Today while on my way to work I decided to listen to the newly recorded ninth edition of the radio version of this blog, as I always do with all the episodes before they air (Thursdays, 9 pm on Internova; Fridays, 7 pm on Radio Warehouse and Tuesdays, 21:00 Electric Radio). And thanks to this habit, here we are.
Because I opened the program with “Ogum” from the posthumous album Rise, by the late Serena Assumpção, daughter of Itamar, sister of Anelis and one of the most beautiful female voices in Brazilian music. I didn’t even finish listening to the aforementioned episode of PCP, I was caught by Ori, I ran to Bandcamp to look for the record and suddenly I was already in Serena’s Xirê opening the tour with “Exu”. How should be.
For those unfamiliar with the album and its author, Rise it was released by Selo Sesc in July 2016, four months after Serena died. It is a dive into the musical and spiritual universe of Itamar’s eldest daughter; it took six years to get ready, it brings many participations (from his younger sister, Karina Buhr, Sky, Tulipa Ruiz e Juçara Marçal to name just a few), and it is the daughter of saint and her guests immersed in the faith in the sacred Orixás, transforming this faith into songs that lead to a journey through the ancestral spirituality inherited by us from the African nations – the same journey through terreiros traveled before by the Tincoãs and by Clara Nunes.
musically, Rise it is obviously rich in percussion, but also in crystalline harmonies and arrangements like those of “Iemanjá”, which, combined with Serena’s equally clear singing, at this very moment, bring me to tears.
Sometimes we don’t choose what to listen to, it’s the music that chooses us, and on a difficult day like today I can only thank you for being chosen for this record. Nothing is by chance…
Odoyá, mother of the waters. Axe!
Source: https://pequenosclassicosperdidos.com.br/2023/04/26/serena-assumpcao-ascensao-2016/
