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Neguinho do Samba was a founder of Samba-Reggae. He passed away on Saturday of a heart-attack at the age of 54. He was a part the Ilê Aiyê and Olodum. He arranged the Olodum piece for the song They Don't Care About Us, Michael Jackson, 1996. I met him once in the beginning of the program when I went to check out Banda Didá, which is a all women's percussion group that he founded with the money he earned through the aforementioned piece. He was telling us (a group of female students that wanted to volunteer to teach English or Spanish to the women and the children of his organization) about how and why he started the organization and about his work, but I didn't understand the details about what he said, my Portuguese was not up to par then. I just remembered he was really happy we all came and he took pictures of us and gave us a drumming lesson.
The organization he founded, Banda Didá plays during the Carnival in Salvador. And it works with women and children to educate and support them. It's cool, really, to have a all women's group since these percussion groups are male dominated, and plus, Brazil is pretty sexist.

Different groups came out to pay homages to him, as you will see in the pics. I was running low on batteries so I couldn't record a lot of drumming...

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