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The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil | 
 enlarge | Authors: Chris Mcgowan, Ricardo Pessanha
Publisher: Temple University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $31.95
Buy Used: $18.99
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 197847
Media: Paperback
Pages: 248
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7 x 0.7
ISBN: 1566395453
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.640981
EAN: 9781566395458
ASIN: 1566395453
Publication Date: February 25, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
At the second International Song Festival in 1967, Milton Nascimento had three songs accepted for competition. He had no intention of performing them he hated the idea of intense competition. In fact, Nascimento might never have appeared at all if Eumir Deodato hadn't threatened not to write the arrangements for his songs if he didn't perform at least two of them. Nascimento went on to win the festival's best performer award, all three of his songs were included soon afterward on his first album, and the rest is history. This is only one anecdote from "The Brazilian Sound", an encyclopedic survey of Brazilian popular music that ranges over samba, bossa nova, MPB, jazz and instrumental music and tropical rock, as well as the music of the Northeast.The authors have interviewed a wide variety of performers like Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, Carlinhos Brown, and Airto Moreira, U.S. fans, like Lyle Mays, George Duke, and Paul Winter, executive Andre Midani; and music historian Zuza Homem de Mello, just to name a few. First published in 1991, "The Brazilian Sound" received enthusiastic attention both in the United States and abroad. For this new edition, the authors have expanded their examination of the historical roots of Brazilian music, added new photographs, amplified their discussion of social issues like racism, updated the maps, and added a new final chapter highlighting the most recent trends in Brazilian music. The authors have expanded their coverage of the axe music movement and included profiles of significant emerging artists like Marisa Monte, Chico Cesar, and Daniela Mercury. Clearly written and lavishly illustrated with 167 photographs, "The Brazilian Sound" is packed with facts, explanations, and fascinating stories.For the Latin music aficionado or the novice who wants to learn more, the book also provides a glossary, a bibliography, and an extensive discography containing 1,000 entries. Author note: Chris McGowan was a contributing writer and columnist for Billboard from 1984 to 1996 and pioneered that publication's coverage of Brazilian and world music in the mid-1980s. He has written about the arts and other subjects for "Musician", "The Beat", the "Hollywood Reporter", the "Los Angeles Times", "L. A Weekly", and the "Los Angeles Reader".He is the author of "Entertainment in the Cyber Zone: Exploring the Interactive Universe of Multimedia" (1995) and was a contributor to "The Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture" (1996). Ricardo Pessanha has worked as a teacher, writer, editor, and management executive for CCAA, one of Brazil's leading institutes of English-language education. He has served as a consultant to foreign journalists and scholars on numerous cultural projects relating to Brazil. He has contributed articles about Brazilian music to "The Beat" and other publications.
Book Description
Brazilian music has exponentially increased in its popularity over the decade since the last edition of The Brazilian Sound was published. This revised and expanded edition includes discussions of developments in samba and other key genres, the rise of female singer-songwriters in recent years, new works by established artists like Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil and the mixing of bossa with electronica. This clearly written and lavishly illustrated encyclopedic survey features dozens of new entries and photographs, an extensive glossary of Brazilian music terms and more. This edition of The Brazilian Sound contains new discussions of:
• musica sertaneja and musica caipira
• Brazilian funk and rap/hip-hop
• electronic dance music
• young contemporary musicians inspired by traditional music
• the rise of new samba artists
• Plus! an updated bibliography and glossary, and a new list of Web resources
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Readable, enjoyable summary of Brazilian music November 10, 1999
Mom (Mercer Island, WA United States)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
An excellent book for anyone who wants to explore Brazilian music beyond the well-known classics. Helps place current and past musicians in their historical contexts; helps you understand who influenced whom, etc. The book will pay for itself just by helping you guide your ever-growing collection of Brazilian CD's (hard to stop once you get started)!
The Standard Reference For Brazilian Music February 11, 2003
Cosmo Smith (San Diego, CA)
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
The best book about Brazilian music in English, "The Brazilian Sound" is a beautifully written, in-depth guide to samba, bossa and other Brazilian genres. Many of the reviews below are on the mark, but BGB from WA seems not to have read the book (or to have read a different book!). The 1998 edition substantially upgrades the original 1991 version. There is much added in terms of early history, capoeira, racial issues, choro, and the blocos and afoxes in Bahia. There is more on important artists from the 1990s, like Marisa Monte, Daniela Mercury, Carlinhos Brown, Chico Cesar, Chico Science and Karnak, though these additions are in various chapters, not just the final one ("More Brazilian Sounds"). One needs to have actually read the book to know that, of course...The music is nicely described, in both musical and cultural terms. One gets a strong sense of how it sounds, and a clear understanding of its rhythmic, harmonic and melodic ingredients. Some of the writing is rather encyclopedic, dispensing a rather staggering amount of information, while many sections vividly convey a sense of the music. I often felt I was at a bossa nova club in '59, at an escola de samba rehearsal, watching one of the 1960s song festivals, or attending a forro party. "The Brazilian Life" brings to life both the current and past greats of Brazilian music. As a result, I added quite a few CDs to my collection, especially of artists like Milton Nascimento, Pixinguinha, Jobim and Marisa Monte. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
The Bible of the Brazilian Music Scene June 1, 1998
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Of all world music varieties, Brazilian music is among the most vital, consistent and compelling. McGowan and Pessanha nail their subject cold in this book -- the most comprehensive omnibus available on the subject of Brazilian music. From MPB to Milton, it's all here!This encyclopedic work includes hundreds of photos, complete historical information on all styles, and extended discographies ideal for starting and growing your own world-class Brazilian CD collection. I picked this book up on a whim -- and 100 CDs later, I'm grateful to the authors for broadening my knowledge of this exceptional music with their extraordinary book!
 The Brazilian Sound December 26, 2002
Hearth Sutra (Northern Virginia)
12 out of 22 found this review helpful
The Brazilian Sound is good as far as it goes - a who's who list and discography of 20th century Brazilian music. Although, the book has the feel of a junior college textbook, it's written in plain language. It would be a relatively easy read if it were not that a parenthetical list of Brazilian names breaks up every third or fourth paragraph. There are some very informative passages - notably the chapter on Bossa Nova and the "Escolas de Samba" section of Chapter 2. At their best, the authors provide clear and comphrensive explanations of the geneology and sociological context of the music.Unfortunately, unless a person is willing to spend countless shopping hours and a couple of thousand dollars building up collection of Brazilian records, he or she will gain almost no insight from this book into what the music feels like. The authors describe individual works and artists in only vague terms - terms often identical to those previously used to describe others. They beat the term "syncopation" into irrelevance - it's clear only that all Brazilian music is syncopated. The authors habitually refer to folk music genres and song forms ala "Composer X's work is all based on the Y song form..." But they provide no practical examples or definitions of those genres or forms. The authors stridently dumb-down their text, accepting as axiom that one has to "hear it to believe it" and that it is meaningless to describe Brazilian music in technical terms. They generally refrain from even using common musical terms - bar, measure, pulse, key, etc. - to give the reader a clearer understanding of Brazilian rhythmic and harmonic structures. They use few effective musical comparisons or verbal metaphors. It is understandably difficult to describe music in writing. But it is possible. Judicious use of metaphor, comparisions, and technical descriptions would have greatly fleshed out what in the end comes off as a skeletal text. This 1998 edition serves as the update to the first, apparently published in 1990 or 1991. However, the amendments appear to have been quite minor - embodied by an isolated paragraph here and there, and four meager pages in the final "More Brazilian Sounds" chapter. It's as if nothing has really happened in the evolution of Brazilian music since 1990 - an impression that must be wrong. The Brazilian Sound catalogs decent research, but is neither good writing nor effective music history.
New Edition Has Great Additions March 25, 1999
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I loved the first "Brazilian Sound," which was from Billboard Books and this new revised version from Temple University Press is even better. Especially liked the in-depth musical history about samba, choro and Bahia. Plus the glossary is outstanding.
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