It is impossible to go
anywhere today in Brazil without hearing the
music of Carlinhos Brown. His name is almost
synonymous with music. Carlinhos Brown says he
is a workaholic, if you can call singing,
drumming, writing and dancing "work". In
addition to his band Timbalada, and his solo
record, Alfagamabetizado, he has been
collaborating with artists from all over Brazil:
Daniela Mercury, Marisa Monte, Sergio Mendes,
and even the rock group Sepultura. 30 of Brown's
compositions have topped the Brazilian charts
over the past decade. If you flip on the
television, you'll see him dancing, and of
course, drumming around Toyotas. The one
constant: the Bahian sound, a mix of
Afro-Brazilian percussion with a touch of a
reggae beat. Carlinhos Brown is one of the
leaders of a movement that takes the traditional
Afro-Brazilian drumming, and sets it to pop
beat, with electric guitars and a brass section.
The sound is infectious, and it is largely
responsible for Salvador's millions of visitors
annualy, tourists on musical pilgrimages.
There are certain cities that simply "are" music, cities that live and breath creativity, New Orleans, Louisiana or Havana, Cuba. Salvador de Bahia is certainly one of those cities.
Salvador de Bahia was Brazil's first center of government (from 1549 to 1763), but remains it's musical capital. For centuries, Bahia was home of the Portuguese the sugar industry, and the slave trade. As a result, today Salvador is the largest center of African culture in the Americas. Amidst the colonial architecture and cobblestone streets, there is the unmistakeable beat of Bahian drumming. You can hear it in the stereo speakers and boomboxes blasting the latest Axe pop music. It becomes overwhelming when the large drumming ensembles take to the streets. Olodum, Filhos de Gandhi, Ile Aiye, and Carlinhos Brown's Timbalada all perform regularly in public. These groups "Blocos Afros" don't just have two or three drummers, but often number in the hundreds.
Carlinhos Brown began drumming as a child. No, there weren't any drum kits. As many children in Bahia do, Carlinhos began selling bottles of water on the streets. His first drums were the empty water bottles he carried back at the end of each day. As a teenager. after falling in love with the music of James Brown, he changed his name from Antonio Carlos Santos Freita to Carlinhos Brown. He began playing music from all over the world, Angola, Cuba, America, and Brazil, taking tunes of Elvis Presley, James Brown, and Roberto Carlos, and transforming the music with an Afro-Bahian sound. In the early 1980s, he was hired by Salvador's radio station WR to compose advertising jingles, pop tunes, with that Afro-Brazilian drum beat. They becamse instant hits. This led to collaborations with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Djavan, and others, and gave Brown the opportunity to launch the band Timbalada. The group is named after the timbal, a small hand held drum which he designed.
Today, Timbalada is one of Bahia's most popular bands. Timbalada features 120 instrumentalists (most of them drummers). Based in the neighborhood of Candeal, Timbalada is also a neighborhood association. Brazil has no social safety net, and the country has the largest gap between rich and poor in the hemisphere, with millions lacking housing, education, and access to health care. Timbalada's social mission includes educational projects, and aid to street children. "Like many cities in Brazil", says Brown, "we have many many street children. One of our projects is working with these kids, allowing them to work with professional musicians, and play with a wide variety of instruments."
I met Carlinhos Brown for this interview in an empty office. He entered, singing, walking with a dance in his step. He had just finished a new Timbalada recording, and couldn't get the music out if his head. There were no instruments there, so I thought. I asked his about the wide variety of percussion instruments he plays on stage. At that point, he took his plastic cup, and began playing it, transforming it into both a scraper and a drum simultaneously. He then began playing the table. Brown explained, "Everyone has some 'craziness', which is the source of creativity. Everything around is 'alive'". At that point, he put down the cup, but the music continued. Every few minutes or so, he would break into song. This unfortunately isn't part of typical American conversational skills, but for Carlinhos Brown, it seems as natural as breathing.
There are certain cities that simply "are" music, cities that live and breath creativity, New Orleans, Louisiana or Havana, Cuba. Salvador de Bahia is certainly one of those cities.
Salvador de Bahia was Brazil's first center of government (from 1549 to 1763), but remains it's musical capital. For centuries, Bahia was home of the Portuguese the sugar industry, and the slave trade. As a result, today Salvador is the largest center of African culture in the Americas. Amidst the colonial architecture and cobblestone streets, there is the unmistakeable beat of Bahian drumming. You can hear it in the stereo speakers and boomboxes blasting the latest Axe pop music. It becomes overwhelming when the large drumming ensembles take to the streets. Olodum, Filhos de Gandhi, Ile Aiye, and Carlinhos Brown's Timbalada all perform regularly in public. These groups "Blocos Afros" don't just have two or three drummers, but often number in the hundreds.
Carlinhos Brown began drumming as a child. No, there weren't any drum kits. As many children in Bahia do, Carlinhos began selling bottles of water on the streets. His first drums were the empty water bottles he carried back at the end of each day. As a teenager. after falling in love with the music of James Brown, he changed his name from Antonio Carlos Santos Freita to Carlinhos Brown. He began playing music from all over the world, Angola, Cuba, America, and Brazil, taking tunes of Elvis Presley, James Brown, and Roberto Carlos, and transforming the music with an Afro-Bahian sound. In the early 1980s, he was hired by Salvador's radio station WR to compose advertising jingles, pop tunes, with that Afro-Brazilian drum beat. They becamse instant hits. This led to collaborations with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Djavan, and others, and gave Brown the opportunity to launch the band Timbalada. The group is named after the timbal, a small hand held drum which he designed.
Today, Timbalada is one of Bahia's most popular bands. Timbalada features 120 instrumentalists (most of them drummers). Based in the neighborhood of Candeal, Timbalada is also a neighborhood association. Brazil has no social safety net, and the country has the largest gap between rich and poor in the hemisphere, with millions lacking housing, education, and access to health care. Timbalada's social mission includes educational projects, and aid to street children. "Like many cities in Brazil", says Brown, "we have many many street children. One of our projects is working with these kids, allowing them to work with professional musicians, and play with a wide variety of instruments."
I met Carlinhos Brown for this interview in an empty office. He entered, singing, walking with a dance in his step. He had just finished a new Timbalada recording, and couldn't get the music out if his head. There were no instruments there, so I thought. I asked his about the wide variety of percussion instruments he plays on stage. At that point, he took his plastic cup, and began playing it, transforming it into both a scraper and a drum simultaneously. He then began playing the table. Brown explained, "Everyone has some 'craziness', which is the source of creativity. Everything around is 'alive'". At that point, he put down the cup, but the music continued. Every few minutes or so, he would break into song. This unfortunately isn't part of typical American conversational skills, but for Carlinhos Brown, it seems as natural as breathing.