THE TRUE SOIL OF MATEUS ALELUIA

 

Celebrated as one of the musical masters of baroque Africanity since he gained projection in the 1970s as a member of the group Os Tincoãs, a Bahia trio he joined in 1963, Mateus Aleluia prepares Olorum, the third solo record of the musical master of afro-baianity, and is the subject of a documentary film at the age of 78.

 

If in the first two albums Aleluia seemed to sing intimately, softly echoing the strong drums and gingados of Os Tincoãs on the guitar, in his voice, and in the sophisticated arrangements, now he returns in great part to the fusion of the past, but with a maturity and a religious and political force that mark him as an unavoidable figure.

 

In this sense, the new album is in fact more ambitious, showing a musical, lyrical and conceptual project even more unitary, in a way that demands an attentive listening from end  to end. "Olorum" is already a legacy in Brazil, the album brings the specific search of ancestry and the collective search for liberation and, Aleluia concludes, "it can only happen through the recognition of the human in the differences, independent of creed, gender and color”.

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Olorum is a true black Atlantic in movement, without pretension to notions of a single origin or idealized purity: Aleluia understands in body and song that ancestry is an experience of the living present, and not of a lost past. In the repertoire, this can be seen in the various rhythms and modes that the record takes on, sometimes almost flirting with gospel, as in Samba-oração, or with northeastern musicalities honed in Creole.His  deep  vocals celebrate the African spirituality world and embodies its many facets with extraordinary sophistication.