Recorded in Northern Brazil, this includes cult music (Umbanda), folk music and roots music (Batuque).
The state of Pará is located in the north of Brazil, and is part of the vast geographical and culture area known as Amazonia. The Portuguese colonizers never established in Pará the plantations or mining operations that required the huge labour force eventually supplied by captive Africans and the slave system. These were located mostly in the northeast and south of the country. At first, Indian slaves were used in the extractive enterprises in the Pará forests, with African labour brought as early as 1682 (Anaiza Vergolino e Silva, “Alguns Elementos para o Estudo do Negro na Amazonia, 1968, p.6) African slaves worked in domestic service in the capital, Belém of Pará...”
Morton Marks