BaianaSystem makes its Buenos Aires debut on Sunday the 8th.

BaianaSystem in Buenos Aires: the debut on Sunday the 8th

The Brazilian band BaianaSystem makes its Buenos Aires debut this Sunday, November 8, with a show at C Art Media. The group comes from Salvador de Bahía and, according to Infobae, arrives with more than fifteen years of work in the popular music of its country. It will be their first performance in the Argentine capital.

Infobae presents the band as one of the groups with the most intense live shows in Latin America right now. Its proposal mixes Afro percussion, dub and rock on the same stage. The piece also points out that its followers show a loyalty rarely seen in the independent scene of the continent.

From Pelourinho to the stage: how the Bahian band was born

The project started in 2009 in Pelourinho, the historic neighborhood of Salvador de Bahía, led by Russo Passapusso and Roberto Barreto, known as Beto. Barreto began to join the baiana guitar, an electric instrument with street origins, with the culture of the Jamaican sound system. “The name comes from there: baiana guitar with sound system,” the musician told Infobae Cultura. Over time, according to the same outlet, that mix moved from the streets of Salvador to important stages in Brazil and Europe.

Over time, hip hop and dub were added to that base, along with three rhythms from the Brazilian tradition: samba-reggae, frevo and afoxé. According to Infobae, the mix holds together with an aesthetic coherence that few groups in the region have achieved.

The leap came in 2016 with the album Duas Cidades, produced together with Daniel Ganjaman. That year the APCA (Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte) named them the most outstanding live band in Brazil. International festivals and a collaboration with Manu Chao followed.

What a BaianaSystem show sounds like

Live, the group works like a band mounted on a truck that rolls down the street, the format known in Brazil as a trio elétrico. Infobae sums it up as a mix of heavy bass, Afro percussion and distorted guitars that carries the audience into a collective trance.

The journalist Gil Luiz Mendes described it on the Brazilian site Scream & Yell after seeing them at the 2017 Bananada Festival: “Going to a BaianaSystem show means being certain of finding a state of collective catharsis.” Infobae brings back that quote to preview what is coming to Buenos Aires.

Claudia Manzo and the bridge to Latin America

Claudia Manzo, a Chilean singer and cultural activist, has been part of the group for four years. Her arrival strengthened the Latin American side of the project, according to Infobae. Manzo and Russo Passapusso met through an online conversation in the middle of the pandemic, and two songs on the album Oxaxé Exú came out of it.

Another link to the Spanish-speaking world is Sulamericano, a track on the album O Futuro Não Demora with Manu Chao taking part. Barreto said that as soon as Manu Chao heard the song, he answered that he wanted to join. For the guitarist, a track like that helps more people connect with the band in another language.

Barreto also noted that Brazil is the only country on the continent that speaks Portuguese, and that this raises barriers with its neighbors. Projects like Manzo's, he said, aim to shorten that distance.

If you go

The debut is on Sunday, November 8, at C Art Media, in Buenos Aires. The sources we read do not give ticket prices or the sales channel, so it is worth confirming those details with the venue before heading out. To get an idea of what is coming, the show is closer to a concert on the move than to a band standing still: distorted guitars, heavy bass and an audience that, according to Infobae, falls into a trance. If you want to arrive with something already heard, look for the 2016 album Duas Cidades, or the song Sulamericano, the one they recorded with Manu Chao.