What is Sambacana?

Sambacana is an online radio show that was originally compiled for the (now defunct) Brazil Network site by Rio de Janeiro-based DJ/producer Maga Bo. The entire series has been archived here for your listening pleasure, with new editions being added from time to time.

The aim of the show is to expose Brazilian music of all kinds, from its wildly varying roots to its most current manifestations — old and new, organic and synthetic. It is a sounding out of the history and connections between various genres, styles, time periods and artists, in order to highlight the vast diversity found within Brazilian music and how ideas cross genres and span generations. Sambacana is an outlet for new, relatively unknown artists as well as a voice of the old school (Velha Guarda); it is a celebration of the flow between modern and roots music and the rich crosspollination of styles that has occurred in Brazilian music.

About Maga Bo

Maga Bo is a DJ/producer working with an international collision of styles, sounds, location recordings from all continents and beats that have yet to be classified. A study in the digital contortions of hip hop, ragga, breakbeat and jungle drum ‘n’ bass, his sound is a divine (s)mashup of batucada, rai, capoeira, bhangra, and skewed electronic beats in a borderless conundrum of gritty street sounds, found and modified rhythms and melodies from Brazil, Morocco, Senegal, India and beyond. DJing and producing tracks with a portable laptop studio, he has worked and performed in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. If you would like to know more about the show, send music, suggestions, requests or feedback, passe um email!

About Brazil Network

Brazil Network was established as an information network committed to supporting those striving to create a vibrant, ethnically and culturally diverse, egalitarian Brazilian society. Although the organisation no longer maintains an online presence, Brazil Network's work and legacy continues at the recently relaunched site of the Latin America Bureau.