This is one of the clips i shot at Forro's record release party for their debut album "Bonfires of San Joao" on Nublu records. The event featured guest Bebel Gilberto, Miho Hatori from Cibo mato and David Byrne.
Asa Branca' is one of the best known songs to emerge from the Luiz Gonzaga-Humberto Teixeira partnership. Their version drew on a traditional tune, to which they added new lyrics and an arrangement. It was first recorded in 1947, followed by numerous other recordings, but perhaps the 'classic' version of the song is the one of 1952, in which it was first presented as a baião. The lyrics center on the image of the asa branca, a Northeastern bird. It is said that the asa branca is the last living creature to leave the Northeast during a drought. If the asa branca flies away, one can be sure that it won't rain that year.
Asa Branca' is a baião. The baião is a popular dance of Northeastern Brazil that may have emerged in the 19th century. The baião is one of the dances used in the forró, the Northeastern term for a social dance. Some people claim that the word 'forró' is a corruption of the English 'for all'. Allegedly the announcements for social dances which British companies organised for their employees in Recife during the 19th century stated that they were 'for all'. Whether fact or fiction, in time social dances throughout Northeastern Brazil came to be known as forrós.
-http://www.qub.ac.uk/sa-old/resources/Belfast_Project/brasil/bai%8Bo.html
Tags: music brazil forro david byrne nublu new york
