A professional musician since age 14, Dendê Macêdo is a percussionist, singer, composer, bandleader, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist who has been splitting his time between the U.S. and Bahia. Dendê & Band reflect the cross-section of his deep roots in the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé and world music traditions that combine Brazil’s rhythm heavy music with grooves of Afrobeat, reggae, merengue, rumba and mbalax. Their debut album, Bahia de Todos os Santos, showcased the band’s sizzling showmanship and versatility. On Agô, we hear the importance of drumming and percussion in Dendê music, and we also hear a range of cosmopolitan influences that have found their way to Bahia with the result being an eclectic, enjoyable range of new, different, spirited sounds.             

Songs like “Epê Babá,” “Yemanjá,” “Saudades” and “Vai de Azul” include joyous melodies, lively instrumental work, positive inspirational messages and hypnotic grooves to make you dance. Opening the album, the title track means ‘to ask permission’ in Yoruba, a language used by Brazilian practitioners of Candomblé. “Crioula” is also mainly sung in the native language, but the song also has some hip-hop influences, sung in English by Dice Raw. “Black Lives Matter” and “You Can Dance” demonstrate that we can also find a lot of musical joy in political correctness. While the album has plenty of percussion, bass, guitar, and backing vocals, we also hear occasional colorings of accordion, keyboards, cavaquinho and sax.

With seven of the album’s twelve tracks dedicated to different Orixas, Agô represents a creative effort to celebrate the deities and the values of the religion that he credits with keeping him on the straight and narrow as a child and eventually leading him to career success he enjoys today. This latest album from Dendê & Band is a life-enriching musical communion with the divine that he strives to share with his audiences. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)