Ethnically and Culturally Inspired Music
At the iconic Restaurant Afrika in the Slaughterhouse district, Stockholm’s new hot club scene, Gil Felix invited colleagues and friends to a packed release party on September 28th to present his 7th album, Ubalafon. The tricontinental, seven-piece Gil Felix Band lined up the new afropop hits like Sambuê, Maire, and Ubalafon alongside favorites from previous albums: Zumba, Cachoeira, and Vida. The highlight for the Brazilian diaspora in the audience was Depois que o Ilê Passar, where everyone joined in a repetitive tribute to the first Afro-Brazilian carnival group in Salvador de Bahía, which broke centuries of racial discrimination and paved the way for the flourishing of Afro-Brazilian culture.
The fact that African music has traveled back and forth across the Atlantic is evident in Gil Felix’s musical universe, where Congolese soukous and Angolan sounds mix with Bahian samba reggae, spiced with new Nigerian afrobeat. The music has a wonderful energy, it’s danceable and warm, with percussionists anchoring the beats to the floor and West African guitar riffs floating above. Gil Felix’s velvety voice carries a Pan-African message to the diverse audience, about resilience, resistance, the power of joy and truth.
The guest artists who joined added an extra touch of gold to this transatlantic gathering: Neto Amado from São Tomé and Simone Moreno, Sweden’s Brazilian queen, also from Salvador de Bahía, plus Gil Felix’s own daughter, Janine Felix, with her own compositions. When Kanga Musa from the previous album echoed through the venue, telling the story of how gold from Timbuktu became a European source for the conquest of the Americas, Gil Felix stepped forward as the cultural focal point and storyteller that he is.
Lineup: Gil Felix, vocals, guitar, Celso Paco, drums, Carolina Setubal, bass, Homero Alvarez, lead guitar, Mats B Olson, keyboard, harmonica, Kebba Jobz and Mzwakhe Dumzara, percussion
Venue: Restaurant Afrika
Promoter: Klub Kabeza
