Journeys Guided by Sound

#Brazil #carnival #ILE AIYE #J.A.K.A.M. #journeys guided by sound #JUZUakaMOOCHY 2022.05.16

Brazil

Festivals springing from The Earth　Carnival in Bahia

September 11, 2001

The World Trade Center in New York (which I had climbed up) collapsed and the bombing of Afghanistan suddenly began.
Sensing the smell of militarization, which I had long feared, I launched a melancholy event called “Wa Project” with my friend Mademoiselle Toki, a tarot reader, and held it in Tokyo (12/21) and Hiroshima (12/24).
This led me to think about the essential meaning of “matsuri,” or festival, and the word “yukoku (Worry about the current situation and future of your country.)”, also led me to seriously consider the nature of the country, or culture.

As can be seen in the recent Olympic Games, there are many people these days who, in an effort to draw closer to their own culture, dig something up and interpret it in a convenient way. However, I am convinced that the origin of this culture lies in “festivals” derived from the activities of ordinary people, especially those based on hunting and farming, which are beyond the reach of the media and art, much less politics.

It is something that springs from emotion, which is far beyond the reach of artificial concepts such as a country, or more specifically, concepts created by logic alone.
Joy, sadness, and the unspeakable, the things that cannot be expressed in words, are in human beings.

I believe that the expression of this is the foundation of art and culture.
And then they express each other with their bodies what lies deep in their hearts, which can be called complex… I believe that this is what festivals are all about.

The aforementioned “Wa Project” was incomplete and without punch, both socially and personally. Still, the money raised was donated to the “Peshawar Association” (an organization formed in 1983 to support Tetsu Nakamura, who recently passed away in the distant land of Afghanistan and Pakistan), and the three months it took to transport the recorded data of the Ainu and Hawaiian dedication performance in front of the A-bomb monument to a handicapped and orphanage in Hiroshima, undoubtedly firmly implanted the above key words – country, race, culture and festival – in my own mind.

To the biggest festival on earth

I’d like to preface this by saying that after that festival in Hiroshima, in the midst of simmering emotions, I asked myself,
“When it comes to festivals, is the Rio Carnival the biggest on the planet?”
“What would I feel if I experienced the biggest festival on earth?”
From such flash ideas, I felt the need to also see New York City after 9.11 (since my first son was born in San Francisco in May 2001 and I was thinking of moving to New York City), and about a month later, in February 2002, my first time on the South American continent! I landed in Sao Paulo, Rio, and Salvador, Brazil, to experience the local carnival.

The atmosphere of each city was very interesting. São Paulo had an atmosphere of metal and rock with many posters of METALLICA and KORN posted in the city under a cloudy sky, which in a sense was similar to that of Tokyo. The carnival atmosphere was not Amazonian, but rather bleak and urban, and the carnival that took place there seemed somewhat random, but I felt a sense of familiarity with it, just like the Awa Odori dance in my hometown, Koenji.

And then Rio.
It was before the movie “CITY OF GOD” was released, and I did not know the dangers of favelas (slums), I left my then newborn son and wife at the hotel and went to such an area on my own, where the sound system was blasting some very juvenile music and everyone was having a good time. I know it’s an old expression, but Juliana-like Eurobeat? and Miami bass mixed together? It’s pop music!
The CD I bought here was labeled ” TECHNO FUNK,” but it turned out to be a music called baile funki, which has since become well-known in M.I.A. and other places.

Anyway, at such a place, there are naturally a lot of bad people hanging out.
This is also similar to the atmosphere of the local Koenji area, and I feel a sense of familiarity with the cheerful world of delinquents there.
I understand almost no Portuguese at all, but for some reason their conversation sounded like a conversation between senior and junior friends in Koenji.
‘How are the girls today?’ ‘I’ve called all the girls!’ I was smiling as my brain translated their conversation into my own language.
Everyone approached the rare Oriental (there were 1.5 million Japanese in Sao Paulo, but it was rare in Rio) who walked around with a grin on his face. After all, they treated me to several bottles of caipirinha (a cocktail of Brazilian shochu, lime, and sugar) in a container similar to the Japanese choo-choo ice cream, and I enjoyed the strange local atmosphere.
By the way, the so-called main stage is just like the Awa Odori dance, where you have to buy special seats, and the best VIP room is a custom-made room overlooking the ground and costs more than 1 million yen, I was told at the time.
So, of course, I did not go to such a place, and was glad that I could be sure that people on the other side of the world were not different enough from ordinary people just to play with them.

And Bahia. Salvador.
When I told someone that I wanted to visit Brazil, he said that I should definitely go to Salvador.
I visited this place without doing any research and found it to be the most “African” place I have ever been to (in 2002).
In particular, the band/group “ILE AIYE (Tree of Life)” that appeared on the morning of the dance was a real hit.
Anyway, it was “Africa”.

The sounds and sights had a profound influence on my subsequent musicality, and also brought about a strong desire to come to Africa.
I had some idea of why there were so many people of African descent in Brazil, located on the South American continent, but I became more interested in the history of the region.

Knowing this is very important to understand the social structure of our time, not as something from the past, “slavery,” and to be able to feel behind the scenes of the farce that is played out in the media in the name of politics.

Bahia Revisited

Putting the heavy topics aside for a moment, one year after the earthquake and tsunami that sent shock waves throughout the world from Fukushima in 2012, I came down here to experience the “festival” once again.

Another visit to Bahia via New York!
The weather wasn’t so great on day one, but
Finally!
Carnival has started!

These Andean music gigs are also all over the place.

gradually, night falls

At night, it is a wild time, distinctly different from the daytime routine.

And a large batucada is up and running, with rumored trailers roaming the streets!

There is also a live stage like this.

But the main attraction is still on the street!

The “ILE AIYE (Tree of Life)” we’ve been waiting for!

Near 7:00 in the morning, the truth that had been lost in the darkness of the night comes to light.
The streets are so dirty that the drunken cervezas (beer) are sobering, the buildings so shabby, and the people so drunk that they appear before our eyes once again.
But all of this is affirmed by the sound of the ILE AIYE.
Yes, that’s Africa! Each of us has been swept away to a distant land, but we feel our home, Mother Africa.
I don’t have to tell you, even I, an oriental, feel nostalgic.
I can only think that I have some causal connection to my ancestors of 10 or 20 generations ago.
More to the point, I am affirmed in my memory of my African origin.

The earth is connected even across the sea.

The sounds and vibrations that emanate from this magma are truly indescribable!
If we listen with our ears, feel with our bodies, and ride the rhythm of the music, we are in our own home.

We feel that the “tree of life” is firmly rooted within us.

Isn’t this the essence of a festival?

As I sat there, tired from dancing and drinking a caipirinha, lost in deep emotion, a drunken young man sang to me.

He is very good.
Brazil is full of people at this level, and the world is full of them.

I can only say that I am lucky to be doing music.

When I watch “The World,” I am naturally humbled.

It is said that Brazil emits 1/3 of the oxygen on the planet.
In other words, it is the place with the most plants on this planet.
Perhaps that is why we are healed and energized.

Breathing is life. Let us nurture the tree of life.

J.A.K.A.M. (JUZU a.k.a. MOOCHY / NXS /CROSSPOINT)
http://www.nxs.jp/
soundcloud / Bandcamp / Twitter / Facebook

Born in Tokyo, he started playing in bands and DJing at the same time when he was 15. As a DJ, his innovative and original style has taken the world by storm, and his activities have quickly expanded from huge festivals to underground parties both in Japan and abroad. In 2003, he went on a recording tour with local musicians in Cuba. In 2003, he went on a recording tour with local musicians in Cuba, and since then he has been recording all over the world, and started his own label, Crosspoint, as a new guideline for world music.
In addition to music production, he also produces video works, picture books and art books, and organized the outdoor festival “Jomon and Rebirth” in 2012. In 2017, he released HIGHTIME Inc. with DJ Tasaka, and in 2018, he released ZERO with MACKA-CHIN of NitroMicrophoneUnderground and MaL of PART2 STYLE. In 2018, he also started the unit ZEN RYDAZ with MACKA-CHIN of NitroMicrophoneUnderground and MaL of PART2STYLE.
In the same year, his music under the name of J.A.K.A.M. was released in analog form on the French label HardFist, which led to a live performance at the huge 30,000-person Nuits Sonores Festival, followed by a DJ tour of Europe and Israel. In 2019, the production of MYSTICS, a unit with Marcus Henriksson and Kuniyuki of the internationally popular Minilogue/Son Kite, began, and this year, 2021, the long-awaited album will be released. His original vision is spreading all over the world, crossing all genres.
He has been behind the decks at home and abroad with:
Acid Arab (FR) / Adam Ffreeland (UK) / Alex Patterson (The Orb, UK) Andy Baz (Background Records, Germany) / Asaf Sammuel (islael) / Dego (4Hero, UK) / Fabio (UK) / Francois K (NY) / Fred P(NY) / Foolish Felix (UK) / Grooverider (UK) / I.G.Culture (People, UK) / Jeff Mills (Chicago) / Joe Claussell (NY) Nick the Record (UK) / Moodyman (Detroit) / Panasea (Germany) PHOTEK (UK) / Storm(MetalHeadz, UK) / Suv (Fullcycle, UK) / Q-Bert & Inbisibl Skratch Piklz, Mix Master Mike with D-Styles, Yogafrog and Shortcut (US) / Theo Parrish(Detroit) / Terre Thaemlitz (US/JPN) / Tom Wieland (Vienna) /DJ KRUSH (JP) / Flying Lotus(US)/ / Boredoms (JP) / FAUST (Germany) / Dennis Bovell(UK) / Dillinger Escape Plan (NY) / Juno Reacter (UK) /Lee Perry (Jamaica) / LKJ (UK) / Lake Trout (US) / Mad Proffesor (UK) / Mala (UK) / Marcus Henriksson(SW) / Meat Beat Manifesto (UK) / Merzbow , MMW (US)/ Yakaza Ensemble(Turkey) etc. His style keeps evolving and defies categorization.