Born in São Paulo, Sergio Sayeg aka Sessa is a Brazilian singer-songwriter who co-founded psych-rock band Garotas Suecas in his late teens. He also spent time in New-York to play bass in various rock bands and work in an East Village record shop. During this period, he immersed himself in the abundant repository of the ... [Continue Reading]
latin
Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Navigator
I feel like my generation, through groups like Black Lives Matter, is really focusing on that type of intersectionality—if one of us is not free, then none of us are free. The Navigator’s role is to tell the story, tell it to the people who don’t know their own story, so they can be free. Alynda Segarra Born and raised in the ... [Continue Reading]
Fatoumata Diawara & Roberto Fonseca: At Home
With his 2012 release Yo, Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca launched a new phase in his musical career. Including African instruments such as the talking drum, the n’goni and the kora alongside a Hammond organ, the musician initiated an interesting fusion of his trademark Afro-Cuban groove with African-based griot traditions ... [Continue Reading]
Metá Metá: Metal Metal
From São Paulo in Brazil, Metá Metá is a jazz fusion band formed in 2007 around the core trio of Juçara Marçal (vocals), Kiko Dinucci (guitar & vocals) [both of whom collaborated on the 2008 album Padê] and Thiago França (saxophone & flute). Released in 2011, Metá Metá’s first self-titled album anchored the trio’s sound ... [Continue Reading]
Manu Chao: Clandestino
Released in 1998 and followed up in 2000 by its “little sister” Próxima Estación: Esperanza, Manu Chao’s Clandestino turned the former front man of cult Latin rock band Mano Negra (1987/1995) into a global superstar. In total contrast with the high-octane punk-rock of Mano Negra, the solo and all-acoustic album mixed various ... [Continue Reading]
Dom la Nena: Ela
Instantly adding to the canon of poems and songs in Spanish dealing with exile and the constant dream for a return home, "Golondrina" (the swallow) is an original composition by the-then-24 year old Brazilian singer songwriter Dom la Nena. The title track of her November 2013 EP Golondrina is also an apt metaphor for the ... [Continue Reading]
Radio Tarifa: Temporal
20 years before Jon Balke’s project Siwan, a group of passionate musicians going by the name of Radio Tarifa set out to explore what the music of mediaeval Spain might have sounded like. Over the course of four albums released on the World Circuit/Nonesuch record labels between 1993 (with the ground-breaking Rumba Argelina) and ... [Continue Reading]