Episode 16: Funkin' For Cachaca

The theme of today’s show is Funkin’ for Cachaca… for anyone who may not know, cachaca is the national adult beverage of Brazil, just like Rum for Cuba and Tequila for Mexico… so this will be a Brazilian funk theme today. Funk was not independently discovered in Brazil; funky sounds traveled to Brazil from the US in the form of popular records and movies. But funk found fertile ground in Brazil in a way it did not in other parts of the Americas. The reason for this lies in the rhythmic structure of samba, which generally follows a 2/4 time signature; percussion lines and musical vamps that work in samba were easily adapted to funk music, which also follows a 4 beat signature. This is also true with rock, hip-hop, and disco… Brazilians have worked extensively in all these US-born genres. 

I’m kicking off the show with a set of MPB from the early 1970s… products of the moment in time just before Brazil’s Black Power awakening, and you can hear that the musical arrangements are closer to jazz than funk. In the very early 70s, these were the most urban sounds coming out of Brazil. As we move through today’s show we’ll cover a range of funky sounds from the Brazilian scene, including carioca samba from Rio along with some jazz-funk and slow jams. In the second hour today we will hear those sounds I so rarely play: we’re going to spin some contemporary sounds from the current funk scene in Brazil.