Batucada: Towa Tei featuring Bebel Gilberto (1996)

"Batucada"

Composer: Towa Tei, 1996

Performed by Bebel Gilberto, c. 1996

“Batucada” released in 1996 by Towa Tei featuring Bebel Gilberto draws from the tribal ceremonies of Angola to the beaches of Brazil to the night clubs of Tokyo and Los Angeles.  This upbeat, danceable track is alluring enough to convince a musical skeptic that electronic music can have soul. 

Japanese art student-turned-deejay Towa Tei debuted as a member of “Deee-Lite” in  1990 with hits like “Groove is in the Heart” (Scaruffi).  As a solo artist, Tei redefined lounge music to include samples of world music as well as guest artists featured in many of the tracks.  Turntablists like Tei have the luxury of extrapolating any sound known to a recorder and juxtaposing it to another without having to learn to play any instrument.

Gilberto supplies her seductive, yet languid “come hither” voice to the multi-layered rhythm that Towa Tei provides. As daughter of legendary bossa nova artist João Gilberto and singer Miúcha, her contribution to the song adds an integrity that no one else could bring.  Gilberto describes singing in English, “it's just the sexiest, like wearing high heels" (The Independent: Music). However being in high heels isn’t her most comfortable way to be.  Gilberto shies away from being called the "queen of contemporary bossa nova." "That's too pretentious,” she says.  “I am flattered, though, when people say I brought something new to bossa nova” (Paoletta).

International Appeal

In the late 1950s, Brazilian artists such as Antonio Carlos Jobim ushered in a new era called the bossa nova.  This music that sprung from the beautiful beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana fused jazz harmonies with a smoother, often slower samba beat.  The first bossa nova records by João Gilberto quickly became huge hits in Brazil. Bossa nova was introduced to the rest of the world by American jazz musicians in the early 1960s, and songs like "The Girl from Ipanema", which remains the biggest Brazilian international hit, eventually became jazz standards.

Origins of Batucada

Batucada is a substyle of samba and refers to an African influenced Brazilian percussive style, usually performed by an ensemble, known as a Batería. It is considered by some to be the epitome of the percussive ensemble. Batucada is characterized by its repetitive style and fast pace (Wikipedia).

Kaleidoscope of Sound

Traditionally a batucada would include a wide variety of instruments such as a repinique, a high-pitched tom-tom (whose player is traditionally the leader of the ensemble), a surdo, (a large drum providing downbeat, the bass downbeat of the rhythm), a tamborim, (a small drum), bells (agogô, bongo, and cowbell,) shakers (ganzá, afuche, and maracas) of various types, caixa (a thin snare drum), cuica (a single headed drum with a stick mounted inside the drum body), a timba (a long drum that is used to produce low tones,) pandeiro (similar to a tambourine,) a reco-reco (known in Spanish as the guiro), and an apito, (a small wooden whistle).

However in Tei’s rendition on a batucada, he utilizes samples of these instruments to create a synthesized version of the celebratory sounds and voices.  Music critic Piero Scaruffi  called Tei’s “Batucada”  an effervescent, deconstructed Brazilian pop.  Scaruffi brilliantly pointed out, “The feeling is joyous, but only on the surface: a sudden pause, a distortion, a solo are enough to cast a sinister shadow on the game” (Scaruffi).  The “sinister shadows” are a result of the echoing and reverberating sounds that only a studio can create.

Batucada

Composer: Towa Tei, 1996

Performed by Bebel Gilberto, c. 1996

Batucada is free
It's the voodoo in me
And the rhythm you hear
Will make you dance

Batucada is strong
And it won't make you wrong
Till you're lost in the song
And in the dance

Tonight I'm gonna sing and dance
Be wild and free
And light a candle
For the goddess of the sea

Batucada is on
Batucada come on
Watch the dance and the down
Fall in the sea 

Batucada, batucada...
Batucada, batucada...

Tonight I'm gonna sing and dance
Be wild and free
And light a candle
For the goddess of the sea

Batucada is on
Batucada come on
Watch the dance and the down
Fall in the sea

Batucada, batucada...
Batucada, batucada...

A Batucada vem surgindo 
E vem com o vento, ficou 

Batucada, batucada...
Batucada, batucada...