Official video of the single “Embira” from the album “+ 100”, by Casuarina with special participation by Geraldo Azevedo.

Created in September, 2001, Casuarina is one of the top groups of Rio de Janeiro’s new samba and choro scene. Formed by Daniel Montes (7 string guitar), Gabriel Azevedo (percussion and vocal), João Cavalcanti (percussion and vocal), João Fernando (mandolin and vocal)and Rafael Freire (cavaquinho and vocal), the group is part of a generation which, lacking the influence of the more traditional and representative part of Brazilian popular music, started by listening, searching, researching, and consuming the sambas that one day gave Brazilian music its own identity, the same sambas that for long were becoming exponentially disregarded.

This new generation of musicians, producers, and admirers of the samba and the chorinho brought back the taste of the Brazilian people to the rhythms. New monothematic groups and, inspired on the work of genius composers, started to present set lists that were already part of our subconscious, with new arrangements and production. Rio’s neighborhood, Lapa, a meeting place for bohemians within the first half of the twentieth century, was once again the place to be if one was looking for cold beers and long nights to the quality sound of songs by Cartola, Jacob do Bandolim, Chico Buarque, Nelson Cavaquinho, Ataulfo Alves, Ary Barroso, Zé Keti, Waldir Azevedo, Nei Lopes, and so many other creators, ancient, and modern artists.

Leading these group of “bambas”, Casuarina performed (and keeps performing) many important venues, not only on the neighborhood, but throughout Rio, like Ballroom, Carioca da Gema, Rio Scenarium, Fundição Progresso, Dama da Noite, and Circo Voador, disregarding great events like, projeto Roda de Samba and the 2003 and 2004 Carnavais, at Lapa – both promoted by the state of Rio – and also the 2004 edition of Samba no Trem, uniting the best there is on the genre to celebrate the Dia Nacional do Samba (national day of samba in Brazil), December 2nd. During their live performances, Casuarina already had very special guests like Arlindo Cruz, Wilson Moreira, Lenine, Walter Alfaiate, Noca da Portela, Délcio Carvalho, Luis Carlos da Vila, Marquinhos de Oswaldo Cruz, and not to mention the bateria da Portela and Imperatriz Leopoldinense.

From the album Remain In Light, an Angelique Kidjo’s reinvention of the Talking Heads iconic album. Produced by Jeff Bhasker, the film was created/directed by 25 year old Antoine Paley, a student at Luc Besson’s Cité Du Cinema film school.

“In the 1970s, under the dictatorship in my home country of Benin, it was really difficult to find music to listen to from the rest of the world.” — Angelique Kidjo

When I went into exile in Paris in 1983, I discovered so much new music, and among them was the song “Once In A Lifetime”. Initially, it felt strange to me. People said it was Rock and Roll, but it felt African somehow. When I performed in New York in 1992 at SOB’s, David Byrne was the first American artist to come see my show. Many years later, I discovered that Brian Eno and The Talking Heads had been influenced by Fela Kuti and studied John Miller Chernoff’s book African Rhythm and African Sensibility about the power of African music.

“Once In A Lifetime” was released at the start of the Reagan presidency, and you feel the anguish and anger in its lyrics. I feel the same tension in today’s political climate. Bringing “Once In A Lifetime” back to the African continent, with the help of superstar producer Jeff Bhasker, Black Panther’s percussionist Magatte Sow and guitarist Dominic James, feels so right today.

North American listeners have been introduced to the music of the British-born multi-instrumentalist, writer and vocalist, Joanna Wallfisch. She has regaled her audiences from New York to Los Angeles with her genre-bending music on stage and on three albums including the celebrated Gardens In My Mind (Sunnyside, 2016), which featured pianist Dan Tepfer and the Sacconi Quartet – the latter providing a string backdrop to the silken-voiced modern-day troubadour who is as likely to front a group of celebrated musicians as she is to accompany herself on a baritone, or a long-neck soprano ukulele.

Since then, however, life happened to Joanna Wallfisch. And true to form she responded by making her most personal album to date. Due to be launched on the 1st of February, 2018, Blood & Bone features fourteen beautifully crafted songs of beguiling variety and sensuousness, in every lovingly-crafted phrase voiced by Miss Wallfisch. This is quintessential heart-music by a vocalist who seems to have connected with the deepest recesses of her being emerging into brightness again with songs of haunting beauty. Listening to the way Miss Wallfisch seductively bends notes and sculpts phrases it is clear that there’s not a single lyrical word or note that hasn’t been fastidiously considered.

Magically, however, sometimes spontaneity breaks out seemingly from out of nowhere and it is with one of these effervescent songs that Joanna Wallfisch has chosen to preview the music that is on its way, on the album that will hit the shelves on the 1st of February. That song is “Bo Ba Bo” which was written in February 2016 just before Miss Wallfisch was due to travel to Mumbai, India to volunteer as a choir director with Songbound, a charity that focuses on bringing music education to some of the poorest children in India. In Mumbai, Joanna Wallfisch found that the wordless, playful shape of the chorus was a hit with the 200+ children she was working with.

“These children were from extreme backgrounds. Some were children of prostitutes, some were mentally and physically abused since birth and some were very sick in the cancer unit and others lived in conditions you could barely imagine,” said Miss Wallfisch, however, the music was their solace. “During the choir lessons everything fell away. The music was their joy, their peace, their life… I have never experienced music in such a powerful way,” she added. “Bo Ba Bo”, featuring the voices of the children of the Songbound Choir of Mumbai, is a spellbinding and prolific testament to the power of music.