BIXIGA 70 - Quebra Cabeca - CD

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

“From the very beginning, what we have always had in common is African-Brazilian music,” explains Bixiga's baritone sax player and flutist 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 (Puzzle), 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.”

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 a 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, Africa will always be the root, and Brazil its vibrant flower.