Home >> Tamba >> We and the Sea
Tamba 4
We and the Sea
Jose de Castilho e Souza, aka
"Bebeto," Flute, Bass, Vocals
Luiz Eca, Piano, Organ
Dorio Ferreira, Bass, Guitar, Percussion
Rubens Ohana, Drums, Jawbone, Conga
Produced by 
Recorded at
Van Gelder Studios
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Rudy Van Gelder, Engineer
Recorded September 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 14, 1967
Catalog Number:
314 543 483-2
Format: CD
Release Date: 2000
Label: CTI/A&M |
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Click on tracks
 to hear sound samples.
1. O
Morro (The Hill) (7:39)
2. Moça Flor (Flower Girl) (3:09)
3. Iemanjá (4:33)
4. We and the Sea (Nós e ou Mar) (2:32)
5. Chant of Ossanha (Canto de Ossanha) (5:01)
6. The Dolphin (2:23)
7. Consolation (Consolação) (8:15)
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This music of the north [of Brazil] is sometimes, and confusingly, called
Afro-samba, but perhaps bossa norte – “the northern thing” – would be more
descriptive. It is darker in hue than bossa nova, more somber, more gutsy...
Baden Powell is its prophet, and the Tamba 4 are its disciples.
The Afro-Brazilian Gods of the Sea and Storms Are Appeased
The Afro-Brazilian gods of the sea and storms are appeased by this musical
offering. Iemanjá (track 3) with its fishermen's chanted hymns is a must-hear.
Bossa Nova at its best!
– Alex Sydorenko
We and the Sea
The quartet's name goes back to the first drummer of the group, who invented
an instrument designed to help him make the dozens of percussive sounds
of the batucada – any group of Brazilians making samba. He called it a tamba
partly because that is an African rhythm and partly because it is also a
Brazilian plant, but mostly because it sounds like samba, which is the mother
of Brazilian music. The drummer left, but the name stuck – and now Ohana
is a batucada all by himself.
There is another very important ingredient in the Tamba sound and it goes
back four centuries to the time when the cultures of the African slaves
and Portuguese missionaries began mingling with that of the Brazilian Indian.
The musical outcome was an exotic mixture of the profoundly melancholy airs
of the Indian with the insistent, structured beat of the African and the
loose, Moorish melodies of Portugal. This music is still alive in north-eastern
Brazil (where most of Brazil's [blacks] live) and the Brazilian composer,
Baden Powell, has drawn deeply from it for his own music. Three of his songs
are on this record. This music of the north is sometimes, and confusingly,
called Afro-samba, but perhaps bossa norte – “the northern thing” – would
be more descriptive. It is darker in hue than bossa nova, more somber, more
gutsy... Baden Powell is its prophet, and the Tamba 4 are its disciples.
So that's where the Tamba sound comes from. It is artfully distilled on
this album, which gives a shimmering cross-section of the group's musical
evolution. We and the Sea is a smooth, sinuous piece of early bossa nova,
and it appeared on their first recording in 1960. Flower Girl, dating from
the same period, is a moving vignette of a young girl's first bittersweet
taste of love – and Bebeto justly earns [João] Gilberto's praise in telling
it. Dolphin is new, composed by Luiz and never recorded before. It is a
gentle mood piece that soothes the spirit and seduces the ear with rich,
modern harmonies. The three “bossa norte” numbers, “Iemanjá,” “Chant of
Ossanha,” and “Consolation,” are all haunted by the lonely flute of Bebeto.
The first two, particularly, are troubled by glimpses of the pagan dieties
of voodoo and macumba who have never been forgotten by the fisherman of
the northeast coast (Iemanjá is goddess of the sea; Ossanha of storms).
All three works have splendid moments in their arrangements: listen for
Ohana's dainty syncopated tick tick tick continuo that runs almost all through
Iemanjá; or his provocative conga prelude to Ossanha.
– Harvey Loomis |
Tamba 4
Photos by Chuck Stewart |
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