Capoeira: Legendary Music of Brazil

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Listening to this music without actually seeing the astounding acrobatics and physical movement of the capoeira martial art form is sort of like listening to a movie soundtrack without the movie: you miss the visual aspect, but it allows you to hear the music more fully. Guilherme Franco plays the Brazilian berimbau, a kind of bow with a metal string that is struck with a stick. The sound is like no other percussion instrument; it buzzes, it sustains, it alters pitch like a bent note on a steel-string guitar. Capoeira is a mix of solo pieces ("Juna," "Juna Verdadeira"), pieces accompanied by other instruments (drums on "Sao Bento Grande" and "My Beat," rattle on "Batida Nova Rapida," and flute on "Juna Ocarina"), and full-out songs. But this catalog only hints at the richness of this recording and of the sound the berimbau makes when Franco's stick strikes the string. --Genevieve Williams

Tracks:

Sou Da Mina Do Sante
Juna
Juna Verdadeira
Batida Nova Rapida
Sao Bento Pequeno
Parana U E Chant
Jogo Praticado
Sao Bento Grande
Juna Ocarina
Berimbau In 6/8
Double Berimbau Solo
Capoeira Chant Melody
Bahiano Chant
Pombagira Chant
My Beat
Electric Berimbau Jungle
Berimbau Solo

Amazon.com

Listening to this music without actually seeing the astounding acrobatics and physical movement of the capoeira martial art form is sort of like listening to a movie soundtrack without the movie: you miss the visual aspect, but it allows you to hear the music more fully. Guilherme Franco plays the Brazilian berimbau, a kind of bow with a metal string that is struck with a stick. The sound is like no other percussion instrument; it buzzes, it sustains, it alters pitch like a bent note on a steel-string guitar. Capoeira is a mix of solo pieces ("Juna," "Juna Verdadeira"), pieces accompanied by other instruments (drums on "Sao Bento Grande" and "My Beat," rattle on "Batida Nova Rapida," and flute on "Juna Ocarina"), and full-out songs. But this catalog only hints at the richness of this recording and of the sound the berimbau makes when Franco's stick strikes the string. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews:

Not a cd to practice to........2001-01-10

I have been practicing Capoeira for almost two yeas now and I have to say that this is a pretty good cd with some very interesting rhythms. This is definitely not a very good cd to practice to but it is great for those who enjoy the sounds of the berimbau and the songs of Capoeira.

A decent CD for any capoerista.......2000-01-10

The review below claims that Guilherme Franco knows nothing about capoeira, but on the CD insert it says that Franco was trained under Paulo Gomes, a student of Mestre Bimba. The berimbau is also an important jazz instrument outside of the capoeira roda, and Franco's band Pe de Boi captures the spirit of the instrument. This CD has a broad range of tracks for both regional and angola, unfortunately no tracks for maculele. The chant tracks were lost on me, my group uses different chants in our rodas. This CD is a good representaion of the music of capoeira. Unfortunately, this is not a CD that can be listened to. It is impossible to fully enjoy this CD without playing it as background music during capoeira practice sessions.

I couldnt choose less then one.......1999-11-26

Lets be real, this guy has no right playing the berimbau. this was a terrible cd and i cant get over the fact that i brought it with outlistening to it first.

The only people that can play the berimbau are people that play capoeira, and this guy knows nothing bout capoeira hence, knows nothing bout playing our great berimbau

volume recorded too low.......1999-07-05