►The matrix connects and opens up the world of art for and to the mighty and the humble.

► The matrix is a "small-world network". Human society itself is a small-world network, which is why we have the phenomenon "six degrees of separation".

► In a small-world network...most nodes can be reached from every other node by a small number of hops or steps. (Wikipedia)

► If nodes are artists, then most artists can be reached from every other artist by a small number of hops or steps.

► If most artists can be reached from every other artist by a small number of hops or steps, then the Brazilians can too. QED.

► The matrix has its origins as an extension of a record shop opened to divulge the little known music of the people of the Recôncavo and sertão, per Raimundo Sodré below (subject of this interview with David Dye for broadcast on U.S. National Public Radio).

► ...in the sense of struggling under those with hands on the levers of society's power. The dictatorship of '64 to '85 got Sodré. His protest song "A Massa" blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south before his career was destroyed, he was threatened with death, and forced into exile. The recording of his music below is a matrix production.