Brazillian Radio Hour brings a taste of Bossa Nova to the ‘Burgh

When Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil came to the Byham Theater last year, he had people dancing in the aisles. Unable to stop the tidal wave of dancing and singing, the theater ushers threw up their hands in defeat. This is the effect Brazilian music can have on people, whether the listeners understand the Portuguese lyrics said or not. 

This music, with genres including sultry samba, bumping bossa nova and charged Tropicalia, are all part of the grand echelon of Brazilian music that you can hear every Friday from 6 to 7 p.m. on the local WRCT 88.9 show “Brazilian Radio Hour.” 

The show (which in Portuguese is called Cantinho Brasileiro no Rádio) was the brainchild of Pittsburgh-based Brazil native Carla Leininger, who is a web marketing project manager for Eaton Corporation, a power management company. Leininger started “Brazilian Radio Hour” in 2004 to spread awareness of Brazilian music and culture, as well as to share her passion for the diversity of sounds from Brazil. Leininger saw the potential to expand the Brazilian segment of the program, which had originally been part of the broader “Latin American Magazine” radio program that started in 1999. 

“I was inspired by the fact that WRCT had a Latin American show, and I was a guest on that program. They were trying to serve a Latin American market in Spanish, but not Portuguese,” Leininger said.

As the program began to grow in popularity, Leininger saw the need to create her own show separate from the “Latin American Magazine.”

“By 2004 it was getting more difficult to have everything we wanted,” she said, “so we decided to apply for our own show. It became a bigger commitment and a weekly independent show solely dedicated to music from Brazil.”

The show has taken off since then with a wide variety of listeners around Pittsburgh. With a sizeable number of Brazilians living in Pittsburgh (Leininger estimates it can range from 500 to 1000 at any given time), the audience who tunes in every Friday is as diverse as the music played. Broadcast in English and Portuguese, listeners include Brazilians and Portuguese speakers in Pittsburgh, English-speakers who enjoy the rhythms of Brazilian music and even Brazilians in Brazil. Students here at Pitt have also been involved in the program, including recent Pitt graduate Filipe Silvestre. 

Silvestre heard about the program his sophomore year and was able to participate in it this past December as part of his Portuguese class. 

“We had to give current events and we interviewed a Brazilian band through Skype. It was cool because a guy from Brazil actually called and told us what a good job we did,” he said.

The program has received national acclaim, and last year Leininger won the Brazilian International Press Award in recognition of her years of service to the “Brazilian Radio Hour.” Volunteers of all sorts run and promote the show, from students such as Silvestre to Brazilian music aficionados such as Fred Schroyer. 

Schroyer is the editorial director of the Continuous Learning Group, a behavioral science consultancy, and DJs the show on the last Friday of every month. He is a self-proclaimed Brazilian music aficionado, and discovered the richness of its many genres and styles five years ago.

Upon starting to DJ for the show in 2010, Schroyer had collected more than 400 CDs of Brazilian music. His passion for Brazilian music is evident, and he has nothing but praise for the genuine joie de vivre that the music and the Brazilian people possess. 

“The music industry in Brazil is incredible. We think of the U.S. when we think of entertainment, but in Brazil music and entertainment permeates the fabric of everything,” Schroyer said.

The show has a different theme each week and Schroyer noted that “the next show will be at the end of February after Carnaval, so we will play Carnaval music and a good amount of samba.” Samba has its roots in Rio de Janeiro, which is the home to the well-known “Carnaval” festival, which features enormous parades. The show also does interviews with visiting Brazilian bands and has even interviewed former Brazilian President José Sarney. But the variety of music, from forro, frevo and samba to the popular sertanejo (“country pop”) is what really draws listeners to tune in every Friday. According to Silvestre, the beauty of the sound and the infused lyrics are what make the music so special.

“The lyrics [of so many songs] are beautiful, laid-back and confident,” Silvestre said. 

For the newcomer to Brazilian beats, both Schroyer and Silvestre recommended without hesitation “The Girl from Ipanema.” The soft, sensual song was written by Antonio Carlos Jobim in the 1960s and was not only a hit in Brazil, but also won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1965 in the United States. 

Leininger, in the spirit of upcoming Carnaval, suggested the band Monobloco. 

“They are a huge percussion group from Rio, where they are very popular. They have their own Carnaval parade and have over 80,000 people behind their float. It’s a fun group started in a Rio neighborhood by friends, and today they have hundreds of musicians who perform with them,” she said. Other tunes worth listening to include the soft and sweet “Á Primeira Vista” by Chico César, and for a more charged sound, the heart-pumping “A Minha Menina” by Os Mutantes.  

With songs like these, “Brazilian Radio Hour” exposes listeners to something they otherwise might never have heard. 

“There is an excitement and sense of adventure when you can sing or at least hum to a language you don’t know while driving home from work,” Leininger said.