BURCH FELLOW 2007 S tud y ing the musica l roots of an afro - bra z i l ian cu l ture in salvador da bahia

Upon arriving, my host father the following week only to have culture. immediately hoisted me out the my ears blown away. After the After my formal language door for a comprehensive tour of the concert I excitedly approached the study I dedicated the last month immediate neighborhood. He herded festival organizer with a rehearsed to vigorously pursuing interview me along the ocean-side street Portuguese spiel about my project. contacts and soaking up as much ANDREW Magill sputtering in rapid-fire Portuguese He agreed to an interview. This music as I could. I’d spend the Class of 2009 to me and literally every other surfer contact became a pivotal entry into mornings curled up in the nook Asheville, NC or vendor. Actually SEEING the Salvador’s musical scene and my of a library containing exclusively beach’s Portuguese fortresses with contacts began building with a string literature concerning Afro-Brazilian which Google image had so excited of interviews music and my imagination was a thrill … as was won by touting culture. By noon alvador da the whole trip. My first week was my association (closing time), the Bahia, spent acclimating myself to the food, to the previous librarian would had always the weather, and the language. interviewee. kick me out with S Mere interview uncharacteristic I spent the mornings in a been a musical

Andrew Magill Andrew school, sessions resulted Brazilian wonderland that immersed in the melodically in a slew of punctuality I romanticized about from swooping ‘Bahian’ dialect. After a unpredicted and I was off my Chapel Hill dorm room. few weeks, I had quickly developed bonuses such to convince Salvador, situated in the a love for my favorite Amazon fruits as a recording musicians, and for Portuguese conversation. I session, a public cultural state of Bahia is the musical also enrolled in a music school to performance, and permanent educators, and dance instructors epicenter of Brazil, immersed learn how to play a little bit of the friendships. that they should do interviews with with African culture, a music that I was hearing. My teacher Fortunately for me, my me. I would come home with a tape consequence of its history as was less than punctual, but learning project coincided with a uniquely recorder full of interviews or music the Brazilian cavaquinho (the parent Northeastern Brazilian festival, and crash. The nights would be filled the entry point for generations of the Hawai’ian ) was great second only in importance to with excursions to concerts, shows, of African slaves. Having as a hands-on tool to understanding Carnaval, in which music is live or the like with friends always had an interest in the music. When I wasn’t studying tantamount. The month-long affair who I had kept from the language musical anthropology and the Portuguese, I was embarking on in June, the São João festival, school. project-related tasks which consisted culminates with massive concerts The project was really just being African musical diaspora, this of seeking out live music in any playing the festival’s soundtrack: there. One can see African influences particular manifestation of way I could. The samba parties at the musical style of Forró (Fuh- in almost every aspect of life. The African culture was irresistibly the Mercado Modelo, the Tuesday- Ho) music. As the days neared Bahian accent owes its intonation fascinating in how music night city-sponsored downtown live that much-anticipated June 24th to the tonal West African languages celebration, Forró began blasting out spoken amongst the first slaves. The and its African roots are so music, and a host of other musical gatherings were usually marked by a of more intestinal-taxing ‘Dende’ oil used in intertwined with nearly every conspicuous gringo from UNC with shops, the many foods comes from Africa. The facet of Salvadoran life. his tape recorder handy. The bread traditional people bear African ancestry, the and butter of my project was to be little São music exhibits African aesthetics - Continued the interviews, João flags the list is really endless. I’ve never which demanded began felt such an absolute immersion. SOUTH AMERICA a conversational adorning There is no culture like Salvador competence of more anywhere else on the planet. The the language, edifices, and emergence of a strongly African- and to that end I more food identifying populace yet with traces resolved to speak stands began of indigenous and European cultural with everyone. popping up with influence grounded in the Brazilian Police officers, the festival’s experience, is endlessly fascinating shopkeepers, shady traditional to me. I feel like I could study it the dreaded beachrats cuisine. I took rest of my life and only be scraping who might have an excursion the surface. Mr. Burch has changed Salvador, been better to avoid - they were all into the interior where the most my life with his generosity. This Brazil fair game. orchestrated festivities take place experience has let me cultivate my One day my host father spied a and witnessed throngs of dancing interests and shaped what I intend marquee on his moped advertising for three nights. Forró to study, how, and what I want to an instrumental music festival. boasts the least African influence of do in life. That wouldn’t have been Knowing of my burgeoning obsession any music I studied yet is identifiably possible without Mr. Burch and the with Brazilian music, he relayed this Bahian and crucial to understanding Burch Fellows Program. information to me and I attended the complexity of Salvador’s musical