Episode 148: Samba Seduction

Among all the sounds I play on Tropicology, of course there is a range in terms of exposure for that music in the United States. In a few cases the music was broadly marketed and distributed in the US at the time it was produced. In other cases there have been concerted efforts to market the music in our country years or decades later as resissues and compilations. Then there is some music that has simply never been broadly marketed to US audiences. The music I’m playing today falls into that last category. Compilations of this music for US audiences is almost non-existent in any format . And if you’re talking about truly authentic sounds in this genre, as opposed to sounds that are mixed with jazz or funk, the number of compilations and reissues for US audiences may well be as low as one 1989 compilation on the Luaka Bop label. And yet, among all the musical genres I play, this is one that gringos think they know. If you were to ask a group of gringos to rank all the music genres I play from most familiar to most obscure, this genre would always rank near the most familiar end of that spectrum. We think we know it, but in fact we don’t know it at all.  OK the correct answer to today’s riddle is… samba! Samba music from Brazil will be the theme for today’s episode, and along the way I’ll fill you in on some of the secrets and mysteries behind samba music.