Brazil’s answer to Marley: Tribo de Jah
On December 31, 2009, revelers in São Luis, the reggae capital of Brazil (highlighted in our current issue) were treated to the steamy beats of hometown heroes Tribo de Jah under a full moon. Flanked by towering radiola speakers on three sides, the band has been playing New Year’s Eve in São Luis on and off for nearly 25 years. Indeed, Tribo de Jah’s unlikely success captures the ‘power to the people’ spirit of roots reggae at its core.
Formed in 1985 after the fall of the military dictatorship, five of the six members met while working at the School for the Blind, where they were also busy crafting their own instruments and playing in local clubs. (Four members are completely blind and one has only partial vision.) The quintet began their career covering the highly danceable lambada tunes that were popular at the time. Concurrently, Fauzi Beydoun was making waves as the first DJ to host a reggae program on the air. While the sound was initially frowned upon as “ghetto culture,” the social, political and spiritual messages of the music took root. Beydoun soon joined forces with the band and lent vocals to their sound. Together they began crafting a Brazilian take on Jamaican rhythms. In 1995, this small band from the country’s poorest state found themselves performing at the most important venue of their genre, the Reggae Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica.
Today the band is still bringing reggae’s message of peace, love, and jah (God) to the masses. In 2008, they released two new CDs: the English language Love to the World, Peace to the People and The Babylon Inside, largely in Portuguese for their Brazilian fans. They have plans for a third companion CD featuring dub versions of the songs.
Watch Tribo de Jah perform the song Garota Dreadlock (dreadlocked girl) from their 2008 album Rafazendo.
For more on the São Luis scene, check out “The Reggae Capital of Brazil” on page 20 of Afar’s December 2009/January 2010 issue.
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