Bixiga 70

It was an inspirational encounter with Tony Allen that gave Bixiga 70 the idea of putting a Brazilian spin on Afrobeat. On this debut, originally released in 2011, they show their love for the genre, but also how they wanted to make it their own.

Opener ‘Grito de Paz’ starts with a very Afrobeat pattern, sparse percussion and a knotty guitar line creating tension, with the bass soon giving power. In the hands of Fela this tension could be sustained for five minutes or more, but Bixiga 70 erupt at the 45-second mark, waves of brass picking up the beat, with spacey synths and horn solos coming thick and fast as we hit seeming crescendo after crescendo. On the charged-up ‘Balboa da Silva’ with its thumping bassline we get lost in virtuosic percussion, the horns once more escalating the drama; while ‘Tema di Malaika’ is half powerful Ebo Taylor funk and half A Bad Donato psych-jazz badness. From the off, Bixiga 70 compacted Afrobeat and gave it swing with restless percussion, touches of jazz, and lead guitar that is more funk or disco than West African, while their heavy-yet-effortless horn section quite rightly became the most in-demand in São Paulo.