About this event

Following the packed-out last Brazil + Africa session, Volta45 invites Joe Davis, founder of Far Out Recordings, for another deep session tracing the musical links between Africa and Brazil.

Joe Davis has spent more than three decades digging into, releasing and championing Brazilian music. He founded Far Out Recordings in London in 1994 after years of collecting records and travelling to Brazil, building relationships with many of the musicians whose records he had first discovered from afar.

Since then, Far Out has become one of the most important labels for Brazilian music outside Brazil. Its catalogue stretches across generations, with releases from Azymuth, Marcos Valle, Joyce Moreno, Arthur Verocai, Hermeto Pascoal, Milton Nascimento, The Ipanemas and many more. Joe has not simply reissued records either. Far Out has helped bring artists back into the studio, supported new recordings and introduced music that was once incredibly difficult to find to completely new audiences.

His relationship with Arthur Verocai is a perfect example. Joe discovered Verocai’s 1972 debut while record digging in Rio and years later helped bring him back into the studio for Encore. Far Out also began working with Azymuth in the 1990s, encouraging the group back into recording new material, and later helped reform The Ipanemas with Wilson das Neves and Neco.

That influence stretches well beyond Brazilian music circles. Gilles Peterson, Kenny Dope and 4hero have all dug through the Far Out catalogue for the label’s Brazilika series, while Theo Parrish, Dego, Mark Pritchard and other producers from jazz, broken beat, house and electronic music have worked with the label over the years.

Joining him is Volta45, a Ghanaian-born, London-based DJ, record collector and archivist whose own digging connects music from across Africa, South America and the French Caribbean. His work as co-compiler of Borga Revolution! and his wider research into West African music runs through everything he plays.

Volta45 has been building this series of nights at Grow around those connections, previously inviting artists including The Scorpios, Fofoulah and Plantfood. This time it comes down to two serious record collectors, each with decades of music behind them, digging into the African and Brazilian records that connect their collections.

This one is a celebration of two distinct but deeply interwoven musical worlds, brought together through groove, rhythm and soul. Expect Brazilian jazz, samba, funk and MPB meeting highlife, Afrobeat and sounds from across West Africa and the wider diaspora, with both selectors drawing on years of digging to show just how much these musical histories have always spoken to each other.

ENTRY INFORMATION + TICKETS

Limited £5/£7 advance tickets via RA (before 10pm)

Free before 9pm

The majority of tickets are on the door for £10 (after 9pm)

Last entry 1 am