Recommended Books & Films

Music

Ever since Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim penned the bossa nova hit "The Girl from Ipanema," Brazil has been a player on the international music scene. Bossa nova and samba were hot in the '50s and '60s; Tropicalismo -- spearheaded by Brazil's megastars Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, was popular in the '70s. This movement paved the way for some of Brazil's most loved MPB (musica popular brasileira) stars to break through on the international stage: Gal Costa, Milton Nascimento, Djavan, and Maria Bethania. Others such as Jorge Ben, João Bosco, Chico Buarque and Elis Regina, were huge in Brazil but never quite made the crossover. In the '90s a crop of new artists such as Marisa Monte, Daniela Mercury, and Olodum managed to get airtime outside of Brazil, while the "golden oldies" such as Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento continue to tour the global stages.

Then there are the regional trends that never make it to the rest of the world, among them the uniquely Brazilian country sound of Sertanejo. Like its American counterpart it's big on broken hearts and horses, and incredibly popular. Artists such as Chitãozinho e Xororó have sold over 30 million albums.

In Bahia, beginning in the '90s and continuing until today there's been a huge revival of reggae and afro-rhythms. The Bahian group Olodum performs original tunes and old Bob Marley classics using massed percussion (15-30 people wielding 6-7 kinds of drums). Also from Bahia but lighter and more pop-y is Axé, a mélange of African, Caribbean, and Brazilian infused pop.

An upbeat, accordion-infused brand of country, Forró began in Brazil's poorer northeastern regions, and came to the big cities as poor Nordestino migrants made their way south. The grandfather of all Forró is Luiz Gonzaga, but the young band that recently stormed the charts is Fala Mansa, a three-man group which plays a commercial, danceable kind of Forró.

Farther north in the Amazon states of Para and Amapa, the music of choice is brega. The word means "tacky" in Portuguese, and brega is -- unabashedly, enthusiastically brega. It's also enormously popular. Bands such as Calypso and Calcinha Preta regularly stuff stadiums to capacity.

In Rio de Janeiro there are two competing movements on the music scene. On the one hand, Funk, a mix of funk and rap and hip-hop with a driving dance beat, has gotten huge over the past few years. Funk originated in the favelas and the other poor neighborhoods but has slowly made its way down from the hills and begun infiltrating the rest of the city. Noted Carioca funkeiros and rappers include Marcelo D2 and DJ Marlboro and female artist Tati-Quebra-Barraco. Not quite funk but certainly funky is the group O Rappa with lead singer Falcao. Performers play at large dance events called bailes funk, often held in warehouses.

The other trend is a strong and continuing revival of samba, the syncopated beat with drums and mandolin and African call and response vocals. Samba is back and going strong, with rodas de samba playing bars and clubs and neighborhood cafes all over the city. Noteworthy samba greats include groups such as Reveleção and Art Popular, and singers such as Dudu Nobre and Zeca Pagodinho.

Books

Brazilian's aren't great book lovers. The most popular narrative form is not the novel but the novela, the nightly prime-time television soap opera. Despite this, Brazil has still managed to produce a substantial crop of important writers. Most popular is the Bahian novelist Jorge Amado who, until he passed away in 2001, was considered a serious candidate for the Nobel prize. His best-known works include Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Tieta do Agreste (the story of a successful whore returning to her conservative town of her birth) and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (the title works better in Portuguese: Gabriela, cravo e canela). In a previous generation, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis wrote closely observed and fiercely ironic novels and short stories, many set in Rio towards the end of the 19th century. Available in English are The Devil's Church and Other Stories, and The Epitaph of a Small Winner. Brazil's greatest social realist is Graciliano Ramos. His masterpiece Barren Lives is considered to be one of Brazil's finest novels.

Colonial Brazil, by Leslie Bethel, is a scholarly but readable account of Brazil under the Portuguese, while Peter Flynn's Brazil: a Political Analysis covers political history from the first republic through the military dictatorship. For a fascinating introduction to a whole range of topics in Brazil, pick up the truly excellent anthology Travellers' Tales: Brazil Travellers, by editors Annette Haddad and Scott Doggett.

Film

In the past few years Brazilian film makers have begun to make a name for themselves on the international scene. Cidade de Deus, the 2002 hit by director Fernando Meirelles, was nominated for four Oscars. In 1998, Central Station was nominated for best foreign film Oscar. Domestically, excellent recent films include the very funny Lisbela e o Prinsoneiro (2002) by director Guel Arraes, and the powerful Carandiru (2003) by Hector Babenco, the director who made At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) and the Academy Award winning Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985). Also noteworthy are O Homem que Copiava (2002) by Jorge Furtado and O Homem do Ano (2003) by José Henrique Fonseca. Fluffier but still charming is 1999's Bossa Nova, a romantic comedy filmed in English and set in Rio, starring many of the stars of Brazil's nighttime soap operas. (Director Bruno Barreto also made the much harder hitting political thriller Four Days in September.) The granddaddy of Brazilian crossover hits has to be Black Orpheus, a 1959 retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Euridice, set in a poor neighborhood in Rio during the Carnaval. Worth it for the music alone, most songs were composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim.