User:Mitya ilx/sandbox/Refavela

Refavela is the eighth studio album by Brazilian artist Gilberto Gil, released in January 1977 by Philips Records (currently Universal Music). The album is the second in his so-called "RE trilogy," along with 1975's Refazenda and 1979's Realce.

In 1977, Gilberto Gil participated in the 2nd World Festival of Black Art and Culture (FESTAC 77) in Lagos, Nigeria. The event brought together 50,000 Afro-descendant and black diaspora artists, among them Fela Kuti, who introduced Gil to the Afrobeat and juju sound. There was also the influence of American funk; reggae; the Bahian carnival blocks Ilê Aiyê and Filhos de Gandhy, which proposed the re-Africanization of carnival; and the Black Rio Movement.

As with Refazenda, on which Gil revisited his northeastern roots, Refavela centered around the idea of revisiting his African roots. The song "Babá Alapalá" brings together the orixás in a matter of African ancestry. "Balafon" is about the instrument of the same name that Gil got as a gift from Nigeria, the song has a time signature in 3/4 and is recognized for its polyrhythmic structure.