Listening to cultural connections through Brazilian music | Eric Galm | TEDxTrinityCollege

Professor Eric Galm talks about his passion for music and how it helped him to make a change in the lives of people.

Eric Galm is Associate Professor of Music, founder of the Trinity Samba Ensemble and the Samba Fest, co-director of the Center for Caribbean Studies, and music department chair at Trinity College.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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The sounds of this musical bow,

the berimbau,

have guided my personal
and professional life.

By learning to listen
to the sounds between the notes,

I've discovered a world of possibilities

that have unfolded
before my ears and my eyes.

The berimbau is a symbol
of African culture in Brazil,

and its roots come from West,
Central and South African musical bows.

As a result,

it has emerged as a uniquely
Brazilian musical instrument.

I want to talk with you today
about some things that have inspired me,

and how I've taken steps
to turn that inspiration

into making positive change for others.

My inspiration is music,
and this is what brought me here.

The berimbau is used
in a martial art dance game

called capoeira,

which comes from Brazil.

It sends nonverbal codes to the dancers,

telling them when to begin,

what style of movements to make,

whether there's dangers
within or beyond the dancing space,

and when to stop.

The components of the instrument
can hold specific meaning,

like the coin used to change the pitch.

An old capoeira master told me once that -

He said when the African arrived
on the shores of Brazil,

all he had were the nails
on the ends of his hands.

And he was talking about an Angolan
musical bow pinching technique like this.

(Berimbau)

And he said that the coin symbolizes

what the African and Afro-Brazilian
have been able to acquire

over the centuries.

And if you use a Portuguese
imperial copper coin -

this one is from 1821 -

you hold in your hand
an actual piece of money

that was used to purchase
somebody's freedom.

Masters teach their students

about the importance and meaning
of the berimbau through song -

for example, in this song.

(Singing in Brazilian Portuguese)

I will read the alphabet

The alphabet of berimbau

The gourd and rattle

It has a piece of wood, old colleague

(Recorded traditional capoeira song)

The coin and wire

Here is the berimbau, old colleague

The berimbau is an instrument

That you only play on one string

It will play São Bento Grande

It plays Angola in Major key,

old colleague.

Now I've come to believe

Old colleague,
the berimbau is the greatest

Comrade, long live my God

Long live my God, Comrade.

(Singing ends)

Eric Galm: Now, here's the same song,

with the same lyrics
but a totally different sound.

(Music)

(Music ends)

EG: So both of these are the same song.

The first represents the tradition,

and the second comes from a band
named Berimbrown,

a metaphorical fusion
of James Brown and the berimbau.

The music simultaneously
combines musical resistance

from different time periods -

including the era of slavery,
the 1960s military dictatorship -

and representing today's
urban marginalized communities,

helping to bring visibility to them.

All of these musical sounds
filled my head,

and I wanted to share them with others,

so I wrote a book,

the first academic study of the berimbau,

that's a symbol of national
identity within Brazil

and a symbol of Brazil
throughout the world.

I then got to thinking
about how I might find meaningful ways

to give back to the people
who shared so much with me.

How could I, as a white,
North American college professor,

make a meaningful difference

in the communities
with whom I'm partnered?

Through sharing my experiences,

I hope to inspire you to find ways
to make a difference for others

within the work that you do.

One person who inspired me
was Mark Plotkin,

a North American ethnobotanist

who researched
Indigenous healing practices

in the Suriname rainforest.

Instead of collecting one plant

and sending it back to his institution
in the United States,

he collected two,

and he set up a dual archive in Suriname,

translating all of the research
into the local Indigenous languages

so that future generations
could benefit from this research.

With this in mind,
I started to look at ways

in which I could make a change locally,
in my own immediate environment,

and how I could make
community change on a larger scale.

Locally, I created
a Brazilian music festival

called The Samba Fest,

with the focus on promoting
Brazilian music and culture

as well as providing a place

for musicians located
in the Central Connecticut region.

I also wanted to find a way
of bringing attention to musicians

who may not receive recognition
in their own communities.

That was 14 years ago,

and the Samba Fest
has now provided direct service

to over 60,000 people,

as well as more through live streaming
on Trinity's radio station

as well as on the internet.

In 2015,

my friend Adriano George

suggested that I bring
a Brazilian youth group to the Samba Fest,

called the Meninos de Minas -

the Kids from the State of Minas Gerais.

This is a social service project

designed to help them
develop social and citizenship skills

as well as become engaged members
of their communities.

This group adapts drumming rhythms

from a tradition
that is hundreds of years old

and incorporates these rhythms
into regional pop music songs.

(Video) (Music)

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EG: When I first saw them,

I thought it was amazing in how much joy
and energy they brought out of their music

and how they instantly created
an instant musical community

with everyone who heard them play.

I wanted to learn more about the roots
of this rich musical tradition.

So I put together some ideas.

I won a research grant from
the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation,

and I was soon observing
drumming masses in churches,

talking with multigenerational
practitioners

and trying to figure out
how could I bring this to Connecticut.

I knew that this was an impossible,
larger-than-life dream,

but I knew that if it happened,
it would be really cool.

I was confident that I could bring
one member of the Meninos

and one member of the Congado Association,

but then it hit me:

just to bring one person
from the Congado Association

would be a huge task.

Many of them are in their 70s,
don't have a passport

and have never traveled
more than a couple hours from their home

throughout their entire lives.

I would need to have someone
on the ground,

in a remote rural area,

to personally walk them
through the process,

with advance money in their pocket
to cover all the expenses,

since just a single visa application
could cost more than a month's salary.

The Congado practitioners are descendants
of enslaved Africans and Afro-Brazilians,

and continue to live
in economically challenging conditions.

The Congado tradition
is hundreds of years old,

and the procession represents
a coronation ceremony for an African king.

During the time of slavery,

this person served as an intermediary

between the enslaved population
and the plantation owner.

These religious processionals
weave their way throughout the streets,

stopping in front of churches,

singing songs in honor
of that patron saint

and moving on to the next church

because they were not
allowed to go inside.

By the mid-18th century,

the religious brotherhood
Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Negros -

Our Lady of the Rosary
of the Black People -

was created.

By the 19th century,

these religious brotherhoods
were building their own churches,

and pooling their money
to purchase freedom

of their brothers and their sisters.

Drumming masses emerged
within these churches,

and the musical instruments
helped to preserve this history.

(Video) (Music)

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EG: For example,

the patangome shakers and their sounds

are believed to have originated
from the process of panning for gold,

where you scoop the pan
into the river bank

and swirl around the mixture
of soil and water.

The gunga shakers attached
around the ankles of the participants

are intended to recall
the sounds of the leg irons

that were shackled
upon the bodies of their ancestors.

In addition to remembering atrocities,

this performative process
also helps to give hope for the future.

So, going back to
the 70-year-old practitioners

who needed documents and visas
in order to travel internationally,

I was able to form a support coalition
with Cléber Camargo Rodrigues,

the director of the Meninos,

and Stael Azevedo,

a high school history teacher
and journalist

who had conducted research
on the tradition in Itabira

for about 15 or 20 years.

Through their long-standing relationships,

they helped to convince
the elder practitioners

that this project was indeed something
that may actually happen.

They also helped with logistics
by personally making several visits

accompanying people
to the consulate in Belo Horizonte,

the state capital,

as well as the US consulates
in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

As our collective vision gained momentum,
we received additional support,

and before we knew it,

the city of Itabira helped
to provide travel for 23 participants

to come participate
in this international festival.

We had a great week
of workshops and performances.

I learned that the Meninos
started as a dream,

and one of the members, Bruno Messias,
was able to gain entrance to college

through his participation
in the Meninos group.

This helped him to bypass
the dominance of the SAT-style scores,

and today, he is
a certified music teacher.

On the other hand,

the Congado Association president,

Antônio Beato,

he shared that when we first met,
he didn't think too much of me

because people with big ideas
would come and go.

He said what was different
is that I came back,

and then I came back again.

And before he knew it,

he was on a plane,
traveling to the United States,

and to cap off his dream,

he celebrated his 76th birthday
here in Hartford.

The crowning achievement of this project
was a Missa Conga Drumming Mass

held at the Trinity College chapel,

officiated by Father
Antônio Jorge Tchingui,

a Catholic priest from Angola.

When he saw the royal drumming procession

approach the church,

he recalled his youth in Central Africa,

realizing that his homeland

was the birthplace
of these cultural traditions

that were now approaching him,

bringing to him a distant past

that he was just encountering
for the first time.

We're pretty confident that this
is the first drumming mass of this type

to have taken place in the United States.

In May, 2018, the musicians
returned back to Brazil

as a group of international heroes.

Members of the Congado Association
received awards of recognition

from the Itabira City Council,

and in July, I was invited to present
an overview of this collaboration

in the city hall chambers.

The event included
a parade through the city,

and then I was invited
to join city and state officials

to hand out new uniforms

to the 300 members of the city's
11 Congado processional groups.

In recognition of this
international success,

I was invited to return in September

to receive the award of honorary citizen
of the city of Itabira.

This is what happened to me,

and I was moved by the joy
of the Meninos de Minas,

and I wanted to learn more.

By asking a single question
about the roots of this musical tradition

and learning about
its meaning and significance

through multigenerational practitioners,

I was able to take a single idea

and truly make a difference
in hundreds of people's lives.

I couldn't have done it by myself,

but the most important thing
is that people came together,

visualized the same dream,

saw the work that needed to be done,

and did it.

What's your dream?

What do you want to do
that can make a difference for others?

Maybe you can start with a single idea

that comes from your own interests,
hobbies or passions.

First, share it with others,

those who collectively see
the beauty in that vision.

If you're committed
to bringing that to life

and embracing the obstacles
that lie in your path,

you too can make a difference for someone.

One of the most important things
you can do is to be persistent.

Once you have a big idea,

be sure to come back to it,
and come back again,

until it becomes a reality.

Thank you.

(Applause)