For their first Afro-Brazilian compilation the German label Jazz & Milk teamed up with Tahira, one of São Paulo’s most active DJs and music collectors. Levanta Poeira (AfroBrazilian music & rhythms from 1976 – 2016) highlights a few of his favourite DJ pearls and encompasses Brazil’s various regional musical styles influenced by African and Amerindian forms.
While most foreign music lovers tend to approach Brazilian music by having American music genres such as Jazz, Soul, Funk, Disco as a reference, Tahira’s personal wish was to showcase the rich musical roots and facets of his country by featuring carefully selected artists and bands from the past 4 decades. Along with being incremental in bringing Afrobeat to Brazil, Tahira has been a tireless advocate for Afrobrazilian and Amerindian sounds, you can listen to him go into detail about his work with Tim Garcia here:
Tahira is a well known character and good soul of São Paulo’s music and digging community, regularly searching through record shops, private collections or dusty attics around the country. The passionate DJ dedicated the past four years extensively researching Brazil’s broader spectrum of musical styles and slowly started to introduce more and more African and indigenous elements in his DJ sets.
Encouraged by the great acceptance and success during his shows he decided to curate his first compilation project to share his discoveries with the world. “Levanta Poeira” is a popular Brazilian expression meaning “kick up dust.” This is a phenomenon that can be found throughout the country, a cultural manifestation that exists where people gather to play, dance and party. Earth is hit by the foot of the dancers raising a cloud of dust. It is a sign that the heat of the Brazilian spirit is present!
Most of these tracks will be made available on vinyl for the very first time with Tahira’s “Toda Menina Baiana” remix plus tracks from Barbatuques, MagaBo and Renata Rosa all getting first pressings. The Compilation also features beautiful pieces from Georgete da Mocidade and Banda de Pífanos de Caruaru.
We’re incredibly excited to premiere a wonderfully deep piece from Renata Rosa, a contemporary artist that blends sounds of the northeast area of Brazil in a very unique way. On “Brilhantina” her indigenous influenced voice fits wisely to the Samba de Coco rhythms. It’s an outstanding track from the beginning to the end and a good example of how powerful and bass-heavy percussion-driven music from Brazil can sound these days. Renata Rosa manages to present Brazil’s musical roots in a modern guise, celebrating widely unknown facets of Brazilian music culture.
“Levanta Poeira” will be released on Jazz & Milk on the 23rd February, you can order your copy here.