Let's Make Some Noise: Axé and the African Roots of Brazilian Popular Music
Clarence Bernard Henry's book is a culmination of several years of field research on sacred and secular influences of àsé, the West African Yoruba concept that spread to Brazil and throughout the African Diaspora. Àsé is imagined as power and creative energy bestowed upon human beings by ancestral spirits acting as guardians. In Brazil, the West African Yoruba concept of àsé is known as axé and has been reinvented, transmitted, and nurtured in Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion that is practiced in Salvador, Bahia. The author examines how the concepts of axé and Candomblé religion have been appropriated and reinvented in Brazilian popular music and culture. Featuring interviews with practitioners and local musicians, the book explains how many Brazilian popular music styles such as samba, bossa nova, samba-reggae, ijexá, and axé have musical and stylistic elements that stem from Afro-Brazilian religion. The book also discusses how young Afro-Brazilians combine Candomblé religious music with African American music such as blues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk, and rap. Henry argues for the importance of axé as a unifying force tying together the secular and sacred Afro-Brazilian musical landscape. Clarence Bernard Henry is an independent scholar living in Newark, New Jersey. He has taught at the University of Kansas and his writing has appeared in Journal of Caribbean Studies, Journal of Latin American Lore, and other publications.
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Let's Make Some Noise: Axé and the African Roots of Brazilian Popular Music
Clarence Bernard Henry's book is a culmination of several years of field research on sacred and secular influences of àsé, the West African Yoruba concept that spread to Brazil and throughout the African Diaspora. Àsé is imagined as power and creative energy bestowed upon human beings by ancestral spirits acting as guardians. In Brazil, the West African Yoruba concept of àsé is known as axé and has been reinvented, transmitted, and nurtured in Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion that is practiced in Salvador, Bahia. The author examines how the concepts of axé and Candomblé religion have been appropriated and reinvented in Brazilian popular music and culture. Featuring interviews with practitioners and local musicians, the book explains how many Brazilian popular music styles such as samba, bossa nova, samba-reggae, ijexá, and axé have musical and stylistic elements that stem from Afro-Brazilian religion. The book also discusses how young Afro-Brazilians combine Candomblé religious music with African American music such as blues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk, and rap. Henry argues for the importance of axé as a unifying force tying together the secular and sacred Afro-Brazilian musical landscape. Clarence Bernard Henry is an independent scholar living in Newark, New Jersey. He has taught at the University of Kansas and his writing has appeared in Journal of Caribbean Studies, Journal of Latin American Lore, and other publications.
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Let's Make Some Noise: Axé and the African Roots of Brazilian Popular Music

Let's Make Some Noise: Axé and the African Roots of Brazilian Popular Music

by Clarence Bernard Henry
Let's Make Some Noise: Axé and the African Roots of Brazilian Popular Music

Let's Make Some Noise: Axé and the African Roots of Brazilian Popular Music

by Clarence Bernard Henry

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Overview

Clarence Bernard Henry's book is a culmination of several years of field research on sacred and secular influences of àsé, the West African Yoruba concept that spread to Brazil and throughout the African Diaspora. Àsé is imagined as power and creative energy bestowed upon human beings by ancestral spirits acting as guardians. In Brazil, the West African Yoruba concept of àsé is known as axé and has been reinvented, transmitted, and nurtured in Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion that is practiced in Salvador, Bahia. The author examines how the concepts of axé and Candomblé religion have been appropriated and reinvented in Brazilian popular music and culture. Featuring interviews with practitioners and local musicians, the book explains how many Brazilian popular music styles such as samba, bossa nova, samba-reggae, ijexá, and axé have musical and stylistic elements that stem from Afro-Brazilian religion. The book also discusses how young Afro-Brazilians combine Candomblé religious music with African American music such as blues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk, and rap. Henry argues for the importance of axé as a unifying force tying together the secular and sacred Afro-Brazilian musical landscape. Clarence Bernard Henry is an independent scholar living in Newark, New Jersey. He has taught at the University of Kansas and his writing has appeared in Journal of Caribbean Studies, Journal of Latin American Lore, and other publications.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781617033278
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication date: 03/05/2012
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Clarence Bernard Henry is an independent scholar living in Newark, New Jersey. His writing has appeared in the Journal of Caribbean Studies, the Journal of Latin American Lore, and other publications.

Table of Contents


List of Photographs and Music Examples     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     3
Sacred/Secular Influences: The Reinvention of West African Ase in Brazil     24
From the Sacred to the Secular: Popularizing Candomble Rhythms     56
Axe Embodiment in Brazilian Popular Music: Sacred Themes, Imagery, and Symbols     82
The Sacred/Secular Popularity of Drums and Drummers     106
Secular Impulses: Dancing to the Beats of Different Drummers     127
Say It Loud! I'm Black and I'm Proud: Popular Music and Axe Embodiment in Bahian Carnival/Ijexa     146
Stylizing Axe as Brazilian Popular Music     166
Epilogue     189
Notes     193
Glossary     207
Bibliography     211
Index     227
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