FLAC tracks +booklet   | african; latin; cumbia; dance | 40:36 |  301 MbIn the 1950s, a few young men, known as Badius, embarked on a nearly 2,500-mile (4000 km) journey from the northern rural interior of Cabo Verde’s Santiago Island to the island of São Tomé off the Atlantic coast of central Africa.

Incredibly, they made the arduous journey not to earn a better living or send money back home — but to simply buy an accordion, locally known as a gaita.

They would work years in harsh conditions to earn enough to buy the instrument and a few more years to buy a ticket back to Santiago.

Returning home, they slowly formed an elite class of self-taught gaita players who achieved a status similar to the griots of West Africa: venerated: wise elderly men archiving Badiu history in their diatonic button accordions.

The gaita became the maximum expression of Badiu identity, one defined over centuries by a persistent culture of revolt and rebellion against domination and injustice.

In a land lacking electricity, the acoustic instrument is king.

The gaita masters marriage to a hard-won instrument gave birth to raw Funaná music, undoubtedly a trans-Atlantic sibling of Colombian Cumbia.

Hypnotic notes on aged accordions, tuned and flavored in ways found nowhere but Santiago, became infused with inviting baselines, raucous rhythms, blade-on-iron percussion and the bubbling lyricism and lament of the island’s finest ambassadors, their lyrics spoke of the trials of daily scarcity and playfully crafted whole metaphors within songs.

Tracklist:01. Ferro Gaita – Rei di Tabanka (4:40)02. Etalvinho Preta – Mulato Ferrera (3:48)03. Tchota Suari e Chando Graciosa – Nha Boi (6:21)04. Avelino e Orlando Pantera – Nha Lutcha (5:23)05. Peps Love – Pom Um Grogu (6:31)06. Bitori e Fefé di Calbicera – Mô Na Máma (4:33)07. Orlando Pantera – Rabidanti (5:01)08. Fefé di Calbicera – Tra Tchapéu (4:20)