Bambula
Batucada Yemanjá
Música Molida
World Vision
Bambula
7 Wheels of Bembé
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Música Molida Photos 1
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Bambula is the Caribbean alter-ego of Batucada Yemanjá - two different groups, repertoires and identities but the same folks. Bambula performs the colonial musical styles of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Brazil. Sung in Spanish and Portuguese, this unique literature is heavily spiced with vocabulary from various West African languages such as Yoruba.
In their earliest forms samba, rumba, calypso, bomba and plena were played exclusively by percussion orchestras. They used gourds, bamboo and other materials that were difficult to identify as "musical instruments" in a period when African instruments and music were illegal during slavery. The keyboard instrument from which Bambula takes its name, is just such an instrument and is made from various lengths of bamboo creating harmonies alongside the bandolím [mandolin], marimba, marímbula and steel drums [pans].
