WOODSHED

Nilson Matta Ze Grey

The Bass In Brazil Beyond Samba

BY MARLON BISHOP

NILSON MATTA, ONE OF THE TOP JAZZ the historic center of slavery in Brazil, the who provided the basic baião bass lines in
upright players to come out of Brazil, con- region is today home to a large number of Ex. 1. Grey is the bass player with Forró
siders himself a lucky man. “I’m very priv- Afro-Brazilians, who have been instrumen- In The Dark, a New York-based group that
ileged to be born in Brazil,” he says. “Our tal to the country’s music history. In fact, plays old-school forró with a psychedelic
music is very rich, not only in rhythms but samba itself was invented by Northeastern rock edge. “This is the basic feel. Once I
in melody, in harmony, and in poetry.” migrants who moved to Rio de Janeiro in get it locked in, I start to add more notes
When most people think of Brazilian the 1920s in search of work. In the North- and pauses to make the line more funky.”
music, samba and its chilled-out cousin, east itself, however, the dominant sound is Part of turning a bass into a zabumba is
bossa nova, tend to come to mind. But forró. It’s an umbrella term for several styles imitating its many sounds correctly. The drum
those styles are just the beginning; Brazil is of party music traditionally played by trios has long bass tones, short bass tones, and a
home to staggering musical diversity. From of accordion, triangle, and a double-sided snare-like crack. Forró bassists work at making
the cattle-lands of the South to the jungles drum called the zabumba. Nowadays, the their note lengths match those of the drum-
of the North, every region in Brazil has its ensemble is often joined by electric bass, mer. Over the course of the basic three-note
own music culture, complete with its own guitar, and keyboards. cell, it’s a short tone, followed by a long tone,
genres, instrumentations, and rhythms. In The main rhythm of forró is called baião. and then a tight staccato crack at the end.
this column, we’ll look at how some of Its basic rhythmic cell is a two-beat, synco- Besides playing the beat, the zabumba
those rhythms can be played on the bass. pated pattern similar to those found in many is constantly improvising with punchy fills.
The Northeast region of Brazil—includ- Caribbean genres. That rhythm is defined Bassists can use those rhythmic cues to do
ing the states of Bahia and Pernambuco— by the zabumba drum. “I try to become a their own fills, but Ze Grey says a forró
has a particularly rich musical heritage. As zabumba, but with notes,” says Ze Grey, bassist should be restrained to make room
for the rest of the band to shine. Of course,
being Brazilian, he puts it in soccer termi-
MORE ONLINE

MORE ONLINE AT BASSPLAYER.COM/OCTOBER2011 nology: “I like to play defense,” says Grey.

• Listen to these examples at soundcloud.com/bassplayermag. “That’s my job. It’s not to say I’m not going
• Say “olá” to Nilson Matta. to score, just every once in a while.”
• Check in with Ze Grey.
The baião was popularized around Brazil
in the 1940s by a singer named Luiz Gonzaga.

66 | OCTOBER 2011 BASSP L AYER .COM

“It’s almost like the Brazilian blues,” says it has something of that bouncy reggae feel, have bass players, the rhythm has often
jazz bassist Nilson Matta, pointing out the especially in the bass lines. been used as material for fusions with con-
Mixolydian mode that dominates the sound. Several styles from the Northeast come temporary pop. Singer and composer Gil-
“Gonzaga carried this sadness because his out of local Carnival traditions. In Salva- berto Gil, who hails from Salvador himself,
home in the desert scrublands was such a dor, the capital city of the Bahia state, per- wrote one of the most famous ijexá songs,
difficult place.” The singer’s music is part cussion batteries march through the city a tune called “Toda Menina Baiana” (“All
of the rhythmic and melodic language that playing a rhythm called ijexá, a deeply Afri- Bahian Girls”), in 1969. Its recognizable
Mattas draws on as an improviser. In Ex. can-sounding music that comes directly from bass line is recalled in Ex. 5. Gil’s bassist
2, Mattas expands on the baião, sneaking the soundtrack for Afro-Brazilian religious places strong accents on the eighth-note
a quote from one of Gonzaga’s signature ceremonies. The basic pattern is outlined pairs on beats two and four, matching the
tunes, also titled “Baião,” in bars 3 and 4. in Ex. 4. It features counterpoint between a place where the surdos strike in the origi-
The other major rhythm played by forró repeating bell pattern and the surdos, those nal rhythm (see Ex. 4). However, he’s also
bands is called xote (Ex. 3), which Ze Grey booming bass drums used in Carnival cel- incorporating aspects the bell pattern into
describes as “Brazilian reggae.” Sure, it’s ebrations around the country. his line, imitating the bell’s syncopation in
played with triangles and accordions, but Although the Carnival groups don’t the first beat of bar 2.
The city of Recife, sitting about 400 miles
north of Salvador in the state of Pernam-
Ex. 1
buco, is another vibrant Brazilian music
E city. Its best-known sound is the Afro-
= 110
Brazilian genre called maracatu, in which
upwards of 50 drummers bang out complex
rhythms on big wooden drums called alfa-
ias in street performances, accompanied by
dancers in colorful gowns. It’s still mainly
a folkloric music, but a handful of groups
7 7 7 5 in Brazil and the U.S. have been inspired
0 0 0 0 0 7 0 7

Ex.2
C7
= 110

3 3 3 2 3 2
5 5 5 5 2 5 5 5 3 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 3 0 2 3

0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3

Ex. 3
Cm G7 Ex. 4
= 120

Bell
Surdo

5
3 3 6 2 5
3 3

B ASS P L AY E R .CO M OCTOBER 2011 | 67

WOODSHED
to bring maracatu rhythms into a band set- embellishments, and just make it feel good.” maracatu drumming tradition.
ting. American bassist and zabumba player LaValle provided us with the maractu If this all seems like a lot to digest,
Mike LaValle has played in one of them, line in Ex. 6, in which he translates the beware: There are many more styles to be
the Brooklyn-based Nation Beat. “The bass alfaia drum rhythms into a funk context. found in Brazil. Tambour de crioula, axé,
language for maracatu is really new, and it’s The muted notes come from the short tones frevo, bumba-meu-boi, coco—the list just
at least 80% coming straight from the per- on the drum, and the lick on the last bar keeps going. So next time you are in a rut
cussion,” says LaValle. “For me, its about follows one of the more common rhythmic and looking for a fresh groove, look South—
finding a way to work with all the rhythmic cadences that end four-bar phrases in the Brazil probably has the answer. BP

Ex. 5
E F#m E F#m E F#m E F#m
= 130

7 7 9 4 5 7 7 7 9 4 5 7 7 9 4 5 7 7 7 9
10 10 5 10 10

Ex. 6
Am
= 100

5 7
(3) 3 3 6 7
5 (5) 5 (3) 3 5 (5) 5 (3) 3 (3) 5 5 (5) 5 3 (5) 5

68 | OCTOBER 2011 BASSP L AYER .COM