Iyexa

The season gives the taste. If the mixture of the ingredients is well done, the flavor becomes even more special. This analogy can also be applied to the hearing. Vowing to induce sensations which mobilize all senses, the Brazilian band Iyexa presents itself as the newest delicacy to be added to the international music menu.

The ingredients are all well known, but the recipe is original. To combine the diverse rhythms played in its homeland, Bahia – the Reconcavo’s Chula, the afoxes Ijexa and the percussion from the afro blocks – with pop, black music, jazz and electronic is what this band intends. Iyexa is formed by young musicians, though experienced ones, with playing experiences of having performed with great brazilian and international artists such as Jerry Gonzalez, Gary Willys, Javier Ruibal, Armandinho, Fagner, Elba Ramalho, Geraldo Azevedo, Flavio Venturini, Saul Barbosa and Peu Meurray

The musicians knew each other’s work for a long time, some have even joined other’s in different musical projects in Bahia, but it was in Europe that the recipe, now known as Iyexa, was tried for the first time. The band gathered to perform with Cristiano in a Barcelona concert, at the Harlem Jazz Club, in July 2005. With the revealed affinity in this concert, the will to develop a joined long term project and the invitations received to new presentations, the birth of Iyexa as a band came naturally.

For a year, the band performed on a monthly basis in “Sala Bikini”, one of the best musical rooms in Europe, by which have passed names like Jack Johnson, Green Day, Ben Harper, Shakira, amongst other important artists. In 2006, they performed in some very important musical festivals, such as: the 17º Festival Voll Damm de Jazz y Música Creativa, the 6º Brasil Noar (Festival Internacional de la Nueva Arte Brasileña) and the Festival of World Cultures, in Dublin, Ireland. Moreover, they have gone around Europe along with the musical tour of the “SOS Racism” NGO, which demands the rights for immigrants to vote.

For those who want to try this new taste, good news: Iyexa’s debut CD, after almost one year of development, is already for sale in brazilian stores and will be available in europe by the next autumn. Produced in Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona, Salvador and Sao Paulo, the CD is launched in Brazil by the label “Cavaleiros de Jorge” (Eldorado/TRAMA), of the awarded producer and artist J. Velloso. In europe, the CD is launched under the "Batiendo records" label, with "El diablo" distribution.

Without losing sight the cosmopolitan and contemporary flow, this first work reflects the roots of the “afro-baiana” music, in own and all-new song-writings, as well as in the songs’ performances, also brand new, of some Bahia composers.

The band name’s inspiration came from “Ijexa”, an African rhythm brought to Bahia by the first slaves. It was used in the rituals of “Candomble” and popularized by the “Afoxes” (carnival blocks associated with the “Candomble”), amongst which the “Filhos de Gandhy” (Sons of Gandhy) is the most representative. If “Ijexa” is the base of the bands’ works and is present, not only in the name, but also throughout the songs, nothing would be more fair than, in Iyexa’s first CD, to pay tribute to the “Filhos de Gandhy”, main responsible for this music popularization and for having kept it alive up to today.