SFJAZZ, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival (YBGF) and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) are pleased to continue our collaboration in this six-week lecture series hosted by John Santos, featuring live musical examples (in weeks one and six), in addition to selections from Santos’ legendary collection of audio and video recordings.‍

The Sounds of Resistance

‍Music and dance remain foundation tools in the identity and documentation of the Afro/Latino/Indigenous peoples of the colonized Americas. As such, the arts become weapons of mass construction, giving hope, courage, clarity and love to countless distressed communities. Many musicians have forsaken the stardom attached to music in the Western world in order to preserve musical traditions that must evolve, but must not perish.

This series will uncover Latin America’s long history of the musicians who have defined their art through progressive movements of social change.

‍Week 4. Brazil

‍Brazil is a world of brilliant music unto itself. Historically, urban, Afro-Euro influenced Brazilian music has confronted the same challenges of racism and classism as other related music/dance forms in the Americas. Some of the artists that we will listen to and discuss are Clara Nunes, Mestre Acordeon, Ile Aiyé, Hermeto Pascoal, Gal Costa, Dori Caymi, Baden Powell, Maria Bethania, Jovino Santos Neto, Ricardo Peixoto and Claudia Villela.