Samba Soul

Samba soul is the Brazilian fusion of samba with American soul and funk that flourished in the 1970s, chiefly in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian singers and bands absorbed the harmony, brass arrangements, electric bass and backbeat of *James Brown*, Motown and Philadelphia soul, and set them to Portuguese lyrics and samba percussion, producing a heavy, danceable music voiced in the bailes of the city's Black suburbs. Led by *Tim Maia* and *Jorge Ben* and institutionalised by *Banda Black Rio*, samba soul was the sound of the Black Rio movement, asserting a modern Black Brazilian identity under the military regime.