Orquestra Afro Brasileira (1958)

Before leaving the old world I propose this great music coming from the new world. Oro insiders know already this album which success forced me to remove it from the blog. Once again the first recording of Orquestra Afro Brasileira. Exceptional Brazilian and world musical heritage.

The band was born in 1942. They recorded only two albums in 1958 and 1968. During 30-years career, they only played hundred concerts. This first album foreshadows all Brazilian modern music. Afro Brasilera's charismatic leader is Abigail Moura who was the first artist to catch from Macumba music rituals rhythms and instruments such as:

Agôgô, Adêjà, Urucongo, Afoxê, Canza, Atabaques, Angona-Puita.

Abigail Moura was not initiated into African Orishas but he was proceeding Macumba or Candomble rituals before each concert. His music comes from ritual songs, African thythm, Jazz, brass band and much more. This extremely rare record is part of Brazil's greatest treasure.

oro

Avant de quitter l'ancien monde je propose cette musique exceptionnelle venu du nouveau monde. Les initiés d'Oro savent que j'ai déjà posté ce disque et que son succès m'a obligé à le retirer. Une nouvelle fois, le premier enregistrement d'Orquestra Afro Brasileira, patrimoine de la musique brésilienne et patrimoine culturel mondial.

Cet orchestre est né en 1942, il a enregistré seulement deux albums en 1958, puis en 1968. En 30 ans de carrière, cet orchestre n'a joué que 100 concerts. Le premier album préfigure toute la musique moderne Brésilienne mais surtout toute sa Négritude. Son leader charismatique était Abigail Moura est le premier artiste a puiser dans les rituels Macumba des rythmes ou des instruments dont voici la liste:

Agôgô, Adêjà, Urucongo, Afoxê, Canza, Atabaques, Angona-Puita.

Abigail Moura n'était pas initié mais il procédait à des rituels Macumba ou Candomble avant chaque concert. De sa musique ressort un mélange extraordinaire de chants rituels, de rythmes africains, de jazz, de brass band et plus encore. Ce disque extrêmement rare fait parti des plus grandes richesses du Brésil.

MATI & THE MUSIC: 52 Records covers (1955 / 2005)

Limited edition book of only 500 numbered copies.

Accompanying the launch of this book is a double album of a previously unreleased MILES DAVIS concert that was part of his 1969 "BITCHES BREW" European tour, with a portrait of Betty Davis on the cover. The painting known as Zonked had been commissioned by the trumpet player but was never used at the time, due to their separation.

The double album

will be sold exclusively with the book.

ORDER NOW

at

antoine@galerie213.com

Price: € 290

Mati Klarwein’s place in the history of 20th century art is unique, nestling at the crossroads of painting and music. From the end of the 1960s, a period as fruitful as it was revolutionary, numerous musicians such as Miles Davis, Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix recognised a statement of intent in his work and used it on their record covers as a manifesto. At a time when it was all about vinyl, the cover was more than just a simple illustration, it was a form of visual support, an object of meditation that listeners would gaze at relentlessly while playing their records. Mati Klarwein’s paintings, through their thematic wealth and visionary depth, fitted perfectly with the new values these musicians wanted to express and they subse-quently became the artistic counterpoint to legendary albums like Bitches Brew, Abraxas and This is Madness by the Last Poets, the prophets of hip hop and rap.

Musicians continued to identify with Mati Klarwein’s paintings over the following decades. Antoine de Beaupré, a passionate collector, has found more than 50 album covers coming from almost every genre, from classical to electro-jazz, all with the artist’s signature. Some used an existing painting; others were commissioned especially such as the portraits of Buddy Miles, Greg Allman and the group Earth, Wind and Fire. For the first time ever this book presents the album covers in their entirety, accompanied by related texts, photos and documents with a preface by the writer Serge Bramly (Prix Interallié 2008), a life-long friend of the artist.

Mati Klarwein, visionary artist

Son of a Bauhaus architect and an opera singer, Mati Klar-wein was born in Germany in 1932, he grew up in Palestine, started painting in Paris, in Fernand Léger’s studio where he met Salvador Dali, then later in the Viennese painter Ernst Fuchs’ studio, he obtained French nationality with the help of Madame Malraux, played jazz with Boris Vian before moving to New York in the mid 1960s in the middle of the hippy revolution and he never stopped moving his studio across the world from India, Bali and Morocco to Brazil, Greece, Ghana, Cuba and elsewhere, before ending up in his Balearic village of predilection, Deia, where he passed away in March 2002. His oeuvre consists of more than 600 paintings, including 270 portraits, 280 landscapes, which he called Inscapes, and over 100 Improved Paintings, canvases bought at flea markets which he then adapted into his own work.

Myriam Makeba: Live in Conakry (1971)

Après un tour de chants explosif dont la fin a été saluée par six rappels du public sous les clameurs houleuses, d'applaudissements frénétiques, d'ovations hurlées, de sifflets stridents, celle que l'on a appelée tour à tour, la "Militante de la chanson" "l'impératrice de la chanson africaine", "la pasonaria chantante", Myriam Makeba nous reçoit dans sa loge au "Palais du Peuple".

Des yeux noirs intenses, mobiles, soulignés par un sourire éclatant de fraîcheur et de gentillesse. Une toque à rabat de prêtresse antique, scintillante. Sculptée harmonieusement dans une longue jupe blanche dont la fente du devant montre les jambes large d'un pantalon en tissu imprimé. Richement baguée, des doigts fins et longs au bout de bras qui esquissent de lents et gracieux mouvements pour ponctuer chaque propos. Une voix prenante au grave caressant. Des rires qui partent juvéniles, francs, brefs et se figent aussitôt au sourire fixe et lactescent. Simplicité cordiale, cette légendaire affabilité d'une jeune femme symbolisant et assumant à la fois la longue lutte de libération d'un peuple, son peuple, dans le vaste champ miné de la culture universelle.

"Aussi loin que remontent mes souvenirs, je me vois chantant. Je me rappelle qu'à treize ans, lors d'une visite du roi George V d'Angleterre en Afrique du Sud, j'ai interprété pour lui et sa suite, devant un parterre de personnalités coloniales, un chant Xhoza intitulé: "Hayi Usizi Lamtu". Ce chant pose la question de savoir pourquoi toutes les nations blanches considèrent elles les noirs comme leur descente de lit ? Depuis cette époque je me sers de ma voix comme une arme de combat, et tant que je pourrais aspirer de l'air, je l'utiliserai en plus de toute mon énergie pour lutter résolument en faveur de la libération de tous les peuples africains et de ceux opprimés de par le monde".

D.I.K.

VOODOO JAZZ: Gangbé Brass Band

After the first part of musical voodoo initiation I think you will understand a bit more Gangbé and their primary Jazz...

(Painting from Dominique Zinkpé)

Gangbé Brass Band: " Ekui Nao"

Gangbé Brass Band: "Tagbavo"

Gangbé Brass Band: "Gangbé Vile"

VOODOO BRASS BANDS

In a early post I talked about brass instruments. The colonisation brought back military brass bands. After, Benin was for a long time a military regime and Brass bands of were playing everywhere in the country. The cultura freedom gave rise to a genuine Jazz...

Fanfare Adonaï Jazz: "Culture"

Nowadays In every church of the country you can hear brass bands. But during the nineties the freedom of Vodoun religion revealed a deeper Jazz like the one of the international Gangbe Brass Band and their first album: "Gan-gbé".

Gangbé Brass Band: "Segala"

"New Orleans and Lagos both seemed equally closed to Benin when the Gangbe Brass band made its euphoric New York debut at Joe's pub last night. The band has the world in its grap; its music leaps among the many ethnic traditions of its home, Benin, and beyone to Africa and the New World's African diaspora, seguing from traditional voodoo rhythms to jazz without missing asyncopated beat..."

(John Pareles-New York Times sept 2002)

Gangbé Brass Band: "Remember Fela"

Gangbé Brass Band: "Ekui nao"

All the paintings are from Dominique Zinkpé a famous painter from Benin