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May, 2016.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Ten colorfully clothed musicians with large contagious smiles have just taken to the stage in Pra\u00e7a da Rep\u00fablica, one of the main squares of downtown S\u00e3o Paulo. By late afternoon, Thousands of people have gathered, waiting for a free concert, an opportune event that may help cure the hangover resulting from the recent impeachment of former labour-socialist president Dilma Roussef, now substituted by Michel Temer. But as everyone already knows: the latter, an old white man, is all rigor, conservatism and violence against any person that does not fall into (his) line \u2013 Blacks, trans, gays, feminists, the favelas\u2019 poor inhabitants\u2026 By the evening, an extravagant young person shares cacha\u00e7a shots and beer bottles, sold by dozens of merchants equipped with DIY trolleys \u2013 not your average food truck, but one made up of bicycle wheels, supermarket trolleys and old wooden boards found on the street, that sometimes resemble open air junkyards than clean pavements. One thing for sure is that S\u00e3o Paulo knows well is how to combine order and chaos, luxury and misery, privilege-based hierarchy and a DIY survival system. People make do as they can to cope with this larger-than-life confusing situation. That night, on stage, Bixiga 70\u2019s odd afrobeat was a true release valve for deep and long-lasting social pressures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n October, 2018.<\/strong><\/span> Ten colorfully clothed musicians with large contagious smiles on their faces have just taken over the record shops worldwide, comfortably seated from their S\u00e3o Paulo studio. Their latest record is an opportunity that may help cure the heavy hangover resulting from the recent results of the Brazilian presidential elections\u2019 first round. Jair Bolsonaro, an ex-colonel and nostalgic of a military dictatorship and promoter of a fascist and authoritarian ideology, is well in the lead with an unbelievable vote of 46%. And everyone knows: if he ever wins the second round, the severe policies initiated by his predecessor would likely increase, and the social chaos would soon turn into a civil war. The latent conflict will call for new militias of solidarity and democracy. Would music then still be brought to sooth the souls? Bixiga 70\u2019s sound appears to meet all the requirements. \u201cWhat we put on top of [the African influence] is essentially the urban music of S\u00e3o Paulo\u201d, they say\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span>Quebra Cabe\u00e7a<\/span><\/i>. \u201cThis city is a huge influence on us. It has that sense of urgency, always running to catch up. It\u2019s expensive, and services are awful, with so much pollution and violence. But it\u2019s our home and it was developed through migration. Bixiga is where people come first of all. It\u2019s always had that influx; it\u2019s the story of S\u00e3o Paulo in miniature form.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n By continuously absorbing their everyday life in a cosmopolitan city, the band relays the voices of communities that advocate the great and precious variety of Brazil\u2019s society, largely shaped by the culture of African slaves and their descendants, altered through the contact of a new territory. Their recent collaborations with Ghanean singer Pat Thomas and Nigerian saxophonist Orlando Julius illustrate this spirit.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the very beginning, what we have always had in common is African-Brazilian music,\u201d explains baritone sax player and flutist Cuca Ferreira. \u201cSome of us come from candombl\u00e9 (the African-Caribbean religion), others from jazz, reggae, dub, everything. The whole idea of the band has been to take all these different elements that\u00a0make us, from Africa and Brazil, and create a hybrid form from them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A hybrid form. Here may lay the essential piece of Bixiga 70\u2019s \u201cpuzzle\u201d, which might also be the essential approach for the transformation of Brazilian society into an egalitarian land, ruled by justice. For everyone. A true puzzle…<\/span><\/p>\n Listen to\u00a0Bixiga 70’s\u00a0Quebra Cabe\u00e7a<\/em>\u00a0(Glitterbeat Records<\/a>) here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n“Bixiga is the story of S\u00e3o Paulo in miniature form.”<\/span><\/h4>\n
This Brazilian afrobeat band is a 10-member gang that have stepped onto stages worldwide since 2010 with their first rehearsals in Bixiga, a cosmopolitan neighborhood in downtown S\u00e3o Paulo. Fascinated by the musical fusion of the Nigerian master Fela Kuti, the musicians paid him a tribute with the \u201c70\u201d that punctuates their name. But far from only imitating and appropriating the music they\u2019ve listened to and played for years, they have patiently composed the countless sonic pieces of this \u201cpuzzle\u201d \u2013 \u201cquebra cabe\u00e7a\u201d deploys games that require patience, dexterity and observation \u2013 whose background ambience is of the urban sounds of the wild megalopolis they stride across everyday, and also in tune with the city\u2019s developments in electronic music, a novelty in the big band\u2019s sonic signature.<\/span><\/p>\nRead next:\u00a0\u2018Boca de Lobo\u2019: a walk into the wolf\u2019s den with Criolo\u2019s last video about Brazil\u2019s social emergency<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n