The 23rd edition of World Tour (on air 7/13/2011) was a Lusophonic extravaganza, starting in Brazil and wafting eastwards across the Atlantic to Angola and Cape Verde. The music of each of these countries has echoed to the influences of the others.
Starting off with Lucas Santtana, born in Bahia (the most African of Brazilian states) in 1970, a musician who is both daringly innovative and respectful of Brazilian traditional genres. He has worked with all the Brazilian greats, it seems. In 1993, he was invited to join Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil on tour for the album Tropicália 2. His solo career started in 2000, with the album Eletro Ben Dodô, followed in 2003 by Parada de Lucas. He also played a part in albums by Chico Science and Nação Zumbi, Marisa Monte, Fernanda Abreu, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, as well as having songs recorded by Marisa Monte, Fernanda Abreu and Arto Lindsay.
In 2009 Lucas Santtana produced his forth album, Sem Nostalgia on the label Mais Um Discos. All the sounds in Sem Nostalgia were produced using only acoustic guitars and voices. Check out the track played on the show and the turbo-charged energy of the video: "Super Violao Mashup." And just to illustrate that Lucas has a soft side, listen to his lilting ballad "Mensagem de Amor" - from the album Eletro Ben Dodo - with the lyrics:
"Solidao."
Jair do Cavaquinho took the name of the instrument that made him famous - a four-string guitar well-known in the Samba tradition of Brazil and the Semba traditional of Lusophonic Africa. A member of Portelo since he was 7, Jair do Cavaquinho wrote "Meu Barracão de Zinco," the samba which made him famous outside his community when it was chosen to represent the samba school in 1962. On the show, we have "Doce Na Feira" - and here's "Pecadora." from the double album Roda da Samba by the collective known as A Voz do Morro.
Marisa Monte has worked with many other artists - from Brazil and further afield. Along with Carlinhos Brown, she collaborated with Angolan singer Bonga on the track "Mulemba Xangola"" for the AIDS benefit compilation Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon released in 1999.
Before he was Angola's best-known singer, Bonga was a star athlete. But his opposition to Portuguese colonial rule meant a life of itinerant exile. It was in the unlikely setting of Rotterdam that he recorded the seminal Angola 72 and adopted the name Bonga Kwenda. While in Europe, Bonga met other Portuguese-speaking musicians and adopted the sounds of Samba.
Bonga 's 2003 album Kaxexe finds him extolling the virtues of semba (Angola's version of samba) - his gruff voice complimenting the percolating rhythms and melodic guitar of the genre. 'Kaxexe" means 'En Cachette' in French, which means 'secretly' in English.
Semba’s roots run deep in the traditions of the Angolan people. It was originally used to celebrate harvests, weddings, and births. When Angola came under the colonial control of Portugal in the sixteenth century, many Angolans were enslaved and sent overseas to other Portuguese colonies. This exodus brought Angolan culture and music to the New World, and semba had a major impact on Brazilian samba.
A typical example of Bonga's style is "Olhos Molhados", while the show features his ballad "Moname" - which has faint traces of the morna style better known as the template of Cape Verdean music.
An archipelago north of Angola, Cape Verde has produced a plethora of great artists, the best-known among them Cesaria Evora, who delivers the bluesy morna with a plaintive acoustic sound that has won fans worldwide. The title track from her album Voz d'Amor is a quintessential example of her style, which she also passed on to the next generation of Cape Verdean singers - among them Fantcha, whose album Criolina, recorded in Portugal and released in 1998, is probably still her best.
Fantcha, whose two brothers played guitar and cavaquinhos (that transatlantic instrument again), was introduced to Cesaria Evora as a young child. And her debut performance came when Evora encouraged her to sing at a local piano bar. After they toured the US together in 1988, Fantcha decided to stay, joining a vibrant Cape Verdean community in Rhode Island. From Criolina, here's "Cinderela."
On her most recent album Viva Mundelo, Fantcha works with several Cape Verdean song-writers and performers, among them Tito Paris. Paris has nurtured that Lusophonic link with Angola, performing with
Paulo Flores, who was born in the Angolan capital Luanda and spent some of his childhood in Lisbon. His music is mostly written in Portuguese though some is in the Kimbundu language. Flores and Paris performed together on the song "Clarice"
Finally the new release on the show takes us back to Brazil and the rebirth of Banda Black Rio, one of the great Brazilian bands of the 1970s and 80s. Formed by saxophonist Oberdan Magalhães, they were pioneers of the country's soul, samba and funk movement. The band has now been revived by his son William, who wrote or co-wrote every track on the album Super Nova Samba Funk. The cast includes new samba hero Marcio Local, Seu Jorge, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. And the track we've squeezed in is "Lindos Olhos" featuring Seu Jorge and Don Pixote.
Santanna worked with Marisa Monte on her 2000 album Memories, Chronicles and Declarations of Love, her most successful to date and a wistful compilation of Brazilian ballads. Working with her New Yorker compatriot, Arto Lindsay, Monte produced an album that's polished and languid - featuring Carlinhos Brown (a frequent collaborator) and Arnaldo Antunes; and Caetano Veloso also contributes.The album shows off her pop sensibilities but also her ability to breathe new life into a traditional ballad, like the song "Abololo." To some critics the album is a little too finessed, but the arrangements and Marisa Monte's seductive voice are hard to beat.