One of the currently most popular music genres in Brazil is what is known as Axé. The genre originated in Salvador (Bahia) in the 1980s, as a fusion of different Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian rhythms. It is intimately related to street carnival in Salvador (and mind you, street carnival in Salvador is not exclusively a February phenomenon!), where bands play on top of trucks (known as ‘trios elétricos’) which keep moving slowly while people frantically dance around. It’s quite an experience, I’m told (I’m ashamed to admit never to have experienced it myself...). In the 1990s, Axé became popular in all corners of the country, and is now certainly one of the most successful genres, commercially speaking. (The wikipedia entry on Axé is pretty good.)
The original idea (the fusion of different Afro-Brazilian genres) is fantastic; Bahia is without a doubt the most ‘African’ region of Brazil, where African heritage is felt everywhere (from music to religion to food), and Axé is a clear manifestation of it. But I have to say that, for the most part, I don’t really like Axé… It’s become an extremely commercial, formulaic and somewhat repetitive genre; in other words, not very sophisticated musically speaking. But it is an integral part of current Brazilian music, so there’s no way around it. And some of it, in particular the early Axé closely related to the Salvador drumming groups such as Olodum and Timbalada, is awesome; the drumbeats are truly overwhelming (see here for a sample). (Important difference: the drumming ensembles do not perform on top of trucks, for the most part, but rather walking around).
So here are two Axé songs I actually (in fact, really) like, two of my favorite songs for the dance-floor at parties: Timbalada with ‘Beija-flor’ and Terra Samba with ‘Liberar geral’ (they are both rather ‘old’, somewhere in the 1990s). Incidentally, ‘Beija-flor’ has also been covered by Marina Lima (whom I talked about here), in a beautiful, delicate version (no drums at all!); do listen to her version too!
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