David Dalle
Thursday July 18th, 2019 with David Dalle
A journey to the city of Belem in northeastern Brazil and the incredible music and nightlife of the 1970's. Farewell to Johnny Clegg. Senegalese Sourakata Koite.

On today's show we will take an extensive journey to the city of Belem in the Northeastern Brazilian state of Para courtesy of the fabulous new compilation from Analog Africa "Jambu Os Miticos Sons da Amazonia" which covers a particularly captivating time in Brazilian popular music centered in Belem from 1974-1986. The most well known music style of Para, Carimbo, though dating back to the 17th century, was the basis of an electrified popular music spearheaded by the Brazilian musician Pinduca in the 1970's. It also incorporated a lot of influences from the Caribbean and Columbia (in a sub-genre known as Lambada) and was the beat to a very active nightlife full of live music and competing bands during the 1970's and early 80's when Belem was enjoying an enormous economic boon. A lot of fantastic music was captured and released locally on lps, and the team from Analog Africa spent several years since 2014 scouring Belem for this old music, as well as meeting and recording the reminiscences of many of the now elderly musicians from this era, including an 87 year old Pinduca. The 19 tracks released on the compilation reflect the variety and energy of this golden decade in the music of Belem. An absolutely astounding release! We also say farewell too soon to one of the most influential musicians of my youth, Johnny Clegg, who died Tuesday only 66 years old. As a child, "Scatterlings of Africa" was my first introduction to African music and you cannot overestimate the importance it had on my musical development. He was also a dedicated anti-Apartheid champion and proponent for racial integration.