Funk, soul, and jazz in the land of samba: the sound of Black Rio Banda

Abstract

Formed in 1976, the Banda Black Rio gathered distinguished instrumentalists and arrangers with the objective of producing a repertoire that carried out the fusion of the samba, the funk, the soul music, the jazz and the resonance of the orchestras of gafieira. Between 1977 and 1984 the band became notable for their intense participation in ballrooms and shows, accompanied acclaimed Brazilian Popular Music artists and recorded three LPs that influenced specially groups linked to instrumental music in Brazil and abroad. This article intends to demonstrate to what extent such fusions, which originated in a style that many times was denominated “samba-funk or “soul brasileiro”, resulted from specific processes of hybridization of diverse poplar music genres, that implied the resignification of samba, traditionally identified as the symbol of brasilidade, within a context marked by the emergence of new identity movements. It also seeks to consider the meaning of these fusions that led to a musical aesthetic that was formed from the intersection of forces proceeding from, on the hand, from the youthful social- cultural movement mediated by the global market of symbolic goods, and, on the other hand, from the strategies of the music industry marketing.