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Quebra Cabe​ç​a

by Bixiga 70

supported by
Family Feet
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Family Feet This song is great and the album is good as well. Favorite track: Quebra Cabeça.
Grigory Arzhanykh
Grigory Arzhanykh thumbnail
Grigory Arzhanykh Thanks for the life-giving elixir!Acts instantly: improves mood, drives away fatigue, gives strength to survive today's difficult time.Bixiga 70 music has become the most requested in our emergency surgery.Thanks! Favorite track: Pedra de Raio.
Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss
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Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss The kind of music that makes me drive way too fast without realizing it cuz I'm too distracted violently convulsing in the driver's seat Favorite track: Levante.
Mr Crumbone
Mr Crumbone thumbnail
Mr Crumbone probably the best non-Africa afrobeat-band... Favorite track: 4 Cantos.
Ethan Liu
Ethan Liu thumbnail
Ethan Liu An ecstatic piece of Afro-Brazilian grooves and Jazz-dance vibes combined, getting goosebumps.

Favorite track: Pedra de Raio
more...
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €8.99 EUR  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Deluxe 6-panel digipak with additional info and photos.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Quebra Cabeça via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €14.75 EUR or more 

     

  • Bixiga 70 CD bundle includes:

    - QUEBRA CABEÇA
    - III

    Includes unlimited streaming of Quebra Cabeça via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €24.99 EUR or more 

     

  • DOUBLE 12" VINYL (with download code included)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Double heavyweight 180gm vinyl in a high quality gatefold sleeve.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Quebra Cabeça via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • BIXIGA 70 LP BUNDLE

    Bixiga 70 LP bundle includes:

    - QUEBRA CABEÇA
    - III
    - THE COPAN CONNECTION: BIXIGA 70 MEETS VICTOR RICE

    Includes unlimited streaming of Quebra Cabeça via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
2.
Ilha Vizinha 05:46
3.
4.
4 Cantos 05:25
5.
Areia 03:41
6.
Ladeira 03:57
7.
Levante 05:14
8.
9.
Torre 04:17
10.
Camelo 05:35
11.
Portal 05:58

about

São Paulo’s acclaimed 10-piece instrumental collective return for their 4th album. Urban Afro-Brazilian grooves, empowered horn-driven melodicism and massive dance floor inspiration.
One of South America’s most exhilarating musical propositions.

Almost four centuries after the first slave ships loaded their cargoes and set sail, the connection between Brazil and West Africa remains firm and deep. It was African slaves who created the culture of Brazil in all its sorrows and its joys, and those memories have flowed down through the generations. Africa is everywhere in Brazil, and it pulses through the music on Quebra Cabeça (Puzzle), Bixiga 70’s second studio album for Glitterbeat, where two continents dance together across the black Atlantic.

“From the very beginning, what we have always had in common is African-Brazilian music,” explains baritone sax player and flautist Cuca Ferreira. ‘Some of us come from candomblé (the African-Caribbean religion), others from jazz, reggae, dub, everything. The whole idea of the band has been to take all these different elements that form us, from Africa and Brazil, and create a hybrid from them.”

With Quebra Cabeça, that hybrid has taken on a slightly different form. As Ferreira notes, this time Bixiga 70’s music “is more complex. We worked harder on the compositions than in the past, spent more time on them. Each song has a lot of different parts, they can seem like a journey.”

That’s apparent in the shifts and turns of a piece like “Pedra De Raio” or “Levante,” where the melody shifts and swerves, one section flowing naturally into the next, adding layer upon layer to create something astonishing and utterly satisfying in its power. In large part, this change has come from the band’s relentless touring over the last few years.

“We’ve been exposed to so much,” Ferreira notes. “So many of the people we’ve played with have had an impact on us, like Pat Thomas, the Ghanaian highlife singer or [Nigerian saxophonist] Orlando Julius. And then we toured and recorded with João Donato. He’s over 80 now and still playing piano, one of the icons of Brazilian music. We’ve learned from them all, they’ve made us think about what we can do with our music. Those new ideas have found their way into this album.”

One result is the new, shining lyricism of the melodies, with the horns pushed even more to the fore, parading around with a singer’s swagger.

“We want people to relate to our melodies, to take the line a vocalist might use and play it on the horns. Sometimes in instrumental music, the players are so good it ends up putting the listener at a distance. We make music as a celebration, a way to connect and bring some joy. We want to draw them in. We try to write something very memorable.”

And Quebra Cabeça is a very memorable set of hummable earworms, from the title cut that opens up the album and continuing, sinewy and cool and relentless, all the way to the final note of “Portal.”

Throughout though, the heartbeat of everything remains utterly African, refracted through the prism of the band’s home in the Bixiga neighbourhood of São Paulo. “What we put on top of that is essentially urban São Paulo music. This city has been a huge influence on us. It has that sense of urgency, always running to catch up. It’s expensive, and services are awful, with so much pollution and violence. But it’s our home and it was developed through immigration. Bixiga is where people come first of all. It’s always had that influx; it’s the story of São Paulo in miniature.”

And Bixiga 70 has always been a reflection of the streets where they live. The band played their first show in October 2010 and released their debut album a year later. Eight years on they are still the same 10-piece collective, honing and shaping the music, evolving towards the changes found on Quebra Cabeça.

“We knew we wanted this record to be different. Our other three albums were all recorded live in the studio, because we’re more of a live band, the stage is our habitat. This time we decided to use the studio to experiment with arrangements and voicings. We began composing in early 2017. It took us a year to write everything, then we began recording in May this year. And for the first time we used a co-producer, Gustavo Lenza (Céu, Marisa Monte). He was a friend even before we formed the band, but it recent years he’s become a very big producer in Brazil.”

The result still captures the incendiary excitement of Bixiga 70 live, but the freedom of the studio brings more shade and subtlety than before. The rhythms are more sinuous than ever, snaking through the funk in way that looks more to Ghana or Nigeria than Memphis or Muscle Shoals, while the horns strut in powerful harmonies. It’s music that forges connections and retraces history while sounding absolutely contemporary. But for Bixiga 70, African will always be the root, and Brazil its beautiful, vibrant flower.

credits

released October 12, 2018

Chris Scabello: guitar
Cuca Ferreira: baritone sax, flute
Daniel Gralha: trumpet
Décio 7: drums
Daniel Nogueira: tenor sax
Douglas Antunes: trombone
Marcelo Dworecki: bass
Maurício Fleury: keyboards, guitar
Rômulo Nardes: percussion

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Bixiga 70 São Paulo, Brazil

Urban Afro-Brazilian grooves, empowered horn-driven melodicism and massive dance floor inspiration.

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