This is the second 7” single of the Turma da Bênção project by Conjunto Angola 70 & Paulo Flores. Botto was the guitar player for Os Bongos and played with Os Kiezos, Carlos Burity, Paulo Flores, Semba Tropical etc. He is called the living soul of Angolan guitar.
To explore the musical connections of Angola & Brazil, we asked Tahira to spice up the session. Tahira says he listened to “Memoria De Gui” for hours when we sent him the album to choose a track. ‘I love the way Botto plays the guitar, so beautiful. It made me think of the Ciranda rhythms, a style of music from the northeast of Brazil. It is usually more raw and bass driven. Not much instruments and melody. We added the great Botto touch to this traditional rhythm from Brazil.’
Brasil Novo is a compilation made up of eight contemporary Afro-Brazillian tracks disseminating the rich and percussive heritage of Brasil and Samba De Coco. The compilation was compiled by Sao Paolo’s DJ Tahira and London’s Tim Garcia and flits between Samba, Candomble, Batuques, Jazz, Folk and beyond, all selected with the dancefloor in mind.
Some of the tracks have never before been released on vinyl like Dona Celia Coquista’s ‘O Bar’ and the live version of Toró Instrumentals ‘Dunas’, and the release also features tracks from Grupo Bongar, Renata Rosa and women’s Afro Bloco, Ilú Obá De Min.
The compilation has so far been supported by the likes of Gilles Peterson and Jamz Supernova (BBC 6 Music) Lopa Kothari (BBC Radio 3) and Zakia (NTS) and many more.
