Musa Okwonga
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions Musa Okwonga globally...
Curation
CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Musa Okwonga
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City/Place:
Berlin
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Country:
Germany
Current News
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What's Up?
“I’ve known Musa for many years and I’ve always found him a very honest, very poignant wordsmith. He writes from the heart with no filter, and that’s what the best lyricists do. I’m a fan.”
—Ed Sheeran
Musa is precise and all-encompassing in the same line. His poetry is intimate and erudite, passionate and beautiful.”
—Kate Tempest
“Stirring, politicallay-charged, ….uplifting and inspiring”
—TRENCH Mag
“Pulsating…deliciously multi-faceted”
—VICE, About to Blow
Life & Work
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Bio:
Musa Okwonga is an Ugandan-British author, journalist and musician (BBXO) living in Berlin.
BBXO make a style of music they call “Future Blues”, sitting comfortably between spoken word and rap, between politics and pop. Their wondrously organic music freely meanders through pop culture history from the eighties into the beyond, a libertine purely driven by heart and instinct. They formed when Krisz Kreuzer, of urban blues sensation Brixtonboogie, met up with Musa Okwonga, a lauded London-born poet who had recently moved to Berlin. “I talk about the future and Krisz talks about the blues”, Okwonga laughs. “I am more rooted in electronic music and hip hop while Krisz is coming from a rootsy blues or dub reggae and hip hop background.” From the beginning, their aim was to make songs that speak of love, struggle and friendship in a way that is moving, often rousing, and ultimately uplifting.
“We have no borders, no boundaries”, Kreuzer states, and for once, it’s not just a PR effective slogan. BBXO have crafted a bass-heavy and accessible sound that is urgent, passionate and powerful. Their tunes effortlessly travel from Soul to Dancehall, from Blues to Grime to Pop, and are suitable for the whole range of moods; the late-afternoon euphoria of a midsummer festival, the quiet evening at home, the lonely but hopeful train journey towards a new adventure. Above all, it is a music that connects people like it links Kreuzer and Okwonga. With a message that is both optimistic and altruistic, BBXO light a torch in an age of darkness. “We live in compelling and worrying times”, Okwonga states. “With BBXO, we want to put across that yes, we understand that these times are challenging, but there is a way through it, an underlying positivity. The common theme of my writing is the turning point. Each song goes through that: It usually starts very dark and ends fairly optimistic.”
Optimism. There is possibly nothing we need more these days. BBXO deliver that, clad in thick beats, warm textures and sophisticated and eloquent words that Kreuzer calls “outstanding in contemporary music”. Political without addressing it constantly, they give a voice to the voiceless, to the rejected, oppressed and sexually targeted, at the same time being extremely personal. “My background is very dominant in my lyrics”, Okwonga says. “They are about my family’s struggles back in Uganda, escaping as refugees, about adjusting to a new society, about a black person in a mostly white world and how that can be challenging.” Kreuzer underlays Okwonga’s words with a sound which is both contemporary and accessible, yet not lacking in depth and texture. A fateful match, as one cannot fail to see. “We both like a wide range of music and know exactly what the other stands for in BBXO”, Kreuzer says of this special bond.
With Kreuzer being based in Hamburg while Okwonga lives in Berlin, both of them love the respective possibilities their hometowns offer them. “Hamburg is a music city”, Kreuzer raves. “It has a great vibe to work in plus our label is based here.” Okwonga, on the other hand, praises the energy he feeds off in Berlin. “Berlin is the ideal breeding ground for creativity. The city is incredibly intense at night, delivering that huge adrenaline rush, but during the days it is very calm, making it a great place to reflect and work.” In the end, it’s the striking blend of two artists extraordinaire and the influence of two of Germany’s most vibrant cities that’s making BBXO one of a kind. Anti racist, anti hate – and pro love, pro earth, pro hope. Trust us, we need that.
Clips (more may be added)
The Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... concatenating branches of a virtual rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, canopy spreading to embrace the entire planet...
Ex Terra Brasilis
A starting point for this project was the culture born in Brazil's quilombos (in Angola a "quilombo" is a village; in Brazil it is a village either founded by Africans or Afro-Brazilians who had escaped slavery, or — as in the case of São Francisco do Paraguaçu above — occupied by such after abandonment by the ruling class). Below Milton Nascimento sings "Ony Saruê" for the deity Oxalá, from his Misso dos Quilombos (Mass for the Quilombos)...
...theme music for this Brazilian Matrix, from an Afro-Brazilian Mass by
From inside this Matrix, all creators-creative entities everywhere — empowered by the mathematics of network theory — become potentially discoverable by all people worldwide. Go straight to one of the (randomly selected) creators-creative entities below to see how their Matrix Page — information and media, outgoing and incoming curation — works (reload to feature other artists/creators), or find out below the black line below what unsung (metaphorically only) brilliance this is all about:
More on these profound incubators of Afro-Brazilian culture at:
Os Quilombos da Bahia
The Quilombos of Bahia
There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination. Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics — there’s no other place like it in the world. And while Rio de Janeiro, or its fame anyway, tends toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia bends toward the atavistic…
It’s like a trick of the mind’s light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there (and here; the Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet ... in the past it extended into what is now urban Salvador), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.
That's where this Matrix begins:
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers worldwide.
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX