Angola Music has an Important Role in Popular Music Around the World
The Angolan traditional rhythms such as kazukuta, kaduke and other popular rhythms travelled along the African transatlantic slave trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. Through trade, Angolan rhythms and its potential spread to other parts of the world, particularly to Brazil, USA, Cuba and Haiti.
Semba music and dance, which is Angolan best well known rhythm pattern. It is the most familiar to our ears in modern Angolan popular music.
Joãozinho Morgado, is the creator of the new and contemporary Semba rhythm pattern and through his significant contribution, he is the most recorded artist in Angolan popular music and distinguishes his creative process through constant evolution.
Indeed, with his signature rhythm pattern and his very distinctive unique and amazing flavour (sabor), he has been part of so many successful and great hits in the Angolan music scene with a strong impact across multiple generations.
I recommend few remarkable classic songs and artists that Joãozinho Morgado played percussion and recorded with: Conjunto Merengue-"Choro de S. Vicente (Merengue Angolano/part of golden age of Angolan music), André Mingas "Mufete" (typical named of a traditional popular fish dish from the island of Luanda), Semba fusion mix with Brazilian Partido Alto rhythm (featuring some Brazilian great musicians from the Djavan Band), Kueno Aionda "Melita" New/Semba mix with a Latin vibe ( Joaozinho played Congas & Dikanza-Angolan reco-reco /Guiro, with Helio da Cruz on Drums), André Mingas "Tchipalepa", a Swing groove with Jazz harmonies.
There are other artists he recorded with which I recommend: Carlos Burity, Teta Lando, Elias Dya Kimuezo, Bélita Palma, Minguito "Pensando Conforme o tempo", Lourdes Van- Dúnem, Carlos Lamartine -"Pala ka nu abesa ô Muxima" Angolan Bolero or Muzonga, Lulas da Paixão "Histórias", Paulo Flores, Felipe Mukenga "Novo Som".
Mostly, he has innovated so much through a perfect and difficult match between progressive thinking and preservation of the roots and identity of the Angolan popular music and rhythms that he learnt from a very young age.
During the colonial experience in the Angolan history, he was discovered by a music entrepreneur and promotor, a Portuguese enthusiast of the Angolan culture called Luiz Montéz, at the age of 8 years old, in Bairro Operario (Blue-collar district), a very important and iconic urban area of Luanda, playing 3 different types of congas drums (Ngomas as we called in Angola).
He came from a lineage of traditional percussionists, from his grandfather João Dya Nguma, to his mother, Antonica João Martins, well known as Antonica Dya Geraldo, a "Bessangana" (woman dressed in African traditional attire with beads and adornments) from the island of Luanda who taught him how to play Ngomas (Batuque).
His mother was a very important and leader percussionist of cultural manifestations of Ludique and Xinguilamento "the power of the African ancestors", a ritual ceremony of evocation of spirits, trance and healing, a very old and symbolic feature of the Axiluandas, the natives of the island of Luanda.
His father Mestre Geraldo Lourenço Morgado, an accordionist, composer, choreographer, dynamic cultural promoter and very respected musician was an icon of traditional Massemba (Umbigadas), also known as Rebita music and dance (Rebita name was given by the Portuguese). He was also a very important figure on the Angolan carnival celebrations in Luanda, having participated and created various groups: Feijoeiros do Ngola Kimbanda, Novatos da Ilha, and União Mundo da Ilha.
During the Golden age of Angolan music, in the 60's and late 70's, Joãozinho Morgado was a very active musician with the highest demand of participation and recorded with almost every major popular artist in Angola.
In more recent times, Joãozinho Morgado has officially been recognised by the Angolan music industry and cultural critics and been given the title of the king of drums (O Rei dos Tambores), because he successfully exposed through sound new ways to value and treasure the Angolan traditional music and rhythms.
Tello Morgado
Musician/Percussionist/Event Music Producer
Master Degree in Music, SOAS-University of London
www.royalbatuque.com
released February 7, 2021