Brazilian music is known for its vast influences from Africa, but how about Afrobeat? Well, the slaves that brought African music to Brazil were deported from their homeland until one century before Fela Kuti and Tony Allen invented the explosive mixture of Jazz, Funk, Soul and African rhythms. In the late 60ies Brazilian musicians were looking much more to the US and Europe and there was not much more than Gilberto Gil in the 70ies and then Nação Zumbi in the 90ies that got inspired by West-African Afrobeat. But there is a very interesting recording before that time: The song “Liberdade” from Orquestra Afro-Brasileiro (1957) has amazing similarities with “Shenshema” by Fela Kuti. Their whole album “Obaluaye!” is a surprising mixture of jazzy arrangements and African rhythms that by that time was very innovative as African percussion was regarded to be “barbaric” whereas piano and saxophone were “civilized” instruments.
Since a few years the Afrobeat revival reached Brazil too and well known artists like MPB singer Vanessa da Mata, rapper Criolo or Céu use elements from Afrobeat in their music and there is a bunch of other artists doing so as well that are less known internationally. And with Bixiga 70 and the Abayomy Afrobeat Orchestra Brazil has at least two bands dedicated to play Afrobeat at full power.
Tracklist:
01. André Abujamra – Origem
02. BNegão & Os Seletores De Frequência – Bass Do Tambô
03. A Roda – 26
04. Afroelectro – Padinho
05. Abayomy Afrobeat Orquestra – Eru
06. Bixiga 70 – Tema Di Malaika
07. Rodrigo Campos – Sou de Salvador
08. Lucas Santtana – Músico
09. Pipo Pegoraro – Sofia
10. Tonho Crocco – Abre-Alas (O Carro Destemido)
11. Rabujah – O Que Meu Samba Tem
12. André Sampaio & Os Afro Mandinga – Bumaye
13. Anelis Assumpção – Sonhando
