Daniel B Sharp Livres

Focusing on musicians and dancers from Arcoverde, Pernambuco, the book delves into the dual roles of samba de coco families as tradition bearers and the band Cordel do Fogo Encantado as pop innovators. It examines how cultural preservation efforts are shaped by festivals, media, and tourism during Brazil's democratization and neoliberal reform. The narrative highlights the unique blend of Afro-Brazilian and other influences in their music, alongside the challenges of achieving contemporary recognition. A multimedia app enhances the ethnographic experience with various media.

The story of Afro-Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos stitches together histories of 1960s-1980s jazz, psychedelia, world music, experimentalism and post-punk. Based in Recife, Rio de Janeiro, New York City and Paris, Naná played with musicians as varied as Egberto Gismonti, Don Cherry, Pat Metheny, Ralph Towner, Arto Lindsay, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno, Os Mutantes, and Milton Nascimento. This book traces the 15 years (1964-1979) leading up to Naná's Saudades (1979, ECM), an album evoking his sonic memories of Brazil that he recorded while in Germany. Saudades features berimbau, a one-stringed instrument that looks like a bow and arrow, alongside onomatopoetic vocals and the strings of the Radio Symphony Stuttgart. Daniel B. Sharp hears Naná's playing as a counterargument against dishonest notions of the primitive just as world music emerged as a genre. With a gourd, a stick, a wire, a wicker basket, and a stone, Naná made music as complex and contemporary as the ARP synthesizers in vogue at the time.