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Sunday, March 20, 2016

068° .MELODIAS DA UMBANDA - Afro-Brazilian melodies selected by LesMainsNoires.

I used to say that Brazil is Africa’s little sister. As a matter of fact, It is really impressing to see how African roots are present basically everywhere in Brazilian traditional and popular culture. Throughout the country’s five centuries of history, those roots has evolved, being blended with other cultures, other influences, result of the encounter between African slaves, European settlers and Natives.
This mix of influences over several culture is called syncretism.
Actually, the notion of syncretism is usually used for religion. And the Brazilian religion par excellence is the Umbanda, which blends African traditions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and South Americans Natives beliefs.
The compilation that we are presenting to you now is a collection of early recordings (1930-1957) resulting of Umbanda’s tradition, sometime authorial, some of those tracks are also sometime exact retranscription of Umbanda’s praise and invocation - named Ponto - to specific Orixás.

I used to say that Brazil is Africa’s little sister. As a matter of fact, It is really impressing to see how African roots are present basically everywhere in Brazilian traditional and popular culture. Throughout the country’s five centuries of history, those roots has evolved, being blended with other cultures, other influences, result of the encounter between African slaves, European settlers and Natives. This mix of influences over several culture is called syncretism.

Actually, the notion of syncretism is usually used for religion. And the Brazilian religion par excellence is the Umbanda, which blends African traditions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and South Americans Natives beliefs. The African roots of Umbanda are direct descendant of Beninese Vodun, Nigerian Yoruba and Angolan Candomblé. This last is also very present in Brazil since the arrival of the first African slaves until today while Umbanda emerged in the early XXth century.
Umbanda has many branches, each one with a different set of beliefs and practices. A common beliefs are the existence of deities called Orixás, most of them syncretised with Catholic saints that act as divine energy and forces of nature.

The compilation that we are presenting to you now is a collection of rare and early recordings (1930-1957) resulting of Umbanda’s tradition. Sometime authorial, some of those tracks are also sometime exact retranscription of Umbanda’s praise and invocation - named Ponto - to specific Orixás.
While in Umbanda’s rituals and ceremonies those Pontos are sung by the faithfuls backed by the percussions of the Atabaque, an Afro-Brazilian percussion, the tracks presented here are all adapted with the musical influences of the period they’ve been recorded, blended with string arrangements, horns, cavaco and more.

So now, enough talking, just play the play button and enjoy the wonderful Afro-Brazilian music!


001° MEIA NOITE // J.B. de Carvalho (Antenor Borges - Príncipe Pretinho) Ponto de macumba - 1939
002° Ê RÊ RÊ // J.B. de Carvalho (J.B. de Carvalho - Rossini Pacheco) Batuque - 1953
003° OGUM MEGÊ // J.B. de Carvalho (J.B. de Carvalho - Zé Ferreira) Ponto - 1957
004° RAINHA DO MAR // Ataulfo Alves (Ataulfo Alves) Macumba - 1957
005° BAGÉ // J.B. de Carvalho c. Conjunto Tupy (Raimundo Ferreira - Odilon Carvalho) Maracatu - 1938
006° SÃO BENEDICTO É ORO SÓ // Motta da Motta (Motta da Motta) Jongo - 1930
007° YEMANJÁ // Heitor dos Prazeres (Heitor dos Prazeres) Ponto de Macumba - 1954
008° QUEM TÁ DE RONDA? // Francisco Senna com os Diabos do Céo (Principe Pretinho) Macumba - 1935
009° SEREIA // João da Bahiana (João da Bahiana - Getúlio Marinho "Amor") Macumba - 1938
010° MÃE D'AGUA // J.B. de Carvalho (Amado Régis - J B. de Carvalho) Macumba 1953
011° ARUANDA // Jorge Fernandes (Jorge Fernandes - Léo Peracchi) Curimba - 1955
012° MEUS ORIXAS // Francisco Senna com os Diabos do Céo (Gastão Viana) Macumba - 1935
013° CANTO A IEMANJÁ // J.B. de Carvalho (Amorim Roxo - Nelinho) Batuque lamento - 1956
014° CANGIRA // J.B. de Carvalho (Paulo Rodrigues - Valdir Machado) Macumba - 1953
015° ABALUAIÊ // George Fernandes (Waldemar Henrique) Ponto de ritual - 1950

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