Bahia / Axe Music: the Popular Music of Salvador, Bahia

Brazil's most African city, Salvador, is often called "Bahia" and is itself the capital of Bahia state, in the Northeast. The city and state have produced many of Brazil's great musicians, including João Gilberto, Dorival Caymmi,Gilberto Gil, Novos Baianos, Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, and Maria Bethania. The musical melting pot of Bahia is famous for afoxé groups (like the Filhos de Gandhi), blocos afro (such as Ara Ketu, Olodum and Ilê Aiyê), the amazing dance & martial art capoeira, Afro-Brazilian religion, and the largest "street" Carnaval in Brazil. Bahia's lively axé music mixes samba-reggae, afoxé, frevo, pop, Caribbean styles and other ingredients. It emerged as a new musical category in the '80s, shaped by the blocos afro, Salvador's Carnaval, the trioelétricos, and musicians like Luiz Caldas, Moraes Moreira, Chiclete com Banana, Banda Reflexu's, Gerônimo and Banda Mel. This evolution is traced in The Brazilian Sound. For an update on Bahia's Carnaval, see Bahia's Blocos Afro & Afoxés: Changes in Salvador's Carnaval.

Contemporary Bahian stars include Carlinhos Brown, Virginia Rodrigues, Ivette Sangalo, and Daniela Mercury. Listed below are some of the leading figures in Bahian music, and their CDs that are currently available in North America. For Bahian dance-party music we recommend Olodum, Timbalada, Ara Ketu, Chiclete Com Banana, Daniela Mercury, Ivete Sangalo, and the Axé Music annual samplers. For current innovation, we recommend albums by Carlinhos Brown,Daniela Mercury, and Virginia Rodrigues. You can access capoeira videos, CDs and books in our Capoeira Index. For Afro-Brazilian religions, check Candomblé & Umbanda Books, Candomblé CDs, and the documentary Ile Aiye (The House of Life).