Further proof that the ideology of funk spread well beyond America's "chocolate cities," Africa/Brazil represents a rare trifecta: It links the propulsion of African music to fluid Brazilian samba to the party-time outlandishness of mid-'70s Parliament-style funk. And because the tunes are by Jorge Ben, there's pure idealistic sweetness running throughout. Ben is one of Brazil's underappreciated treasures, a prolific composer who came along after the upheavels of tropicálismo, offering gentle and serene melodies that were recorded, with great success, by many of the country's big singing stars.
Africa/Brazil was inspired, at least in part, by touring: When Ben visited Africa in 1975, he met Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti (see p. 436) and jammed with African rhythm masters. Upon returning home, Ben assembled an amazing (and amazingly large) ensemble that included African percussion and a chorus of voices, and built his songs around easygoing open-ended jams or, in the case of the slithering "Ponta de lanca africano," parade beats. The result was a rare melding of polyrhythms and heritage music that was downright radical. Describing it in words reduces what was a profound vision to a chemistry experiment. As music, it instantly makes sense, a union of the ancient and the urbane that could only happen on utopia's dance floor.
Originally Posted by Sting
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