Daniel Haaksman

For many years, Berlin DJ, music producer, and music journalist Daniel Haaksman was considered the unofficial ambassador of Rio de Janeiro in the German capital. As early as 2004, he brought Baile Funk—then virtually unknown in Europe—from Rio’s favelas to the continent with his Rio Baile Funk Favela Booty Beats compilation series. Since then, he has traveled to the city countless times, produced and released records with musicians from Rio, and discovered a side of the metropolis that does not appear in any travel guide. Now Haaksman has gathered his experiences into a book. It Began In Ipanema tells a century of Rio de Janeiro’s musical and urban history in 50 chapters, each centered on a different song. The journey begins with the choro pioneers of the early 20th century, passes through samba, bossa nova, tropicalia and MPB, and arrives at the soundscapes of contemporary baile funk. The book is about more than music. It explores carnival and politics, beaches and city streets, dictatorship and democracy, football, favelas, nightlife, love stories, and the occasional downfall. In short, a city that rarely rests and whose soundtrack is as contradictory as its history. Anyone who wants to know how a beach bar in Ipanema became a global musical legend, why a single song could make a military dictatorship nervous, or why the city’s loudest beats often come from its poorest neighborhoods will find answers in this book. To mark the publication of It Began In Ipanema, Daniel Haaksman invites readers to a release party. There will be stories from the book, music spanning 100 years of Rio de Janeiro, and probably a few anecdotes that, for good reason, did not make it into the final manuscript.