Episode 164: Northeast and North Brazil

This is the music of Northeastern Brazil, the hot and dry region extending from the country’s Atlantic seaboard West to the edges of the Amazon rainforest. There is a thin strip of land along the coast that does receive rain; this was the first land colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th Century. Enslaved peoples from Africa were brought here to work on sugar plantations, while native peoples in this area were displaced to the less desirable land to the West. The capital cities of all northeastern states are all on the coast, where there is a mix of European, African, and native cultures; as you pass to the West, however, the population shows more native heritage, along with the descendants of escaped African workers who formed outlaw communities here. This dry region is today known in Brazil as “sertao,” or backlands. And we'll here other regional sounds at the end of the show... carimbo from the Amazonian Northern part of the country.