Grupo Maculele: The first contemporary Capoeira group in New Orleans

Grupo Maculele is the first contemporary Capoeira group in New Orleans and has been in the area since December 2006 with the arrival of Mestre Cocada.

History

To understand the incorporation of the music into the martial art, one must go back to the birth of Capoeira, at a time when Portuguese colonists imported African slaves to work on the colonist farms. Personal interactions with Mestre Cocada and various students tell of the historic struggle that is the backbone of capoeira. Even though the slaves vastly outnumbered the colonists, unfamiliarity with the land coupled with harsh laws and no access to weapons usually discouraged thoughts of uprisings. In such an oppressive environment, slaves developed the only weapon they could think of – a martial art. However, to combat the fact that learning how to defend themselves was forbidden, they disguised it as an innocuous dance, complete with music. And thus was created the trademark characteristic of capoeira.

Music in Capoeira

The Afro-Brazilian art form known as Capoeira is unique among physical disciplines with respect to the fact that it heavily incorporates music. Capoeira is simultaneously a dance and fight, and as with any dance, the music plays an integral role. Indeed, learning kicks and handstands, the rhythms of the berimbau overlaid by Portuguese lyrics; all are done in parallel.
As a capoeirista (an individual practitioner of the art) develops his techniques and style, he must be conscious of the song choices within the roda (the circle of people in which the game is played.) Beyond the rhythms of the berimbau, one important aspect of musicality he must be especially sensitive to is the lyrics, and by extension, the song choices. Studying this area helps us to understand the most unique aspect of capoeira, which in turn allows

Learning Songs

How a one learns songs in the roda is key for evaluating a capoerista musical choices. Neil Stephens and Sara Delamont, sociologists studying capoeira, explain that a phenomenon known as legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) is an essential element in one’s education, no matter if they are a beginner, or a graduado. (Neil Stephens and Sara Delamont, “Roda Boa, Roda Boa: Legitimate peripheral participation in diasporic capoeira, Teaching and Teacher Education 26” (2010): 113-118). They argue that participation in social practice is the fundamental form of learning”, which explains why rodas are of equal benefit to players of all skill levels. To further examine this phenomenon, I went to my Capoeira academy. My group starts its Friday rodas with a music class, which provides an opportunity for students to play the instruments and learn songs. Due to the large number of songs that were sung, the best way to learn new ones was with repeated exposure over several classes. Students who have played in the weekly rodas confirmed LPP as a method of learning new songs, but a beginner student, Pulga, offered me an alternative explanation:

“What happens is, if I hear a song I am particularly interested in, I’ll ask someone who is more experienced than I am -Hey, what’s the name of this song, what are the lyrics, and so forth. And usually, they’ll tell me what it is, and I’ll look it up later online. And it so happens that a lot of Capoeira songs are really popular. You can Google them, and the lyrics will just be there for you to read.”

Comparing the present to the past brings to light one significant advantage of our modern age – the Internet. Stephens and Delamont also write that most of the information about capoeira available outside Brazil, both intellectual and practical, is Web based. (Neil Stephens and Sara Delamont, “Balancing the Berimbau, Qualitative Inquiry 12” (2006): 316). In practice, this turns the task of expanding a musical repertoire from a peripheral one to a central one. Students can take an active role in learning new songs, giving them a chance to reinforce what they already know, as well as gaining exposure to new songs they haven’t heard before.

The Integration of Music and Sport

Located at the head of the roda, the bateria is a collection of instruments consisting of berimbaus, pandeiros, atabaques, and ganzas. It forms the musical aspect of a capoeira game, and primarily relies on the toques (rhythms) of the berimbau to lead it. Two common rhythms found in Capoeira Regional are São Bento grande, a faster rhythm which encourages high sweeping kicks and acrobatics, and Banguela, which is slower and played closer to the ground. Once the rhythm of the berimbau has been defined, the challenge lies in determining what songs to sing. As previously mentioned, Capoeira songs are sung with a purpose. Greg Downey, an ethnographer who researched Capoeira, notes that players put the past into play by singing… [but] songs do not simply accompany the game…by adroitly leading the chorus, the soloist directs the two players in the roda, enhances their game, and engages all the participants. (Greg Downey, “Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 74-86.) Songs are used to provide the roda with a glimpse into history, provide either humorous or serious commentary, and even reinforce that capoeira is deadly game. In fact, they frequently suggest that capoeira is a serious, even mortal business…frequent references to death may be a metaphor for a fall in the roda, and students rehearse the techniques as if their lives depended on them.”(Greg Downey, “Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 74-86.) But all of the above intentions are privileges of experienced students who have a large stock of songs to choose from. Beginner capoeiristas cannot always afford to make specific references when they sing in the roda. Their repertoire of songs is limited, since they are focused more on learning than expression. Pulga explains that his goals are different when he sings in the roda:

Me: “What are your thoughts and what emotions do you try to project when you are singing?”
Pulga: “It’s hard to say – being a beginner, I can’t say that I’m conveying much emotion. I’m just trying not to make myself look like too much of a beginner. I want to keep the emotion in the roda. If it’s high, I want to keep that. I don’t want to try to bring people down, like with a really unemotional song.”
Me: (laughing) “Yeah, make them start crying in the roda! Haha, exactly, I just go with the flow.”

Pulga has touched upon important aspect of capoeira which is tied to music – that of axé, which loosely translates to energy. Rodas with high energy, loud music, and very involved participation, are said to have a good axé”, while games with low energy, where players are not as enthusiastic, are deemed to be caused by a bad axé”. Delamont and Stephens expand on this: In a roda the clapping and singing, focused into the ring, create the energy that fuels the play (Roda Boa, Roda Boa). Whether the player is a novice or a veteran, their contribution towards the axé of the roda is of utmost importance.

Music in the Roda

From the opposite perspective, capoeiristas who are playing in the roda, instead of performing the instruments or singing, have a different responsibility towards the music. A player’s goal is mainly a reactionary one, as they rely on the music for instruction and feedback. The berimbau plays a significant role because it determines the rhythm of the roda, and subsequently, its speed. “When a novice struggled in a game, becoming clumsy, frustrated, or anxious, he or she was exhorted to listen to the berimbau, the first mestre as some adepts called it.(Greg Downey, “Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art”). While the purpose of the berimbau is clear, the lyricism of the music is a different matter. Learning the words to a song does not correlate with understanding them. For Portuguese speakers, this is a relatively easy task, since they are versed in the nuances of the language. However, for those who are unfamiliar with it, the lyrics take on a different role in the roda, since these players do not understand the words. For example, if the singer was describing something humorous, the player would know it was funny by the reactions of the people composing the roda: “..If the roda is a community of practice, it produces a virtuous circle of increased awareness. As novices learn what is funny they are learning capoeira and as they learn capoeira they learn what is funny (Neil Stephens and Sara Delamont, Roda Boa, Roda Boa: Legitimate peripheral participation in diasporic capoeira, a Teaching and Teacher Education”). In this way, students learn off of each other when they do not know how to react. For the capoeiristas who form the ring of the roda, clapping and participating in the call and response rhythms of music give a sense of unity, connections with players present and past. According to Pulga: Being a part of Capoeira – you have the music and the actual playing of the game. But the music itself, I believe to be sort of like a symbol of unification. People coming together, like a Kumbaya.