Capoeira Music

Capoeira music is the Afro-Brazilian musical system of the roda, the circle in which the martial art game of capoeira is played, above all in Bahia. A bateria led by the berimbau bow dictates the game's speed and character through named toques, while a lead singer delivers ladainhas, chulas and corridos answered by the circle's chorus. Codified in the twentieth century by *Mestre Bimba*, founder of Capoeira Regional, and *Mestre Pastinha*, guardian of Capoeira Angola, its repertoire carries the history, devotion and resistance of Afro-Brazilian communities in song, inseparable from the game it drives.