Worldly Women: Brazil Nuts.

Worldly Women plays World Beat at the Brisbane Powerhouse on Sunday.

The Brisbane based Worldly Women initiative rolls into its third year of performance during this year’s World Beat Festival. Ready to handle the current event with her passion in Brazilian music is delightful local singer/percussionist Anje West of The View From Madeleine’s Couch.

Firstly, Anje explains how gifted musician/performance artist and teacher Fatima (aka) Donna Miller initially got Worldly Women to reality point: “Fatima's vision was to bring together a group of outstanding local female artists, who's work is equal to that of anything you can hear on the world music scene today, a showcase if you like. Then in 2000 an album was recorded as time, availability and funds allowed.”

To-date this noble vision has attracted the attention of the following talent: Leah Cotterell & Helen Russell, Katie Noonan, Erin Murphy, Barb Dwyer, Sulagna Basu, Yani, Gopi McLeod, Barb Fordham, Sarajai as well as Anje.

Anje then reveals some of her feelings about her involvement with the Worldly Women project: “The beginning of this project was, for me, a little scary. It had been a very long time since I'd written anything, and writing a song true to the Brazilian style was quite a daunting task. So I asked my friend Jaider de Oliveira, a Brazilian musician living in Brisbane, if he'd write it with me. He ended up writing all the music for it!”

“In terms of performance, really, I just do what I do. It's not that different to a regular gig. Doing these shows involves a lot more focus, and some storytelling too. Audiences are really interested in where the music comes from, and because the songs are in another language, they want to hear the stories of them.”

“Singing in Portuguese really has been a journey for me. One of the first things that struck me about Brazilian music was the beauty of the language. I don't speak it fluently at all, but I can understand quite a bit now, and I have started transcribing the lyrics myself, so I'm learning to read and write it as I go,” says Anje.

Finally Anje mentions the band, show and Festival producer. “Wonderful band, the worldly blokes! They are Jamie Clark - guitar, Andrew Shaw - double bass, and Kym Ambrose - drums and vibraphone. I’d like to thank Fatima for producing another wonderful show and Chris Bowen, producer of the whole festival, who continues to be a major supporter of world music in Brisbane.”