Forro in the Dark
Encyclopedia
Forro in the Dark is a New York
-based collective of Brazilian expatriate
s that formed in 2002. The group combines the musical style of forró
, “the percussion-heavy, rhythmic dance music” of their native Brazil
, with elements of rock
, folk
, jazz
, and country
.
district of New York City
. The group was such a hit that they started a weekly residency
at the club. Their public prominence increased due to their extended residency at Nublu, where they came into contact with prominent New York influence David Byrne
, who helped propel further recognition for the band when they collaborated on Forro in the Dark’s 2006 album Bonfires of São João.
In November 2006, Forro in the Dark released their debut album Bonfires of São João, which includes guest performances from Bebel Gilberto
, David Byrne
and Miho Hatori
. In regards to the album, Allmusic noted that “Forro in the Dark hang on tightly to the danceability of the music but are keen to expand the music's sonic parameters. A reggae
tune, 'Limoeiro do Norte,' spotlights a wobbly flute up front, while 'Que Que Tu Fez' crosses an insistent Afro-Caribbean
rhythm with flamenco
handclaps, a flighty flute, and a spry vocal. Guest stars liven up the proceedings: David Byrne
vocalizes exuberantly on two tracks, including 'Asa Branca
,' a forro standard, and the Brazilian diva Bebel Gilberto
donates a rich, sultry lead vocal to the airy ballad 'Wandering Swallow.' Miho Hatori
of the band Cibo Matto
further blurs the lines by bringing a Japanese pop taste to Gonzaga's 'Paraiba'…"
The group toured throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe in 2007 to promote the album. During this time they recorded the song “City of Immigrants” that was featured on “Steve Earle
’s Grammy-winning album Washington Square Serenade
”.
who appears on the track “Silence Is Golden
” and singer-songwriter Jesse Harris
who provides vocals for the song “Just Like Any Other Night”. The album also features covers of forró
classics like “Saudades de Manezinho Araujo” by Teo Azevedo and “Forro de Dois Amigos” by Edmilson do Pífano.
SFWeekly regarded the band as “[pushing] the genre [of forró
] even further, adding fuzzed-out guitar riffage, turntable
scratchery, and breathy, honking sax…and recorded live with only minimal overdubs, giving them a rushing vibrancy…the band's tunes shudder and shake like an epileptic belly dancer.”
In 2009, the band collaborated with singer-songwriter Brett Dennen
for a live session recording made available on iTunes
. Refosco was also announced as the percussionist for Thom Yorke
's new live band Atoms for Peace
(which also includes Flea
of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
, Joey Waronker
of Beck
and Nigel Godrich
).
“is a happy, danceable music based on four elements: simple melodies, basic harmonies, driving rhythms and funny lyrics. Those elements are traditionally performed by three instruments: a triangle
, an accordion
, and a zabumba
, a drum pitched somewhere between a low snare
and a small bass
”. The band alternates between these musical components as they include various guitars and other percussion instruments, such as a Bahia
n drum called the timbau, along with traditional forró
components. Continentino plays a variety of wind instruments including a wooden flute called the pifano, instead of the accordion.
Steve Klinge from The Philadelphia Inquirer
describes the band as “[updating] and [recontextualizing] the northeastern Brazilian music...forro…it's a frantic, zippy collision of percussion, flute
, and electric guitar
with an occasional sax
solo and lyrics in Portuguese
and English. It's polyrhythm
ic street-party music with a downtown edge."
All four members participate as vocalists.
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
-based collective of Brazilian expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
s that formed in 2002. The group combines the musical style of forró
Forró
Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina , a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints...
, “the percussion-heavy, rhythmic dance music” of their native Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, with elements of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
.
Formation and Bonfires of São João
In celebration of his birthday, Mauro Refosco invited some friends over for a forró-style jam session at Nublu, a nightclub located in the East VillageEast Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
district of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The group was such a hit that they started a weekly residency
Artist in residence
Artist-in-residence programs and other residency opportunities allow visiting artists to stay and work so that they may apply singular focus to their art practice....
at the club. Their public prominence increased due to their extended residency at Nublu, where they came into contact with prominent New York influence David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
, who helped propel further recognition for the band when they collaborated on Forro in the Dark’s 2006 album Bonfires of São João.
In November 2006, Forro in the Dark released their debut album Bonfires of São João, which includes guest performances from Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto is a Brazilian popular singer often associated with bossa nova. She is the daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha. Her uncle is singer/composer Chico Buarque...
, David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
and Miho Hatori
Miho Hatori
is a singer, songwriter, and musician. She is primarily known as the vocalist of the New York City group Cibo Matto, and the first person to provide the voice of Gorillaz member Noodle.-Biography:...
. In regards to the album, Allmusic noted that “Forro in the Dark hang on tightly to the danceability of the music but are keen to expand the music's sonic parameters. A reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
tune, 'Limoeiro do Norte,' spotlights a wobbly flute up front, while 'Que Que Tu Fez' crosses an insistent Afro-Caribbean
British African-Caribbean community
The British African Caribbean communities are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily indigenous to Africa...
rhythm with flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
handclaps, a flighty flute, and a spry vocal. Guest stars liven up the proceedings: David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
vocalizes exuberantly on two tracks, including 'Asa Branca
Asa Branca
Asa Branca is a song written by Luiz Gonzaga and Humberto Teixeira in 1947. It has been covered by Zé Ramalho in his 2003 album Estação Brasil, also see Forro in the Dark with David Byrne. It is about the droughts that often afflict the sertão of the Brazilian Northeast:The asa-branca of the title...
,' a forro standard, and the Brazilian diva Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto is a Brazilian popular singer often associated with bossa nova. She is the daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha. Her uncle is singer/composer Chico Buarque...
donates a rich, sultry lead vocal to the airy ballad 'Wandering Swallow.' Miho Hatori
Miho Hatori
is a singer, songwriter, and musician. She is primarily known as the vocalist of the New York City group Cibo Matto, and the first person to provide the voice of Gorillaz member Noodle.-Biography:...
of the band Cibo Matto
Cibo Matto
Cibo Matto are a New York City-based band formed by two Japanese women, Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, in 1994...
further blurs the lines by bringing a Japanese pop taste to Gonzaga's 'Paraiba'…"
The group toured throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe in 2007 to promote the album. During this time they recorded the song “City of Immigrants” that was featured on “Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
’s Grammy-winning album Washington Square Serenade
Washington Square Serenade
Washington Square Serenade is an album by alternative country singer Steve Earle. The album features the singer's wife, Allison Moorer on the track "Days Aren't Long Enough," and the Brazilian group Forro in the Dark on the track "City of Immigrants." The track "Way Down in the Hole," by Tom...
”.
Light a Candle
Following the 2008 release of their EP Dia de Roda, Forro in the Dark began work on their second full-length album Light a Candle. Guest artists on the LP include Sabina Sciubba of Brazilian GirlsBrazilian Girls
Brazilian Girls was a band from New York City known for their eclectic blend of electronic dance music with musical styles as diverse as tango, chanson, house, reggae and lounge. None of the members are actually from Brazil and the only female in the band is Sabina Sciubba. Other members include...
who appears on the track “Silence Is Golden
Silence Is Golden
Silence Is Golden is a proverb. It could also mean:* "Silence is Golden", the slogan for AMC Theaters in Tampa, Florida* Silence is Golden , a song recorded by The Four Seasons and The Tremeloes...
” and singer-songwriter Jesse Harris
Jesse Harris
Jesse Harris is a Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter. He has collaborated with several musical artists including Norah Jones, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Nikki Yanofsky, and Lizz Wright.-Early life and education:...
who provides vocals for the song “Just Like Any Other Night”. The album also features covers of forró
Forró
Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina , a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints...
classics like “Saudades de Manezinho Araujo” by Teo Azevedo and “Forro de Dois Amigos” by Edmilson do Pífano.
SFWeekly regarded the band as “[pushing] the genre [of forró
Forró
Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina , a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints...
] even further, adding fuzzed-out guitar riffage, turntable
Turntablism
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
scratchery, and breathy, honking sax…and recorded live with only minimal overdubs, giving them a rushing vibrancy…the band's tunes shudder and shake like an epileptic belly dancer.”
In 2009, the band collaborated with singer-songwriter Brett Dennen
Brett Dennen
Brett Dennen is a folk/pop singer and songwriter from Northern California.-Biography:Brett Dennen attended UC Santa Cruz from 2000–2004, where he was a student at Kresge College....
for a live session recording made available on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. Refosco was also announced as the percussionist for Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke
Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...
's new live band Atoms for Peace
Atoms for Peace (band)
Atoms for Peace is a rock supergroup formed in late 2009. The group consists of lead singer of Radiohead, Thom Yorke ; Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers; longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich ; Joey Waronker who has played with artists such as R.E.M., Beck, Elliott Smith, The Smashing Pumpkins,...
(which also includes Flea
Flea
Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood...
of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
, Joey Waronker
Joey Waronker
Joseph "Joey" Waronker is an American drummer and music producer. He is the son of record producer Lenny Waronker and singer/actress Donna Loren; his younger sister is musician Anna Waronker; and his grandfather is record executive and professional violinist Simon Waronker. He has three other...
of Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
and Nigel Godrich
Nigel Godrich
Nigel Godrich, , is a recording engineer, record producer and musician. He is best known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead and is sometimes referred to as the "sixth member" of the band...
).
Musical style
As described by Refosco, forróForró
Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina , a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints...
“is a happy, danceable music based on four elements: simple melodies, basic harmonies, driving rhythms and funny lyrics. Those elements are traditionally performed by three instruments: a triangle
Triangle
A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
, an accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, and a zabumba
Zabumba
A zabumba is a type of bass drum used in Brazilian music. The player wears the drum while standing up and uses both hands while playing.The zabumba generally ranges in diameter from 16 to 22 inches, and is 5 to 8 inches tall. The shell is made of wood and may utilize either skin or plastic drum...
, a drum pitched somewhere between a low snare
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
and a small bass
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
”. The band alternates between these musical components as they include various guitars and other percussion instruments, such as a Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
n drum called the timbau, along with traditional forró
Forró
Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina , a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints...
components. Continentino plays a variety of wind instruments including a wooden flute called the pifano, instead of the accordion.
Steve Klinge from The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
describes the band as “[updating] and [recontextualizing] the northeastern Brazilian music...forro…it's a frantic, zippy collision of percussion, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, and electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
with an occasional sax
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
solo and lyrics in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and English. It's polyrhythm
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...
ic street-party music with a downtown edge."
Members
- Mauro Refosco - zabumba drum
- Davi Vieira - percussion. Vieira voiced Armando in the 2011 film RioRio (film)Rio, often promoted as Rio: The Movie, is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated musical comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and directed by Carlos Saldanha. The title refers to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, in which the film is set. The film features the voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne...
. - Guilherme Monteiro - guitar
- Jorge Continentino - pifano flute, saxophone
All four members participate as vocalists.
External links
*- [ "Forro in the Dark" review], at AllMusic.
- [ "Bonfires of São João" review], at AllMusic.
- NPR Music: World Cafe from WXPN: "Forro in the Dark: Beyond Tradition" by David Dye, Hear an Interview and In-Studio Performance
- David Byrne's website