Brazilian Music
Without a doubt the most well recognized rhythms of Brazil are the Samba and the Bossa Nova. According to Brazilian folklorist, Edison Carneiro, samba designates a variety of types of percussion-based music with deep African roots that were brought to different regions of Brazil.
Brazil is rich with the offspring of the drums, and over and above the well-known Samba and Bossa Nova, offers the listener a huge variety of styles and rhythms such as Choro, Capoeira, Forr, Baião, Frevo, Xote, Samba Batucada, Maracatu, Cateret, Jongo, Batuque, Congada, Modinha and Samba de Enredo.
Some of the traditional instruments of mainly African origin include the Berimbau, of African origin consisting one wire-stringed bow tensed by a hollowed gourd and a coin and played with a small stick and rattle against the bare abdomen of the musician, giving it resonance; the pandeiro,a small frame drum of Middle East origin similar to the Tamborim, its cousin; the Surdo, a large, deep drum played in the Samba schools; the Caixa, which is equivalent of a marching snare drum; Shekeres, gourds with a latticework of beads or seeds that rattle against the sides when shaken; Apitos, small carved wooden flutes or whistles; Guiras, originally scored hollow gourds or wood against which are rubbed sticks to produce a rasped sound; the Agogo, a pair of joined wooden or metal bells of different pitches, played with a stick; the Cuica, a cylinder of wood or gourd fit on one end with an animal skin into which is embedded and tied a smooth stick or reed to produce a friction drum - the stick is rubbed with a small cloth and the tone is changed by the position of the other hand on the drum head; the Carimb, a tall drum made of a hollowed tree trunk, and the Ganza a wooden or metal cilindrical shaker.
Some of Brazil's noted musicians are Milton Nascimento
