A doce (r)evolução suburbana: samba e pertencimento com a Velha Guarda da Portela

Abstract

This research seeks to identify how the Velha Guarda’s (Roots People) sambas of the School of Samba Portela create belonging, defined here as the comforting feeling of being part of a group. The corpus are 18 sambas recorded on the album Tudo azul, from 2000, produced by singer Marisa Monte, with arrangements by maestro Paulão 7 Cordas. To do so, it is based on a tripod: the history of Portela, its Roots People, its relationship with the Brazilian cultural industry and with the public power; a literary-musical analysis of each song and, based on theories of identity creation and memory; how these songs create belonging. Simas, Vargens & Montes, Santuza Naves, Maria de Paula Ribeiro, Ana Paula Ribeiro and Guilherme Faria/Guaral are authors who tell the story(ies) of the samba school and its Roots People, while Antônio Risério, Alfredo Bosi, Michel Certeau, Pascale Casanova, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault provide the theoretical basis for understanding the relationships between the members of the Roots People and between them and the cultural industry. The documentary O mistério do samba (The Mystery of Samba), by Carolina Jabor and Lula Buarque de Holanda brought the data about the making of the album. There is also talk of the supporting role of women in the group, based on data from Nilson Rodrigues Jr., the aforementioned Paula(s) Ribeiro and seminal authors such as Roberto Moura, Rachel Soihet and Mônica Velloso. Beatriz Sarlo and Michel Pollak support the creation of memory and the pioneers Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary, the concept of belonging. Nascimento & Menandro, Dionei Mathias and Enderson Albuquerque approximate these theories to the case of the samba schools, in general, and Portela, in particular. The literary-musical analysis resorts to Silvia Cyntrão and Pedro Teixeira to give the context of the creation of the songs and the expressive resources contained in them, and to Benjamim Abdala Júnior to, when possible, frame the song in already established literary genres. The testimony of maestro Paulão 7 Cordas permeates the entire research, whether telling the history and the stories of the Roots People and Portela, or explaining the aesthetic options in the interpretation of the songs or even telling how the recordings of Tudo azul were. At no time was the intention of the composers or performers sought, much less to give them a voice, but only to know the expressive resources used to create the songs and belonging.