Album Notes

Since ancient times story tellers have captured our imaginations with exotic tales of adventure in far-away places. Rasheed Ali is a musician who uses the concept album to propel our daydreams across oceans.
Rasheed’s previous CD: “Tristeza e Beleza Na Cidade Negra” (Sadness & Beauty in the Black City) was a musical narrative of his three month stay in Salvador da Bahia, Brasil in the fall of 2003. With his newest CD, the musical story teller and adventurer once again takes us along on an intimate journey to Brasil. Ali’s latest odyssey, “Beijos Azuis” (Blue Kisses) is a mystical fable set to the backdrop of Bahia Carnival.

The underpinning for this story begins in March 2006, when Rasheed was invited back to Brasil for Bahia Carnival as a featured guest performer with the band Conexão Tribal. As the Caribbean musician explains; “This CD could have been called ‘Sadness & Beauty in the Carnival’ because carnival is always an unpredictable alternate reality that blends the forces of dark and light!”
Whereas Tristeza e Beleza na Cidade Negra was largely an essay on Bahia’s gravity as the centre of the African Diaspora in the Americas. This time around, Ali has woven together a collection of songs that highlight the mystical force of Bahia. He revisits the city of Salvador da Bahia, Brasil with a graceful outlook on a densely complex part of the world.

Inspired by the naked honesty of Brasil’s folk music, many of the songs on this CD feature the simplicity of voice and drums. This intriguing CD resonates with the raw intimacy of a bedtime story.

“Our unpredictable adventures can be translated into compelling works of art!”
-Rasheed ali