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Witchcraft Of Love
Canto de Ossanha by Baden Powell and Vinícius de Moraes
Canto de Ossanha’s lyrics are about falling under the spell of an orixá named Ossanha (an Afro-Brazilian spiritual intermediary between human and deity). The spell is a metaphor for the dangers of falling in love.
Powell and de Moraes were interested in fusing various elements of African sound and songs of the Bahian candomblé with samba in the mid-sixties resulting in Os Afro-sambas, recorded with Quarteto em Cy (the girl group mentioned here earlier this month).
This song was the first track and made it to number 9 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 greatest Brazilian songs.
Written for the July Summer Music Challenge where I wrote a poem or story about bossa nova for 31 days. See below for all entries including Terry Barr’s 8 brilliant memoirs about summer and music:
