Dear Diaspora Friends, i could not resist and i had to put here another vinyl of the week, just to keep the great mood coming from the last live concert at the tropical diaspora with KELELE i would like to introduce you a Afro Brazilian Diaspora Singer called Ellen Oléria a singer, musician, songwriter, and actress from Brasília a new voice from Brazil. This is again nother great example for the diaspora´s inexhaustible source of arts and great music in south America. I take the interpretation of a song in the record i want to introduce you here. In the video below She is interpreting a anthem written by Jorge Ben who certainly i do not have to introduce, the Master of the Brazilian Diaspora and Black Brazilian Music in the world.
In an interview Jorge Ben sad he could mention all his works very fast but the best ones were “Samba Esquema Novo”, “A Tábua De Esmeralda”, “Solta O Pavao” and “Africa Brasil” but the master piece of his career as musician in his opinion was “A Tábua De Esmeralda”.
Considered Ben’s masterpiece, it was ranked by Rolling Stone Brazil as the sixth greatest Brazilian album of all time. A Tábua De Esmeralda is the eleventh studio album by Brazilian musician Jorge Ben, released in 1974 on Philips Records. The album showcases Ben’s interest in theosophy, mysticism, and, above all, alchemy. Its title refers to the Emerald Tablet, a cryptic piece of Hermetica reputed to contain the secret of the prima materia and its transmutation; and its artwork incorporates drawings from Nicholas Flamel, who was historically immortalized as a great alchemist for his work on the philosopher’s stone.
Wiki
Caetano Veloso describes him as:
“not only the first great black composer since bossa nova…[but] also and most importantly the first to make that blackness the determining stylistic element… Jorge Ben brought a tone of black consciousness to Brazilian pop music.”
Jorge Ben – A Tábua De Esmeralda
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW1jat9F_8E
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For the people don´t speak Brazilian Portuguese here the translation of the Lyrics of ZUMBI.
[su_note]Zumbi
Lyrics from “Zumbi” by Jorge Ben
Angola, Congo, Benguela
Monjolo, Cabinda, Mina
Quiloa, Rebolo
Here where the men are
There’s a big auction
They say that in the auction,
There’s a princess for sale
Who came, together with her subjects
Chained on an oxcart
I want to see, I want to see, I want to see
Angola, Congo, Benguela
Monjolo, Cabinda, Mina
Quiloa, Rebolo
Here where the men are
To one side, sugarcane
To the other side, the coffee plantation
In the middle, seated gentlemen
Watching the cotton crop, so white
Being picked by black hands
I want to see, I want to see, I want to see
When Zumbi arrives
What will happen
Zumbi is a warlord
A lord of demands
When Zumbi arrives, Zumbi
Is the one who gives orders
I want to see, I want to see, I want to see[/su_note]
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