Samba-reggae

Samba-reggae was invented in Salvador in the 1980s by the blocos afro (Olodum, Ilê Aiyê) when they slowed samba down and put a reggae backbeat under it. It is drum music: a family of surdos stacked by size, a repique and the caixa snares. The lowest surdo marks beats 2 and 4 (the reggae), the next one answers on 1 and 3, the high surdos play the 3-3-2 sixteenth cell over them, and the caixas fill the eighths. The bass here doubles the surdo melody and the guitar skanks on 2 and 4 so the reggae half of the name is audible. It is the sound of Olodum behind Paul Simon and Michael Jackson; hear it after maracatu to see what Bahia did to the same 3-3-2.