FABIO KOEHLER is an artist and a musician who has been living away from his native Brazil for over six years. Here he shares the joy of samba, and describes how people from all cultures have danced and made music to connect with life, transform pain into happiness, and come together in community.
EMBRACING DIFFERENCE
Vejam essa maravilha de cenário
É um episódio relicário
Que
o artista, num sonho genial
Escolheu para este carnaval
E o
asfalto como passarela
Será a tela
Do Brasil em forma de
aquarela
Look at this wonderful scenario
It’s a reliquary episode
That
the artist, in a brilliant dream,
Chose for this carnival
And
the asphalt as a catwalk
Will be the canvas
Of Brazil in the
form of a watercolor
Aquarela Brasileira by Silas de Oliveira
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHN2TVwNhEo
Whenever the word happiness comes to my mind I think of samba! I grew up in Rio de Janeiro, which is a postcard city due to its natural beauty and its Carnival. When I was fifteen years old, a musician taught me to play the main beat of samba on the pandeiro, an instrument similar to the tambourine, during a moonlit party on the beach. Since then, I have not stopped playing that instrument! I left Brazil in 2015 and the feeling of homesickness increases day by day. Since I left, the need to play the pandeiro, especially Brazilian music, has grown greater and greater. Nowadays, it is easier to count the days I don’t play the pandeiro. For me, playing samba is directly related to happiness. There is a famous song which says:
O samba é pai do prazer
O samba é filho da dor
Um grande poder transformador
Samba is the father of pleasure
Samba is the child of pain
A
great transforming power
Desde Que O Samba É Samba by Caetano Veloso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB-iGuBVclo
And another one says:
Minha beleza encontro no samba que faço
Minha tristeza se torna num alegra cantar
My beauty I find in the samba I make
My sadness becomes a joyful
song
Esperanças Perdidas by Os Originais do Samba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLj9AK0edCY
Samba has a joyful feel, and wherever I play in the world I feel this joy is perceived by people, especially children. They are immediately receptive to the happy vibrations and start smiling and moving their bodies. The pandeiro (and other frame drums with jingles) was used in diverse cultures during dances and festivities. It is known as the bringer of joy. Whenever there is a pandeiro, the music is filled with happiness. It is generally represented as a heart or, more precisely, as the “heart of the musician.”
Meu coração é um pandeiro
Gingando ao compasso de um samba
feiticeiro
My heart is a pandeiro
Swaying to the beat of a sorcerer’s samba
Morena Boca de Ouro by João Gilberto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umbS_GJ0S50
Samba had its origins in the African continent and developed in Brazil in different areas and in diverse ways. Samba today is associated with the city of Rio de Janeiro, because Rio was the entrance for the slave trade coming from the African continent. There were an estimated one million slaves in fifty years alone, which is an astonishing number. Brazil is recognized as having the greatest number of slaves during the colonial period.
Babuji used to say, “If you cannot leave the toilet better than before, at least leave it like it was before you used it.” That’s why I’m deeply grateful for the enormous work our forefathers did for humanity. During their conditions of slavery, they transformed that pain into joy and left us the samba! Lalaji used to sing to alleviate his stomach pains. His sorrow would be transfigured into sweet sounds for the listeners, just like samba music. It’s a great lesson on how to deal with sorrow and pain. I feel very grateful to be able to play such music.
There is a song I encourage you to listen to, because the singer Martinho da Vila is known for singing while he is smiling. You can hear it in his voice:
Canta, canta minha gente
Deixa a tristeza pra lá
Canta
forte, canta alto
Que a vida vai melhorar
Sing, sing my people
Leave sadness behind
Sing strong, sing
loud
That life will get better
Canta Canta, Minha Gente by Martinho da Vila
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxQB1FYLu5k
This song contains the popular saying, “Quem canta seus males espanta,” which means, “One who sings, sings his woes away.”
What has this all to do with my life? These are the tools I use. Besides playing pandeiro every day, I also sing the rhythm. I sing in the corridor, I sing on the streets, while working, and even in the bathroom. My acquaintances know me for this, and recognize me from afar, even making jokes about the percussive sounds I make with my mouth. And when I walk, I dance to the rhythm of samba. Samba dancing is normally taught first as walking and then the characteristic movements are added.
This is the way I have found to express happiness. I’m sure each of you has your own way. If you do not know it yet, I encourage you to find it.
The pandemic has deeply affected the artistic sector, especially live performances. This break in live performances gave me an empty feeling at first, and a craving to play with and for others, but it also permitted me to develop the art of percussion. During the pandemic, I took care of a multiple sclerosis patient. When I started to work with her, she could not move her fingers, but she was completely conscious, with no brain damage. During my job interview, she showed me her drum, and when I told her that I was a percussionist she asked me to play. At that moment she smiled like anything. On the days I forgot to play she would tell me, “Today you did not play for me.” She was an antenna: Whenever I played with too much mind, she would say “Today it was not good.” Whenever I played from the heart, she would smile joyfully.
This went on for three months, until one morning she passed away in my presence. That night, I informed her family about the moment of her passing and the family presented me with her drum. They asked me to play it at her burial, which was an unprecedented episode in my life. It changed my approach to music, art, and life itself. I could understand how the drum connects us to the other world. It shaped my soul to such an extent that my way of playing was deeply transformed.
Even though samba music is transient, the approach to life remains. I have witnessed many times how hard-working people, living in harsh circumstances, are able to find joy in their music. They dance through life. Their daily duties do not always permit them to sing or dance, but samba-like activities can serve as the oil to our daily routine. No wonder people feel the need to go out to bars, discos, and concerts to relax, meet people, listen, and dance to music. All indigenous people have used dance and music in their group activities. A lot of their dances came out of work, like hunting, planting, and harvesting. So, they were able to integrate work itself with dance and music!
I think joyful vibrations from music like samba make the world a happier place. That’s why I feel like playing music until my final breath. I would even say samba itself is my breath. There is a final song I would like to share with you:
Vem que passa
Teu sofrer
Se todo mundo sambasse
Seria
tão fácil viver
Come that it passes
Your suffering
If everyone could samba
It
would be so easy to live
Tem Mais Samba by Chico Buarque
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5B8n0DyRtA
fabiokohlerart@gmail.com
https://fabiokohler.de
https://www.instagram.com/fabio_kohler/
Art by FABIO KOHLER
Fabio Kohler
Fabio is an artist and musician. He grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, graduating in stage design from UNIRIO. Currently living in Freiburg, Germany, he teaches drawing and percussion in learning institutions ... Read More
