Musidanças 06 (2006)

A rare (and great) collection of lusophone music from Portugal, Brasil, Mozambique, Capo Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinée-Bissau and Angola.

«A Sara Tavares um dia lançou-me o desafio. Porque não fazer uma compilação com a participação de artistas que actuariam no Festival Musidanças desse ano.
Desafio feito, desafio aceite e assim em 2006 surge este CD Musidanças, que mostra a música de alguns dos muitos projectos da música do mundo lusofono que proliferam aqui em Portugal.
Os artistas cederam uma música dos seus CDs do momento, o Cláudio Silva masterizou, a Elsa Escaja fez o design da capa do CD e foi editado pela Zoomusica (MML) etiqueta dedicada á música do mundo lusofono.» (Firmino Pascoal, Zoomusica)

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Angola 70's - 1972-1973 (2000)

More on the amazing Angolan scene of the early 1970s.

«Someone at Buda Musique knows how to do these historical surveys of a nation's popular music legacy right, if the ongoing Ethiopiques series [very soon on these screens…] and now this five-CD series on Angola are any indication. Angolan pop music in the '60s became an affirmation of national and African identity in the face of severe repression from Portuguese colonial authorities – we're talking concentration camp stays for major musicians here – and the root forms had coalesced into a new, distinctly Angolan mix by the 1970s. Both '70s discs share the same major singers and backing bands (Jovens do Prenda, Os Kiezos, Ngoma Jazz) and are the highlights of the series, but Angola 70's: 1972-1973 is probably the better starting point. The first recording studios in Angola had just opened in 1969 so the sound quality isn't always the greatest, but the music is upbeat, full of exuberance and the promise of life with independence on the horizon. The blues-drenched saudade of Pedrito's "Ngalenga Kubata," Arthur Adriano's acoustic "Belita," and Bonga's "Balumukeno" serve as counterpoint. Lourdes Van Dunem's opening "Ngogngo Ya Biluka" is light and lilting, but the dominant style here is semba, driven by feathery guitar melodies, a sprightly antidote to Césaria Évora's downbeat morna.

Semba rocks the rhumba in a more Caribbean or Brazilian way than the Congolese soukous factory next door, and it's probably no coincidence that the name is just one vowel removed from samba, or that songs by Gambuzinos, David Zé, and Urbano de Castro lean that way. Dionisio Rocha begins to up the tempo and electric ante to excellent effect, and Manuel Faria dips into the saudade tip with active percussion and a vague rhumba feel. But the Congolese connection arrives full force on the next four tracks – Os Kiezos' "Milhorró" shines behind Marito's crystalline lead guitar, Super Coba pits tart horns against light voices on the very strong "Finpantima," Cabinda Ritmos leans on a riff close to "La Bamba" for "Celestina," and Ngoma Jazz really nails the exuberant galloping soukous rhythm with nice lead guitar licks on "Belita Kiri-Kiri." Interesting oddities like the very '60s organ swirls from Africa Show pop up, but it's appropriate that this compilation ends with Artur Nunes' muted, sad "Tia." The very thorough liner notes paint the social and cultural context for the music, one that includes the sobering reminders that the country's best-known figure, Bonga, has lived in exile since the '70s and Zé, de Castro, and Nunes all died during the post-independence factional infighting, military rebellion, and civil war of mid-'70s Angola. Can't help but make you think about what might have been, but at least some of the music they made passing through has been revisited on Angola 70's: 1972-1973.» (Don Snowden, AMG)

For another fine release in this series, this time concerning the 1990s Angolan scene, check my friend Alonsii's blog, L'ARBRE DE LES 1000 MUSIQUES.

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Bonga - Angola 72 (1972)

A masterpiece from Angola. Enjoy! R.

«Jose Adelino Barcelo de Carvalho aka Bonga Kwenda was Portuguese champion on 400 metres for Benfica at the time Angola was still a part of the Portuguese colonial empire, a situation that lasted until 1975. Bonga Kwenda was born in 1943 in Kipri to the North of Luanda in Angola of a Congolese mother and an Angolan father. In the sixties, when independence time was coming near, Bonga like some other young people of his generation, began to compose and sing in the capital city, Luanda, where he was studying. But the Portuguese colonial authorities didn't appreciate the young singers who expressed a culture typically Angolan, and Bonga went into exile in Rotterdam, Holland. The Capeverdean community of the city was already significant: men worked on the docks or for the Heineken brewery, women did domestic works. This community had its restaurants, bars, its Saturday night or Sunday afternoon dances. They were places where you put the world to rights, dreaming of independence, of the return home, and where you remembered with nostalgia and heartbreak your relatives who've stayed home.

Naturally, Bonga hung out with the Rotterdam Capeverdean musicians and he recorded with them on the Morabeza label his first record Angola 72, which is still considered as one of the most interesting albums of modern African music. It was a mix of original and traditional compositions, in which Bonga sang of the tough life reality of the Angolans under the colonial domination, the poorness, the shantytowns... Then, after another recording in 74, it was finally time for Independence, the return home and the beginning of one the most prolific career for an African artist.
Recording album after album, Bonga became a star, all over Africa and in Portugal, giving the audience a dancing and lively music. However, despite his magical voice, Bonga didn't really charm the buffs of the world-music scene. The album Mulemba Xangola which is reviving the magic of the Angola 72 album and the dancing atmosphere of his Portuguese career seemed to change that. 2000 was the year of a new beginning for Bonga.» (The Leopard Man's African Music Guide – also in Norsk version)

«Bercée par des rythmes chaloupés inspirés parfois de l’énergie du soukouss, la voix éraillée de Bonga porte des paroles imprégnées de la mélancolie d’un peuple floué. Né en 1943 à Kipiri, le maître du semba a toujours milité contre le colonialisme et le domination portugaise. Très jeune, il décide de changer son nom trop colonial, (José Adelino Barcelo) pour un nom plus africain : Bonga Kuenda. Il vit dans la banlieue pauvre de Luanda où émerge un nouveau mouvement artistique qui cherche à retrouver l’histoire et le culture de l’Angola. Le père de Bonga qui est accordéoniste, l’intègre dans son groupe. Le jeune homme joue de la dikanzas, un morceau de bambou sur lequel on frappe, très subversif car symbole d’un retour aux racines africaines. Alors que dans tout le pays, le semba, rythme clandestin, retrouve un nouveau souffle, Bonga monte son propre groupe qu’il appelle « Kissueia », la misère des quartiers pauvres en Kimbundu.

En 1966, athlète et footballeur, il s’exile au Portugal, s’installe à Lisbonne et poursuit son combat politique. C’est à Rotterdam, où il est contraint de fuir, qu’il sort son premier album européen Angola 72 devenu depuis un classique. Bonga a sorti depuis des dizaines de disques, enchaînant les tubes planétaires, dont «Mona ki n’gui xica» porté aux oreilles du public français par la BO de «Chacun cherche son chat», et les concerts où la chaleur de sa musique prend toute son ampleur. Incontestablement il aime, pousser son public à se déhancher et l’entraîne avec lui dans un fièvre qui ne connaît d’autre remède que la danse.» (Tv5)

Biografia en portugués: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonga

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