partido alto 101

This video clip, filmed just before Christmas last year, shows a group of young composers at Beco do Rato in Lapa. These cats are keeping alive the old tradition of improvisational samba duels, known as partido alto. Watching these guys play is like a live comedy skit, each of them poking fun at the other, or sometimes someone in attendance, always bringing in current events and popular culture into their “rap.”

The first singer in the white hat and striped shirt is Baiaco. The second guy João Martins (in black shirt) even brought me into the fold, improvising a verse and pointing at the "cameraman" telling me to document the tongue-lashing that he is about to give the guy in white (with the Santa hat). The Santa guy is known as "Bananada." I have heard that his nickname refers to the fact that he used to sell banana candies on the city buses when he was a kid. He would improvise verses while making his pitch to sell his candies. He's one of the most animated figures at this particular pagode. I hope to feature more biographical information about all these cats as my interviews yield more information.

I won't translate all that was said, but there was mention of Viagra, Santa (Papai Noel), bin Laden, George Bush and even Saddam Hussein...

The partido alto has been around for quite some time, which is why it is so amazing to see young guys dedicating to the art form. It is becoming increasingly rare to see people that can improvise like this.

Nei Lopes noted that the partido alto began in the early 20th century in the port district of Rio de Janeiro, where dockworkers would get together and sing, in dueling improvisations. These early rodas de samba would often end in games that resembled the Brazilian martial art capoeira, where participants would attempt to knock each other down with surprise leg sweeps. The population around Rio at this time was made up of migrants from all over the country, bringing various forms of music (and other forms of improvisation duels such as the northeastern embolada) that helped to format partido alto and samba as we know it today.

You can read a review that I wrote of Nei Lopes’ book Partido alto: Samba de bamba (Pallas, 2005) in Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology.

The basic format of the partido alto is to establish the refrain, which is then sung in chorus by all the participants in attendance. The recurring refrain is the main “theme” that is repeated several times before the group provides an aural “break” to allow the improvisers to enter. The improvisers, known as partideiros, will then take turns singing while maintaining the rhythmic swing and poetic structure of the song. After a few verses the group comes back in strong, singing the refrain, and later again bringing down the volume a bit for the improvisers to be heard for the next round.

The partideiros have to think quick, but they often use what Lopes calls “crutches” – standard verses that have been passed down through generations but somewhat modified in different contexts. These crutches that he mentions are short phrases or common sayings, that get reworked and rhymed with new improvisations. You can gauge their talent by their use of current events, or what is happening in the roda (circle) at that very moment (such as me holding a video camera).