| 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).
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