{"id":256769,"date":"2019-09-18T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T10:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=256769"},"modified":"2019-09-20T15:54:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T18:54:19","slug":"fauzi-beydouns-multiple-rhythms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/fauzi-beydouns-multiple-rhythms\/","title":{"rendered":"Fauzi Beydoun\u2019s multiple rhythms"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Singer-songwriter Fauzi Beydoun from the reggae group Tribo de Jah<\/a> is about to launch his second album of his new project Fauzi Beydoun & The Soul Vibe. Now 60 years old, the son of a Lebanese father with a Brazilian mother of Italian descent born in Assis, S\u00e3o Paulo talked to ANBA about his new work, his relationship with his father, the three years he spent in a Lebanese community in Ivory Coast and future projects.<\/p>\n

Fauzi\u2019s father Mohamed Ali Abdul Hamid Beydoun was a Muslim from South Lebanon and arrived in Brazil in the late 40s. Speaking no Portuguese, he went to the countryside of S\u00e3o Paulo to work as a traveling salesman. There he met Fauzi\u2019s mother Emigdia Juliana Menegon Beydoun, a daughter of Italian parents. Their daughter was born in the city of Iep\u00ea, Fauzi was born in Assis, some years later. When he was two, his father left Brazil because of financial problems. Emigdia didn\u2019t want to go with him because of their small children. Mohamed passed by several countries and eventually settled in the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fauzi (L) with his father Mohamed in Ivory Coast in 1974<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen I was 13, my dad sent us letters in Arabic, which had to be translated by a Lebanese friend of my mother. In on of them, he invited me to live with him in the African country. I wanted to meet my father. I went to Abidjan, then Ivory Coast\u2019s capital city [and theme of a famous song by Tribo de Jah, \u2018Abidjan, Abidjan\u2019<\/a>], where I lived for three years with my dad in the 1970s,\u201d said Fauzi. There he learned French, the official language of the country which was a France colony until 1960. He used to talk with his father in Portuguese and said there was a large Lebanese community there, of around 35,000 people. He also learned a bit of Arabic. At Tribo de Jah, Fauzi sings in Portuguese, French, Spanish and English.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I lived in Africa, there was a large, very tight Lebanese community. Despite the French school, it was a very deep immersion in the Lebanese culture, cuisine, customs, tradition. This left a very deep impression on me that I keep until today. It moved me deeply, I really enjoyed because it was very remarkable, a Lebanon in Africa. The community was always together there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the late 1980s, Mohamed moved back to South Lebanon, to the city of Tyre, where he started a new family. Fauzi has three Lebanese half-brothers and one half-sister. Around ten years ago, his father came to Brazil to spend a month. It was the last time they saw each other. \u201cWhen he came to Brazil, we talked a lot, went fishing, back when I lived in Atibaia. We hanged out, went to restaurants. I\u2019m proud of my background,\u201d said Fauzi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I inherited my father\u2019s sense of adventure, his nomadic nature. We go where the wind blows. Other things we have in common are the temper, political affinities and worldviews, the way we see things, family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Beydoun died two years ago in Lebanon. \u201cI couldn\u2019t go to my father\u2019s funeral because of contractual obligations with Tribo [de Jah], I had to carry out the contract. But I plan visiting Lebanon soon, that is my wish. He [my father] really wanted I went there. I couldn\u2019t, but I\u2019ll still go someday,\u201d Fauzi said, adding that he wanted to go with his family to visit his uncles and half-brother that still live there, as well as other relatives.<\/p>\n

The artist is not Muslim. \u201cI was raised a Christian by my mother and see myself as a self-taught Catholic of several religions,\u201d he said. Now, Fauzi lives in S\u00e3o Lu\u00eds, Maranh\u00e3o, having lived for several years in S\u00e3o Paulo when Tribo de Jah started going big.<\/p>\n

Fauzi Beydoun & The Soul Vibe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now 60, Fauzi said he is at his creative peak. Two years ago, he started a new band, Fauzi Beydoun & The Soul Vibe<\/a>, a fusion of world music, blues, reggae, and bossa nova. \u201cIt\u2019s a different sound from Tribo [de Jah]\u2019s. I have worked as a songwriter for over 40 years and feel very musically productive, and theses styles don\u2019t fit into Tribo, which has a more roots reggae sound from Maranh\u00e3o,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The band Tribo de Jah has been around for 34 years<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fauzi said the band\u2019s second album is being produced. \u201cLater this year or the next, we\u2019ll release the second album, which I hope it is my ultimate music product and expect to leave it as my legacy. It\u2019s a work for the next generations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to brag, it\u2019s a high-quality work. I really loved all that counterculture music, Janis Joplin, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendry, before stumbling on reggae, and I liked Brazilian music, progressive rock, Frank Zappa, alternative stuff. From all this musical learning of a lifetime, I\u2019m trying to synthetize what I believe it\u2019s a palatable, good-listening music. Before playing reggae, I used to play blues, but then Tribo made me busy and I hadn\u2019t the time to give vent to other styles, so now I tried to extract the best from all I could learn and the result is the work with Soul Vibe,\u201d Fauzi explained.<\/p>\n

The \u201cSoul in Love\u201d music video was released in August 28.<\/p>\n

(The story continues after the video)<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nnE4DNADl1s<\/a><\/p>\n

Tribo de Jah<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Tribo de Jah, it\u2019s a different story, said Fauzi. \u201cThe band established with a roots-reggae reference. It\u2019s a band that represents the Maranh\u00e3o style of enjoying reggae and imprinted this identity and I think that\u2019s what made Tribo resilient enough to stay strong after thirty years even outside the mainstream media. We became a reference of roots reggae. When people talk about Brazilian reggae, they think on Tribo de Jah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fauzi believes that Jamaican reggae lost its way, it\u2019s not the same from the time of Bob Marley. Jamaican reggae lost their sound in the 1970s. Tribo is much more purist than current Jamaican bands. If you go there, you’ll find reggaeton, a much more electronic style that sings about drugs, sex and swag; it changed completely, some few groups still preserve the reggae tradition. Reggae is actually being better preserved by bands outside [Jamaica], in the United States, United Kingdom, the Virgin Islands. If you listen to Tribo [de Jah]\u2019s last albums you\u2019ll notice it\u2019s a much more organic, roots sound, and we\u2019re very respected in festivals abroad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Current formation of the band with Luan Richard and Pedro Beydoun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The reggae band Tribo de Jah has been around for 34 years, and its current formation is almost the same from the beginning. \u201cOnly the keyboardist Fraz\u00e3o retired and Luan Richard assumed, and the first vocalist left seven years ago, now my son [Pedro Beydoun] sings on his place,\u201d he said. Aquiles Rabelo (bass), Jo\u00e3o Rodrigues (drums) and Neto Enes (guitar) are from the original formation. The three of them are visually impaired and they met at Escola de Cegos do Maranh\u00e3o [Maranh\u00e3o School for the Blind], where the band began.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur band now has just old, family men. But when we were young, we had a revolutionary spirit that the band carries until now. Our song themes were always against the system. We criticize corruption, impunity, globalization, the savage capitalism, the financial casino that is the stock market. I\u2019m no communist, but I am critical of social inequality. All the money that is embezzled could be used to make a fairer country, but we don\u2019t have people capable to govern for the benefit of the majority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Having released nineteen albums, Fauzi said Tribo de Jah remains critical, but has also a spiritualist tone. \u201cWe have songs such as \u2018Farsa da Democracia<\/a>,\u2019 \u2018Traidores da P\u00e1tria<\/a>\u2019 (both from the album \u2018Confiss\u00f5es de um Velho Guerreiro\u2019), about the dictatorship of the money. But we also have songs with a more spiritual content, where we talk about God without a specific religion, and we have a host of loyal fans, it\u2019s very rewarding to have such a feedback,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tribo de Jah\u2019s next project is recording an acoustic DVD. \u201cI believe it\u2019s something to crow the band, a very neat, careful acoustic work, very roots, very organic. The project has already been approved; we just have to raise funds, but it\u2019ll probably happen in the first half of next year,\u201d said Fauzi.<\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Press Release<\/div>\n
Personal Archive<\/div>\n
Press Release<\/div>\n
Press Release<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazilian singer-songwriter talked to ANBA about his Lebanese father, the future of the band Tribo de Jah and his new group, Fauzi Beydoun & The Soul Vibe, which will soon release their second album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2305,"featured_media":256597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,3066],"tags":[11240,11201,11241,11237,11242,11205,11243,11244,11235,11245,11204,11246,11238,11236,11247,11202,11248,11203,11249,11239,11250,11251],"class_list":{"0":"post-256769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-society","9":"tag-abidjan-en","10":"tag-aquiles-rabelo","11":"tag-aquiles-rabelo-en","12":"tag-brazilian-reggae","13":"tag-dvd-tribo-de-jah-en","14":"tag-dvd-tribo-de-jah","15":"tag-fauzi-beydoun-en","16":"tag-fauzi-beydoun-the-soul-vibe-en","17":"tag-ivory-coast","18":"tag-joao-rodrigues-en","19":"tag-luan-richard","20":"tag-luan-richard-en","21":"tag-maranhao-reggae","22":"tag-maranhao-school-for-the-blind","23":"tag-neto-enes-en","24":"tag-neto-enes","25":"tag-pedro-beydoun-en","26":"tag-pedro-beydoun","27":"tag-reggae-en","28":"tag-roots-reggae","29":"tag-the-soul-vibe-en","30":"tag-tribo-de-jah-en"},"wps_subtitle":"Brazilian singer-songwriter talked to ANBA about his Lebanese father, the future of the band Tribo de Jah and his new group, Fauzi Beydoun & The Soul Vibe, which will soon release their second album.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}