São Paulo has become the experimental-fusion centre of Brazilian music, as bands mix styles from across the country with music from Africa and beyond. Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat has already influenced Bixiga 70 and Metá Metá, and now come Nomade Orquestra, blending west African themes with Ethiopian jazz and North American styles. This inventive, 10-piece instrumental band match a powerful brass section against guitars, drum and bass, creating tuneful big-band music driven by insistent riffs and constantly changing direction. So Rinoceronte Blues starts out as Ethio-jazz but ends up as harmonica-backed blues. Elsewhere, stomping brass band music segues into funk or rock-guitar solos, and grand themes are matched against cool, late-night atmospheric pieces.
