Aguidavi do Jêje

Slaves from present-day Nigeria, Benin and Togo brought Candomblé to Bahia (Brazil) where it thrived, developing into Afro-Brazilian ceremonies performed for Yoruba deities called orixás. This album was recorded live at Terreiro do Bogum in the heart of Salvador, ‘one of Brazil’s oldest Candomblé houses,’ where the sacred rhythms of Jêje (originating from the kingdom of Dahomey) are preserved. If you’re interested in Brazilian percussion, this is a feast for your ears, 18 percussionists play the agogô (a double cowbell), the shekere (a dried gourd with beads), the rum (a tall hand drum) and many others, all working in syncopation with complex rhythms accompanied by chants and a berimbau or a deceptively simple melody plucked from a Bahian ‘handmade gourd guitar’, as can be heard on ‘Violão de Cabaça’, with the participation of ex-minister of culture Gilberto Gil. Gil is of course renowned for his part in reviving Filhos de Gandhi, a carnival bloco which managed to repopularise Yoruba rhythms and culture in the Salvador carnival, thereby strengthening its African identity. The samba ‘Salve os Caboclos’ is a particularly stirring singalong, celebrating the various unsung grafters of Brazil: the seamen, the cowboys, the small-time diamond merchants, all to the guitar of Carlinhos Sete Cordas.