January is Jorge Ben Month on Edge of the Line. We’re celebrating 50 years of África Brasil.
Before 1976, the world didn’t necessarily associate Jorge Ben Jor with the electric guitar. He had certainly hinted at a new direction and has been credited as the first to play electric guitar in samba. The 1967 album O Bidú: Silêncio no Brooklin is considered a breakthrough in samba rock. But Jorge would return to the acoustic guitar; on 1974’s A Tábua de Esmeralda, for example, he plays entirely acoustically.
The electric guitar is a major part of África Brasil, perhaps most strikingly in ‘Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)’. The title translates to “African striker”; the song is one of many in Jorge’s catalogue about football. He’s been referred to as possibly the most prolific writer of football tunes. Ben celebrates the skill and physicality of a (possibly fictional) African player.
There’s only guitar in the opening few seconds. Jorge switches chords more than a James Brown or Fela Kuti guitarist ordinarily would, but the muted, percussive chords (after just one second) are indicative of the influences felt across the album.
Soon an energetic drum roll ushers in the rest of the band, and the bass plays a variation of the guitar line. The shaker, mixed to the left, acts as a metronome, sounding on every quarter note. After one and a half minutes, it’s there when the harmonic instruments drop out and there’s only rhythm. That adding and subtracting of musical elements is very Fela.
Although Jorge was fusing elements of rock, soul, and funk, his roots in samba and bossa nova are evident. There’s Brazilian sun in the song’s vocal melodies and sustained notes—“Umbabarauma, homem gol”—even with the percussion fidgeting beneath them.
Samba, which refers to a group of rhythms originating from Afro-Brazilian communities, is highly polyrhythmic. There’s the fidgety partido, for example. As drummer Edu Ribeiro has demonstrated, the surdo, the tambourine, and the pandeiro are all used for contrasting rhythms.
One notable difference in ‘Ponta de Lança Africano’ from a traditional samba is its consistent emphasis on the two and four of each bar. This contributes to its more driving rock feel.
Meanwhile the Afrobeat influence can also be felt in the call-and-response. Jorge had several female singers accompany him on the album, including Evinha, who had a notable solo career. The group repeat “tererê”, an exclamation used by football fans. Jorge had been exclaiming about football for years, and in 1969 had included a Flamengo crest on the cover of his self-titled Jorge Ben.
Top image from Discogs.