DJ Tahira and Tim Garcia bring together samba, candomblé, batuques, jazz and folk for contemporary Brazilian dancefloor rarities with a lead track from Dona Celia Conquista.
UK label Musica Macondo place their focus on contemporary Brazilian and African diaspora on Brasil Novo, an eight track compilation of discovery, snare and tamborim heavy, showcasing both celebrated and unfamiliar artists south of the equator from the cities of Recife, Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
DJs and co-curators Tahira (Sao Paulo) and Tim Garcia (London) dig deep into the troves, avoiding mainstream Brazilian popular music cliches, and also giving a sense of what fuels their dancefloors and radio sets. It was their joint passion for record collecting, Djing and ‘the dance’ which not surprisingly, brought these two leading figures within their respective scenes and cities together. The selection also includes tracks by Grupo Bongar, Renata Rosa and women’s Afro Bloco, Ilú Obá De Min.
For the first track the duo includes a piece from Dona Celia Coquista or Dona Celia do Coco as some people called her. She was a singer from Pernambuco who released only one album Nasci Com Dois Dentes in 2007 despite being an enormously important proponent of Samba De Coco for many years. She sadly passed 4 years later in 2011. The track “O Bar” features a plethora of local and native percussion instruments and a call and answer harmony of uplifting choir, a cacophony of positivity.
Pre-order Brasil Novo here out May 13th.
Listen to “O Bar” in our Songs of the Week playlist on Spotify and Deezer.
