This article covers Brazilian percussion groups installed in Paris, the majority of which are inspired by three Brazilian carnavalesque musical practices: The school of samba, samba-reggae, and maracatu. The Brazilian presence in the music produced by these groups, generally called “batucadas”, can be seen on several levels: We situate it in the ensemble’s choice of instrumental training, in a repertory of rhythms and songs, as well as in a distinctive musical structure; it is then expressed in the construction and activation of a certain Brazilian imagination. Secondly, using the ethnographical approach, I will broach the production of this music - said to be Brazilian - in Paris, by i vibrant v.8 n.1 emília chamone closely following the process of elaboration and realization of the Afro-Brazil Show, conceived by the batucada group Zalindê, in December 2008. Based on the work of the anthropologist Gérard Lenclud, I tried to show that the tradition is not a category or a simple gathering of cultural practices able to establish a source of inspiration. The tradition will always be conjugated in the present, the fruit of a standpoint and of the strictly contemporary needs of the cultural players.
batucadas; Afro-Brazilian percussions; Zalindê; tradition; participant observation