Above: Simon and the Bahian drum troupe Olodum perform “The Obvious Child,” the first track on The Rhythm of the Saints. I was impressed to learn that the fade that occurs at 2:30 was accomplished not via studio manipulations, but by Olodum itself. I was less surprised, but equally delighted, by a falsetto vocal lick, at 4:00, that Simon had clearly lifted from somewhere in his deep catalogue of Fifties doo-wop. Yes, he said, it was from “Deserie,” a 1957 hit by the doo-wop quintet the Charts. As in the song “Graceland,” in which the South African guitarist Ray Phiri had dipped, without thinking twice, into American country music, “The Obvious Child” was a true musical exchange (or, if you will, mutual appropriation).
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Shrugging off renewed accusations of musical tourism, Simon set his course for Brazil. His original plan was to follow the diaspora to its third stop, Cuba. But he was so thrilled by what he found in Brazil, and probably so exhausted by what turned into a two-and-a-half-year project, that he never got to Cuba. Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints stand as Paul Simon’s two great experiments with world music.
When Simon arrived in Brazil, Nascimento’s producer, Marco Mazzola, got things underway by introducing Simon to Grupo Cultural Olodum, the majestic drum troupe and cultural collective from Salvador, Bahia’s capital city, with whom Simon recorded the track that opens The Rhythm of the Saints, “The Obvious Child.”
Whereas township jive, mbube, and the other South African genres that Simon incorporated into Graceland are secular, Simon saw The Rhythm of the Saints as purely and simply an exploration of its title (...). The Yoruba religion, Ìṣẹ̀ṣẹ, recognizes a Supreme Being, Olódùmarè, from whom Olodum takes its name. Olódùmarè reigns over the orishas, or lesser gods, of whom there are anywhere from a few hundred to more than a thousand. Olódùmarè has no gender, but orishas can be male or female. It goes without saying that they have supernatural powers.
The orishas represent specific aspects of human or natural life. Ayelala is the female orisha of justice and punishment, Babalú-Aye, who is male, of illness and health. In an Afro-Brazilian rite, which typically involves drumming, singing, and dancing (beautifully captured in David Byrne’s movie) a worshipper calls on one or another of the orishas to inhabit his body. Every orisha has a specific rhythm associated with it, of a complexity, power, and seductiveness which left Simon entranced.
~ Paul Simon on Almost Everything, Chapter 5 of 5: "Errand to Brazil (1987-1990)" - Tony Scherman (Among the Musical)
