PSW-361 Brazilian Musical Styles

Assignment 5b Alternative

Composition: Justia Gratuita, by Nei Lopes

Album and Artist(s):
-Sincopando o Breque, Nei Lopes

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Nei Lopes did not first start out his career as
a musician. Instead, he was a former attorney and he eventually
moved to the music field in early 1970s. He is recognized for
multiple fields such as a singer, composer, lawyer, activist, etc. His
contributions, in particular, include recordings with Wilson Moreira (a
samba singer/songwriter) and also a series of his own recordings,
etc. As a key figure in Msica Popular Brasileira (MPB), he often pays
tribute and revisit traditional/pre-Bossa Nova Brazilian musical styles
such as samba along with other MPB artists.

This album, Sincopando o Breque was released in

1999 as one of his personal project after Canton
Banto: 300 Anos de Zumbi in 1996. Justia Gratuita,
seventh track on the album, is a bright and uplifting tune featuring
Nei Lopes on vocals, with piano, pandeiro, 7-string guitar, drum and
bass.

The track contains a seemingly simple but intricate and delicate

arrangement with samba style infused. The introduction features the
piano, guitar, bass, drum and vocal. It starts off on an offbeat with a
Partido Alto groove without the pandeiro; the drum soon turns to
sixteenth notes on the hi-hat, and the vocal comes in smoothly. The
bass plays on the second beat in the first bar, and after the
sixteenth note on the second beat in the second bar in the Partido
Alto pattern to counteract with the other instruments rhythmically.
Then after a few phrases, the song turns swiftly to a samba groove.
The form and arrangement is made clear by the entrance of the
pandeiro. Also, the 7-string guitar plays some beautiful, melodic
countermelodies to the vocal line before returning to a samba
chordal comping style. In between stanzas of lyrics the band would
play certain stop times, like a break in jazz tunes, to transit to
another part of the song.

I particularly like the various roles of the piano in this tune: 1) The
piano acts as groove-setting accompanist with the guitar, the piano
is sometimes in sync with the guitar to present the groove,
especially the Partido Alto rhythm. 2) It also responds musically to
the vocalist in various ways, like playing short improvised sixteenth
note lines with a jazz flavor (0:53), or triplets lines (1:59) or playing
figures in thirds (1:51) to compliment the main melody. The song
ends with the Partido Alto groove, with the acoustic guitar
improvising lines as it fades out.

(Written by Chris Wing Nok Cheung)

Bibliography

"Nei Lopes - Biografia." Nei Lopes - Biografia. N.p., n.d. Web.