11 | September | 2010 | World Music Boston

Archive for September 11, 2010

Get into the High Spirit of Brazilian Carnaval with Olodum: September 19th, Sunday @ 8:00 p.m.

Make sure you check out the full series of CrashArts concerts for the season which features many top world artists.

Named after the Yoruban deity Olodumare, Olodum hails from the heavily Afro-Brazilian city of Salvador, located in the Brazilian state of Bahai. It is an established fact that attending one of their performances is a lot like actually spending an evening at carnaval in Brazil! This highly accomplished, internationally renowned ensemble, who is known for the development of their very own widely popular style of Afro-Brazilian music, is celebrating their 3oth anniversary this year. The group’s sound is predominantly percussive, which explains their complex and heightened sense of rhythm. Add to this an emotionally charged vocal section, further accompanied by brass, keyboards and guitar, and you have the complete package that is Olodum. Oh yeah, lest I forget, there are dancers too! Back home, the band has been known to appear at carnaval with a full regimen of approximately 200 percussionists and singers accompanied by thousands more appearing in costume. Whoa!!!

Olodum was founded in 1979 by the infamous Neguinho do Samba. It began as a typical “blocos afro”. These groups are formed to give Afro-Brazilian youth the opportunity to indulge in their native culture, mostly with respect to music, with the hope that they will eventually take pride in their original heritage. On a broader scale, these cultural organizations also stand for racial equality and social justice. From its humble beginnings Neguinho, a virtuoso percussionist, took the group to extraordinary musical heights, eventually developing the genre of samba reggae which is today the predominant music style of Bahian carnaval. Samba reggae is a combination of traditional blocos afro music which is characteristically African in nature and merengue, salsa, and reggae. Olodum, despite their fame, has ever remained a regular participant in carnaval celebrations back home, always carrying a message of Afro-Brazilian oriented racial or social reform to their audiences with each performance. In fact, they take their role in this process so seriously, that they have sponsored many non-music events in order to further support this all important cause.

Among the band’s many accomplishments, they have performed in 35 countries across the globe and recorded over 20 cds to date. They have also appeared with a lengthy roster of international stars including: Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Simone, Daniela Mercury, Jimmy Cliff, Sadao Wantanabe, Spike Lee, Herbie Hancock, and Butabaruka. If you’re looking for a true taste of carnaval, the #1 celebration throughout Brazil, then I highly recommend that you spend and evening with Olodum and catch some samba fever!