Odara

Although we are not usually fans of Gato Barbieri's later music, which was usually in a pop-oriented direction, we found his version of "Odara" to be quite listenable and occasionally interesting. It would have been better if the lyrics were entirely in Portuguese, but beggars can't be choosers. 

Hermes Trismegisto E Sua Celeste Tábua De Esmeralda

If you know, you know...

Maracatu Atomico

Although the Gil Gilberto version of "Maracatu Atomico" is funkier, the original recording is actually quite good, too. The use of the violin with this funky number actually works rather well. 

Sorrir e cantar como Bahia

E até pode ser baby também

E até pode ser baby também

E até pode ser baby também

E até pode ser baby também

E até pode ser baby também

E até pode ser baby também

E até pode ser baby também

E até pode ser baby também

Tukano Stool

While researching duhos from the South American mainland, we came across this nice video at the BEĨ Collection on the making of a Tukano stool. It's a fascinating process and quite beautiful. A number of the stools in their image collection are also rather remarkable, with intricate designs, animal features, and colors. Perhaps our Taino duhos were similarly vibrant and colorful when they were "new." It is interesting that high-backed stools appear less common among the various indigenous cultures in Brazil. 

Maracatu Atómico

A classic (and funky) number from Gilberto Gil. Brazilian music is close to perfection.

Toda Menina Baiana

A classic from Gilberto Gil we have been listening to repeatedly this week...

Song for Ogunde

A lovely tribute to Ogun, our orisha, from the legendary John Coltrane. Coltrane appears to have based his arrangement of the song on a version harmonized by a Brazilian composer and sung by Bidu Sayão. One can also find a Cuban group performing the song in 1957 with what appears to be different lyrics in Lucumi (Yoruba). Ogun arrives, chief of Ire. I vaguely recall once finding a recording of the same song (or a variation of it) from Dahomey (modern Benin) but was unable to locate it. Fortunately, Yoruba speakers have sought to enlighten us with the actual meaning of the song in its Cuban incarnations. 

Congo

A lovely Brazilian jazz composition in honor of Congo (Nos ancêtres les Congolais). 

Ladeira Da Praça

Descendo no samba a ladeira da praça

Descendo no samba a ladeira da praça

Fly Me To the Moon

In other words...

Lee Konitz & Bossa

We have been searching for a longer, jazzier interpretation of this classic bossa nova for quite some time. Lee Konitz's lyrical style matches it quite well, although this dreamy composition could have been extended over well over 5 minutes. Perhaps a Paul Desmond would have done an even better job with this material. 

Pra Que Discutir Com Madame

Madame diz que o samba tem cachaça, mistura de raça mistura de cor, Madame diz que o samba democrata, é música barata sem nenhum valor, Vamos acabar com o samba, madame não gosta que ninguém sambe Vive dizendo que samba é vexame Pra que discutir com madame.

Doce de Coco #2

Portuguese is the language of light. And even better, this rendition of "Doce de Coco" slows down the tempo and makes it a little easier for the rest of us to sing along.

Lá Vem o Brasil Descendo a Ladeira

This is another one of Moraes Moreira's better songs from his solo career. Not sure why, since it's quite repetitive, but the chorus is infectious. 

Com qualquer dois mil réis

Another classic from Novos Baianos we somehow forgot about. Again they display their mastery of the chorus and infectious melodies we expect from this band. It is unfortunate that after leaving the band, Moraes Moreira seems to have lost some of his magic.

Sempre Cantando

After leaving Novos Baianos, Moraes Moreira continued to produce interesting and entertaining music. Sadly, it often lacks the youthful energy and excellent vocals of the larger Novos Baianos group. However, "Sempre Cantando" manages to be quite catchy and almost match the great choruses of his NB phase. It would have been interesting to hear NB tackle this particular song, maybe with Baby and Moraes Moreira exchanging verses.

Samba da Minha Terra

 

Our ongoing obsession with Brazilian music has brought us back to Novos Baianos, a band we loved back in 2012 and 2013 but forgot about over much of the past decade. They had a a magical run of maybe 3 or 4 great albums and a perfect fusion of Brazilian styles and rock...

Borno in Brazil

Although we here at the blog have been interested in the history of Kanem-Borno and exploring the existence of links between Haiti and that ancient African civilization, it would be foolish to omit the Borno diaspora elsewhere in the Americas. In the case of Brazil, we can thank Francis Comte de Castelnau for his recording of interviews with various West Africans in mid-19th century Bahia. While many were Hausa and other West Africans, a number of his informants on the interior of  Africa were from Borno. Their names were Karo, Damoutourou, Aba-Hama, Suleman, Ali, Mammarou, and Ibrahim. A sketch of one, presumably Mammarou of Mounao (in Borno), appears in the image above, as Figure 1. While the Borno informants had arrived in Brazil at different times and in at least one case was in Brazil for over 30 years, their testimonies provides some context on Borno's turbulent 19th century. The wars with the Fulani, slave raids, tensions with Bagirmi, and their own brutal path to Bahia show the ways in which Borno was integrated into the larger world. 

In the case of Damoutourou, who had been in Brazil over 30 years, and could speak Hausa, Kanuri, "Begharmi" and "Wadei," it's possible he did not know of the fall of the Sayfawa dynasty. Karo, from Angoumati, another "Bernou" in Bahia, provides information of a fantastic sort on the so-called Niam-Niam cannibals. Mammarou, of Mounao, on the other hand, was a soldier who had traveled around Borno and its environs. Last, but certainly not least, Ibrahim of Borno claimed to have traveled to the east on the Mecca Route. He also claimed to have seen people who were cannibals in the lands south of Darfur....which probably goes to show how some Bornoans exaggerated and promoted tales of cannibals or humans with tails to gullible outsiders. Son of a Borno father and Hausa mother, Ibrahim's life is an additional example of the various ways in which the peoples of Borno were tied to their neighbors and beyond, from West Africa to the Red Sea. 

The other Africans interviewed by de Castelnau were not from Borno, but provide a number of details about it. Aboubakar of Bagirmi, for example, saw his homeland as a tributary of Borno. Born in Massenya, the capital, he knew of the eastern routes through Waday, Darfur, and "Zambulma." As one of the central lands on east-west "Sudanic" route that went from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea, people from Baghirmi were well-situated to know of and encounter various African peoples, especially people from Borno who passed through en route to Sudan, Egypt, and Mecca. Oddly, Aboubakar did not recognize words like Kordofan, Abyssinia, or Nubia, perhaps reflecting unfamiliarity with terms not used in Baghirmi for eastern lands.

So, Brazil is definitely on the list of places with connections to Borno. While we have a lot of work to do before one can attempt an analysis of the experiences of "Borno" Africans in Bahia or other parts of the Latin American nation, they were clearly not alone among Muslims living in the region. Perhaps more were in Bahia and the Northeast than any in Rio de Janeiro, and they presumably participated in the cultural and religious community of African Muslims. We suspect that they may have joined hands with Hausa and Muslim Yoruba in the 1835 uprising, and perhaps in acts of marronage. If events in Saint Domingue were analogous, there may have been group activities tied to marronage and slave resistance that united the "Borno" Africans with their Hausa, Fulani, and Bagirmi "foes" and friends in Brazil.

Hó Bá Lá Lá

 

Two minutes of pure bliss from a classic of bossa nova.