040 :: VIDA

Featuring

Curyman by Rogê, released by Diamond West Records in 2023. Listen / Buy direct

"Pra Vida"

Transcript

It's a new year, and this isn't a New Year's song, but that doesn't stop it from feeling like one, from feeling like the song I need to have with me to face the year ahead: this energy, this vitality, this exuberance.

Just listen to this rhythm section: the classical guitar strumming in punchy syncopation; the bass keeping a steady downbeat; a ganzá rattle subdividing the rest; and this pitched percussion instrument off on the right – an agogo perhaps? – tapping out a spirited samba beat.

Could it be any more full of life? It's like the music itself is dancing and laughing and beckoning us to join in.

And so it's fitting that the song's Portuguese refrain instructs us to "let it go, let it be, let's live". A simple imperative, but what else needs to be said?

And look: This isn't my first samba. I've heard grooves like this before. I've heard performances that are similarly vibrant and vivacious. I'm not saying that this song is like no other samba that's come before it. But there's a distinct joy in hearing it done this well, in hearing an ensemble come together like this, and in feeling that indomitable samba spirit come alive.

So let this song serve as a model, and let this be my new year's wish. May your spirits be this uplifted. May your voice be full of song. May your body be always dancing and your heart be never still. May your mind be free from worry and your soul just be free. May you let it go, let it be, and live.

Liner Notes

Curyman is the first in a trilogy of planned albums. Curyman II was released in 2024, and was how I first came across Rogê.

Rogê is the stage name of Roger José Cury, a portmanteau of his first two names. Curyman is a nickname formed from his last name, and also a clever allusion to the curimã, a fish (which the Internet tells me is a "flathead mullet") that figures prominently in the song "O Vento" by bossa nova legend Dorival Caymmi, which Rogê covers as the final track of Curyman and then reinterprets as the opening track of Curyman II.

Rogê also co-wrote the theme song of the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, "Os Deuses do Olimpo Visitam o Rio de Janeiro (The Gods of Olympus Visit Rio de Janeiro)".