. With the main man Padre Miguel leading the way this is bread & butter Batucada. The samba rhythm gets speeded up by each batucada troop matching the pace of the street. The favela is humming as the tempo builds. No one beats a drum as rapido as the boys from Rio.
We must thank Raphael from Tokyo's UFO for unearthing the gem Reprimar Jadir clashes heads uptown with Dom Um in this furious guica led showdown. No club has ever rocked as large as when the mighty Sebag dropped this science.
Legendary percussionist Paulinho De Costa opens up with a one man percussion shakedown. He burned with the eternal flame of BATA. Like a man possessed he furiously creates wave after wave of hardcore triangle, tamborim, bata and cuica solos.
Who can forget the first time they heard Nicos Jarit's deeply dubby bass sound blowing the windows out of every club from the Sub to the ministry.
Thanks to the rough neck jazz Dancers and those who can stay with the rhythm as we cross from the lay down tempo Drum & Bass to the hardcore Bateria.
Right then, take a deep breath and shout after me: BA-TU - CA- DA
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Ba-tu-ca-da (click here for mp3)
Batumata (click here for mp3)
Batucada originally came from the chorus beats, clapped out on the palms of the Angolan Batuque rhythm, but Rio is it's real birthplace. The samba began there in the barrios at the beginning of the century. Starting as carnival music the residents of the Barrio and the hillside favelas formed informal music groups that later came to be know as the Escolas de Samba (samba schools). These were highly organised associations led by the Catedraticos (Professors of samba). The professor acts as the master of ceremonies, using a whistle to mark the beginning and end of each set, he must be able to keep all the percussionists synchronised during the complicated viradas (changes in percussion - breaks) and paradinhas (stops).
During the 60s and 70s there was a huge population drift towards the metropolis and as the pace of life picked up in the favelas they were becoming increasingly dangerous and volatile places in which to live. This was musically represented by the experimentation of a few sabistas in speeding up the samba rhythm into a more frantic rapid pattern. The big samba schools were getting too commercial, the music was dying it was time to return to it's roots and create a new sound that was both progressive and dynamic. They called it the Batucada.
The Batucadas basic heavy bass sound is driven by the Surdo drum. This is derived from the Afro-Brasilian drum the Ataba Que. The mist importatn one in any bateria line-up in the surdo de marcao (marking surdo). It is the heaviest surdo, the one that plays on the second beat (of the 2/4 samba). This marking surdo holds the rhythm and is the basis for the whole Batucada. The second largest surdo is the surdo reposta (answering surdo). As it's name suggests it answers the marking surdo on the first beat, though less forcefully that the latter. The surdo cortador (cutting surdo) is the smallest surdo and plays on the beats and the off-beats, cutting the rhythm and adding syncopation. In the small samba groups the percussionist uses one surdo to play all three parts by himself as in Paulinho de Costa's exhilirating performance of Ritmo number one.
The cuica is an intrument immortalised by the great Airto Moreira. The drum is literalyl squeezed by the persussionist from behind in a push/pull technique that gives it the talking quality.