Episode Five: DJing the Black Atlantic with Big Joe
In this episode, Candida and Ruby interview Joe DaMoura, also known as DJ Big Joe, who has worn many hats in the Cape Verdean / American community: host of the radio show Cape Verdean Afro Beat, live DJ, Director of the Cape Verdean Museum, and documentary filmmaker. Topics of interest include: and how the Black Atlantic history of Cape Verdean music can help us make sense of newer genres like cabo-zouk, Kriolu rap, and Cape Verdean reggae; whether or not DJing can be considered “live music;” and the technological modifications that Joe has made to his turntables, from cassette to computer. The conversation digresses into such topics as: what it’s like to DJ for teenagers at age 50; Big Joe’s ideal playlist; and radio listeners dancing in their living rooms.
DJ Big Joe’s Personalized Playlist:
A CLASSIC:
“Yota Barela,” Kodé di Dona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhap2MwBtOA
A FRESH HIT:
“Mundo,” PCC, feat. Kandengue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH4sWexi2TE
A HEARTFELT TUNE:
“Nunca Bu Amam,” Ló de Pina:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgvj6UzX45U
Episode Five Transcription Download
EPISODE RESOURCES
To see more from Joe, you can head to his YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@djbigjoe5725
Or, see him in person at the Cape Verdean Museum, now located in Pawtucket, RI -- he’ll gladly give you a tour: https://capeverdeanmuseum.org/
Joe’s documentary films, “Nos Stória di Rabeladus” (“Our Story of the Rabeladus,” with English subtitles) and “Nos Stória di Kampo Konsentrasao na Tarrafal” (“Our Story of the Tarrafal Concentration Camp”) are also available on his YouTube channel.
To listen live on Saturday afternoons to Cape Verdean Afro Beats, now hosted by Amadeu Semedo, head to the WRIU website: https://wriu.org/.
REFERENCES AND SOURCES
Bulimundo and the Funaná Revolution: https://afropop.org/articles/pour-me-a-grog-thefunan%C3%A1-revolt-in-1990s-cabo-verde
About musical suppression during colonization: Cidra, Rui. 2018. “Cabral, Popular Music and the Debate on Cape Verdean Creoleness.” Postcolonial Studies 21: 4 (December): 433–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2018.1542575.
Controversy and conversation about cabo-zouk: Hoffman, JoAnne. 2008. “Diasporic Networks, Political Change, and Cabo-Zouk Music.” In Transnational Archipelago: Perspectives on Cape Verdean Migration and Diaspora. Edited by Luís Batalha and Jørgen Carling. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 205-220. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46msd4.
Transdiasporic musical adaptations: Sieber, Timothy. 2005. “Popular Music and Cultural Identity in the Cape Verdean Postcolonial Diaspora.” Etnografica 9 (1): 123–48.
Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
About Cidade Velha - https://www.ovpm.org/city/cidade-velha-cape-verde/
Grace Évora, “Imovel” (cabo-zouk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r727lTfesTY
Musical connections between Cabo Verde and Brazil: Dias, Juliana Braz. 2011. “Cape Verde and Brazil Musical Connections.” Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology 8: 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1809-43412011000100004.
Cesária Évora, “Carnaval de São Vicente” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aylEOekG0d0
More on the history of Cape Verdean Atlantic musical circulations: Hurley-Glowa, Susan. 2015. “Cape Verdeans in the Atlantic: The Formation of Kriolu Music and Dance Styles on Ship and in Port.” African Music 10(1): 7–30.
A couple of Djim Job’s takes on reggae:
~“Nem Si” :
https://open.spotify.com/track/6Bf3z9Xu27BD9graTtGoFm?si=9343ec8e903247c5
~”Notícia” : https://open.spotify.com/track/2OlvvZXuFEeonnyzdnqDPd?si=a6c8463e37c34e7e
Listen to Cabo Verde Brockton Heat radio: https://www.brocktonheat.com/
Rabeka music, a fiddling style from Cabo Verde:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU4I5xROkAc
Talaia baxu, a genre from the island of Fogo: https://youtu.be/aMUlkWX9O40
Debates around “liveness:” Braz Dias, Juliana. 2014. “Live Music in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Cape Verde.” In People, Money and Power in the Economic Crisis: Perspectives from the Global South. Edited by Keith Hart and John Sharp. 130-149. New York: Berghahn Books.
The art of turntableism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBPpww37_f4
The obsession with records: Bohlman, Andrea F., and Peter McMurray. 2017. “Tape, or, Rewinding the Phonographic Regime.” Twentieth-Century Music 14(1): 3-24.
Cape Verdeanness & American Blackness – Sánchez Gibau, Gina. 2005. “Contested Identities: Narratives of Race and Ethnicity in the Cape Verdean Diaspora.” Identities 12 (3): 405–38.
Tarrafal: https://www.wmf.org/project/tarrafal-concentration-camp
MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE
“Notícia,” performed by Djim Job on his album Amor & Música (2016). Copyright Music of Job & ORKKA International; recorded at Ot’era Recording Studio
Our theme music, used with direct permission, is “Kabu Verdi, Un Dia,” published by CaboAmericana publishing; lyrics are by Candida Rose, and music is by David Ndiaye. Find it on Bandcamp: https://goldenrosemusic.bandcamp.com/track/kabu-verdi-un-dia-cabo-verde-one-day. Also available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon.
FIND US
Candida Rose -
Website: https://www.candidarose.net/
Facebook: Golden Rose Music and Candida Rose
Instagram: @goldenrosemusic
To check out more of Ruby’s work, go to: https://rubyerickson.com
The Capeverdean American Community Development Center (CACD), where we record most of our episodes (although this one was at the Museum), has a website you can check out:
https://cacd.nationbuilder.com/.
CACD Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/UC4CACD/
A final THANK YOU to the Swearer Center at Brown University for giving us a grant to pay for Season 2 of Sounds from the Eleventh Star, and to the Brown University Music Department for loaning us the recording materials!
ORKKA International:
Website: https://www.orkkainternational.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066673986226
