Making Samba: A New History of Race and Music in Brazil

MARC A. HERTZMAN, Making Samba: A New History of Race and Music in Brazil. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2013. xvii + 364 pp. ISBN 978-0-8223-5430-7.The central focus of Hertzman's scholarly work is the black musicalpioneers of the early twentieth century in Rio de Janeiro, a group that, as he deftly illustrates, 'defies easy categorization' (3). This analysis of Rio's inter-war black communities, what the author terms a '"missing middle" sandwiched between periods and places that have drawn greater scholarly attention' (6) is long overdue. The issue of intellectual property in relation to popular musiclies at the core of the book. At times the detailed statistical analysis can be a little dry, especially in the final chapters when the author examines the inner workings and relative efficacy of authors' rightsassociations. The remaining chapters are, however, enlightening and a fascinating read.In Chapter 1 Hertzman outlines the social and economic contexts of nineteenth-century black musicians in what was Brazil's capital city - chiefly enslaved income-generators for their owners - who ranged from court entertainers to barber-musicians. Rooted in exhaustive archival research, Chapter 2 investigates police records relating to so-called vagrancycases in order to challenge the widely held notion that black popular musicians, especially self-styled malandro sambistas, were persecuted for their craft. Rather, the author argues, they were controlled through economic means, being poorly protected by copyright mechanisms. The author then turns his attention, in chapters 3 and 4, respectively, to the development of intellectual property lawin relation to music in Brazil, and to the rise and success of the Oito Batutas and one of this band's most important members, Donga, officially credited as the creator of 'Pelo Telefone', often mistakenly referred to as the first composition to be generically categorized as a samba. The polemical issue of this song's authorship is discussed in the wider context of the 'ownership' of popular musicalproduction in the era in question.Chapter 5 looks at how Rio's Afro- Brazilian musicians engaged with journalists to further their careers and those of their peers, and Chapter 6 considers how such careers were moulded and often impeded by projects to define national identity and the place of race and music within it. Chapter 7 focuses on the Society of Brazilian Theatre Authors (SBAT), Brazil's first authors' rightsassociation, founded coincidentally in 1917. In Chapter 8 the author then discusses the Uniao Brasileira de Compositores (UBC; the Brazilian Union of Composers), Brazil's first and most powerful musician-centred authors' rightsorganization. …