I'm leaving tomorrow to Zanzibar to do sound for a documentary on a women's football team during the World Cup and then to take time on my own to work on music. Expect postings in the near future on Bongo Flava and Taraab.....for the time being, check out the Dhow Countries Music Academy (that's a dhow in the photo in front of Zanzibar Stone Town) for lots of info on various traditional musics of Zanzibar. The official site for Zanzibar has lots of general info on the island as well as a fairly comprehensive rundown of musical groups based in Zanzibar.

Here are a couple of tracks which are dedicated to the shining, valient men of the Polícia Militar do Rio de Janeiro (vai se foder mother fuckers!) that I met after said festa at casa da matriz below.

Rebel MC remix of an original Jah Screw production featuring Barrington Levy and Beenie Man - Under me Sensi (Jungle Spliff). 1994 Greensleeves.

And, Junior Delgado, obviously singing about Kingston, Jamaica, but quite applicable to Rio de Janeiro. The only difference being that they'd be calling in the army to control the police......No, really, jokes aside, there was a proposal not too long ago to bring in the national guard to aid the military police to invade key favelas in order to control the escalating violence associated with drug trafficking. But, then it's all so convoluted. What came first the chicken or the egg, the crime or the corruption?

"Armed Robbery," Junior Delgado from Original Guerilla Music-The Great JA Recordings.