Back to business / Tropicasher's Brazilian Jewish Sambas

Hi Everyone, sorry I disappeared there for a while. Has it really been 3 weeks since I've posted? Guess so. I got caught up in a bunch of work travel. I've been to San Diego, Honolulu, and Huntsville Alabama. Whew. But I'm back and will be working hard getting ready for my Ann Arbor Library talk and on the Stephen Gottlieb Jewish Music Festival in Detroit. And lots of blog posts. I hope.

It would also figure that I would vanish at the same time I got some local press. Thanks to the folks at the Washtenaw Jewish News for the write up about the upcoming library talk. Welcome to any new readers who found me through that article! Come to the talk and say hi!

Ok..back to the main thing, the music. While I was on unexpected hiatus I got a number of emails pointing me to cool music. The first I want to highlight is the band Tropicasher from Brazil...

"Jewish Samba (named TROPICASHER in Brazil) is a mix of Jewish and Brazilian music. We would like the public in the USA to know more about it as it is being an excellent tool for peacemaking, breaking barriers and approching people. There are Tropicasher Sambas in Portuguese, Hebrew and English as well as an excellent BOSSA NOVA made with the Anthem of Israel, haTikva, on www.tropicasher.com.br. For videoclips: or www.youtube.com/tropicasher"

Here's a fun video from Tropicasher...

Ein Lanu Melech (efeito)

Update: I got a follow-up email about Tropicasher, which pointed out that "Brazil was first settled by Jews. We are on carnival week in Brazil and that Tropicasher is the Jewish way to do it." I know nothing about Brazilian history but that doesn't jibe with my understanding that Brazil was colonized by the Dutch. (See the wikipedia article on Jews in Latin America for more info). I have heard of Brazilian Carnival many times, but never heard of a Jewish contribution to it before. Fascinating.

Update II: I got another email from Tropicasher explaining a bit more about Jews in Brazil. "Brazil´s PORTUGUESE ships arrived to Porto Seguro (Bahia) around 1500 with Jews who fled from the portuguese inquisition, some portuguese nobleman and their servants. The dutch arrived around 1640 and they also had Jews as their translators and main businessman."

There you go.