Brazilian music is famous worldwide — from bossa nova, to choro, to samba.
Bossa is cool, choro is amazing, but my favorite things about samba is that despite being “pop music” it still has complex rhythms and harmonies.
My top favorite thing is the prevalence of the 7 stringed guitar and their use of counterpoints (i.e., parallel melodies).
I love how what (I think) started as guitarists just playing harmonies, turned into them improvising bass lines and counterpoints every once in a while, which eventually became them doing MOSTLY counterpoints and bass lines and barely playing the harmony lmao.
These bass lines and counterpoints, from what I understand, are often times arpeggiations of the chords and so forth, but they add such an amazing effect to the music.
Examples:
- This guy solo playing over a recording.
- This solo guitar + singer.
- Most music by Cartola which features the absolute timeless 7 stringed legend Dino. This one is a classic.
It’s hard to pick a favorite, but right now I’m really into Funk. Funk as a whole, definitely, but the subsect that is Bubblegum Funk is just so relaxing and chill, I’ve been listening to it while working lately.
What’s bubblegum funk? I’m picturing Tom Tom Club’s Genius of Love.
I came back here to see if there were new additions, since I came across the post early on. I also really enjoy funk, with a favorite being Primus, well, anything Les Claypool really (His stuff with Sean Lennon, much more …trippy rock?, with Claypool Lennon Delirium, still excellent). They are a really heavy lil corner of the funk/rock spectrum though.
I am def going to check out some bubblegum funk now, it sounds like it should be an opposite spectrum sound experience!
So, thank you for allowing me to suckle on your presence a bit?