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  • (Bahia)
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  • From Brazil with love →
  • @ Ground Zero
  • El Aleph
  • If You Can't Stand the Heat
  • Harlem to Bahia to the Planet
  • Why a "Matrix"?

From Brazil with love →

@ Ground Zero

 

Have you, dear friend, ever noticed how different places scattered across the face of the globe seem almost to exist in different universes? As if they were permeated throughout with something akin to 19th century luminiferous aether, unique, determined by that place's history? It's like a trick of the mind's light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there, one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present*.

 

 

"Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor / The time has come for these bronzed people to show their value..."Música: Assis Valente of Santo Amaro, Bahia. Vídeo: Betão Aguiar.

 

*More enslaved human beings entered the Bay of All Saints and the Recôncavo than any other final port-of-call throughout all of mankind's history.

 

These people and their descendants created some of the most uplifting music ever made, the foundation of Brazil's national art. We wanted their music to be accessible to the world (it's not even accessible here in Brazil) so we created a platform by which everybody's creativity is mutually accessible, including theirs.

 

El Aleph

 

The network was built in an obscure record shop (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar found it) in a shimmering Brazilian port city...

 

...inspired in (the kabbalah-inspired fiction of) Borges' (short story) El Aleph, that in the pillar in Cairo's Mosque of Amr, where the universe in its entirety throughout all time is perceivable as an infinite hum from deep within the stone.

 

It "works" by virtue of the "small-world" phenomenon...the same responsible for the fact that most of us 7 billion or so beings are within 6 or fewer degrees of each other.

 

It was described (to some degree) and can be accessed via this article in British journal The Guardian (which named our radio of matrixed artists as one of ten best in the world):

 

www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/apr/17/10-best-music-radio-station-around-world

 

With David Dye for U.S. National Public Radio: www.npr.org/2013/07/16/202634814/roots-of-samba-exploring-historic-pelourinho-in-salvador-brazil

 

All is more connected than we know.

 

Per the "spirit" above, our logo is a cortador de cana, a cane-cutter. It was designed by Walter Mariano, professor of design at the Federal University of Bahia to reflect the origins of the music the shop specialized in. The Brazilian "aleph" doesn't hum... it dances and sings.

 

If You Can't Stand the Heat

 

Image above is from the base of the cross in front of the church of São Francisco do Paraguaçu in the Bahian Recôncavo

 

Sprawled across broad equatorial latitudes, stoked and steamed and sensual in the widest sense of the word, limned in cadenced song, Brazil is a conundrum wrapped in a smile inside an irony...

 

This is not a European nation. It is not a North American nation. It is not an East Asian nation. It straddles — jungle and desert and dense urban centers — both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin. It was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil's national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people). Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil's culturally fecund nordeste/northeast, where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa (Lagoon of the Canoe) and raised in Olho d'Águia (Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil's aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David. Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof. Nowhere else but here.

 

Oligarchy, plutocracy, dictatorships and massive corruption — elements of these are still strongly entrenched — have defined, delineated, and limited Brazil.

 

But strictured & bound as it has been and is, Brazil has buzz...not the shallow buzz of a fashionable moment...but the deep buzz of a population which in spite of — or perhaps because of — the tough slog through life they've been allotted by humanity's dregs-in-fine-linen, have chosen not to simply pull themselves along but to lift their voices in song and their bodies in dance...to eat well and converse well and much and to wring the joy out of the day-to-day happenings and small pleasures of life which are so often set aside or ignored in the European, North American, and East Asian nations.

 

For this Brazil has a genius perhaps unparalleled in all other countries and societies, a genius which thrives alongside peeling paint and holes in the streets and roads, under bad organization by the powers-that-be, both civil and governmental, under a constant rain of societal indignities...

 

Which is all to say that if you don't know Brazil and you're expecting any semblance of order, progress and light, you will certainly find the light! And the buzz of a people who for generations have responded to privation at many different levels by somehow rising above it all.

 

"Onde tem miséria, tem música!"* - Raymundo Sodré

 

And it's not just music. And it's not just Brazil.

 

Welcome to the kitchen!

 

* "Where there is misery, there is music!" Remarked during a conversation arcing from Bahia to Haiti and Cuba to New Orleans and the south side of Chicago and Harlem to the villages of Ireland and the gypsy camps and shtetls of Eastern Europe...

 

Harlem to Bahia to the Planet



Why a "Matrix"?

 

I was explaining the ideas behind this nascent network to (João) Teoria (trumpet player above) over cervejas at Xique Xique (a bar named for a town in Bahia) in the Salvador neighborhood of Barris...

 

Like this (but in Portuguese): "It's kind of like Facebook if it didn't spy on you, but reversed... more about who you don't know than who you do know. And who doesn't know you but would be glad if they did. It's kind of like old Myspace Music but instead of having "friends" it has a list on your page of people you recommend. Not just musicians but writers, painters, filmmakers, dancers, chefs... anybody in the creative economy. It has a list of people who recommend you, or through whom you are recommended. It deals with arts which aren't recommendable by algorithm but need human intelligence behind recommendations. And the people who are recommended can recommend, creating a network of recommendations wherein by the small world phenomenon most people in the creative economy are within several steps of everybody else in the creative economy, no matter where they are in the world. Like a chessboard which could have millions of squares, but you can get from any given square to any other in no more than six steps..."

 

And João said (in Portuguese): "A matrix where you can move from one artist to another..."

 

A matrix! That was it! The ORIGINAL meaning of matrix is "source", from "mater", Latin for "mother". So the term would help congeal the concept in the minds of people the network was being introduced to, while giving us a motto: "We're a real mother for ya!" (you know, Johnny "Guitar" Watson?)

 

The original idea was that musicians would recommend musicians, the network thus formed being "small world" (commonly called "six degrees of separation"). In the real world, the number of degrees of separation in such a network can vary, but while a given network might have billions of nodes (people, for example), the average number of steps between any two nodes will usually be minuscule.

 

Thus somebody unaware of the magnificent music of Bahia, Brazil will be able to conceivably move from almost any musician in this matrix to Bahia in just a few steps...

 

By the same logic that might move one from Bahia or anywhere else to any musician anywhere.

 

And there's no reason to limit this system to musicians. To the contrary, while there are algorithms written to recommend music (which, although they are limited, can be useful), there are no algorithms capable of recommending journalism, novels & short stories, painting, dance, film, chefery...

 

...a vast chasm that this network — or as Teoria put it, "matrix" — is capable of filling.

 

  • Andrew Gilbert
    I RECOMMEND

CURATION

  • from this node by: Criador acima/Creator above

This is the Universe of

  • Name: Andrew Gilbert
  • City/Place: Berkeley, California
  • Country: United States
  • Hometown: Los Angeles

Life & Work

  • Bio: Andrew Gilbert writes on jazz and musics ranging from Ireland to India to Mali and Brazil.

    He writes for Berkeleyside, the San Jose Mercury News, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Contra Costa Times.

    He broadcasts on KQED’s “California Report”.

Media | Markets

  • ▶ Twitter: jazzscribe

YOU RECOMMEND

Imagine the world's creative economy at your fingertips. Imagine 10 doors side-by-side. Beyond each, 10 more, each opening to a "creative" somewhere around the planet. After passing through 8 such doorways you will have followed 1 pathway out of 100 million possible (2 sets of doorways yield 10 x 10 = 100 pathways). This is a simplified version of the metamathematics that makes it possible to reach everybody in the global creative economy in just a few steps It doesn't mean that everybody will be reached by everybody. It does mean that everybody can  be reached by everybody.


Appear below by recommending Andrew Gilbert:

  • 2 Berkeley, California
  • 2 International Music
  • 2 Jazz
  • 2 Journalist
  • 2 Roots Music
  • 2 Writer
  • Mokhtar Samba Drums
  • Jason Moran New England Conservatory of Music Faculty
  • Ballaké Sissoko Bamako
  • James Strauss Contemporary Classical Music
  • Danilo Caymmi Samba
  • Karim Ziad Composer
  • Margareth Menezes Axé
  • Carwyn Ellis Alternative Indie
  • LaTasha Lee Texas
  • Priscila Castro Amazon
  • Mickalene Thomas Brooklyn, NY
  • Lina Lapelytė Multi-Instrumentalist
  • 小野リサ Lisa Ono Multi-Cultural
  • Gustavo Caribé Compositor, Composer
  • Dadi Carvalho MPB
  • Paulo Aragão Arranger
  • Ricky (Dirty Red) Gordon Second Line
  • Sam Wasson Los Angeles
  • Brenda Navarrete Cuba
  • Shamarr Allen Trumpet
  • Collins Omondi Okello Kenya
  • João Rabello Samba
  • Isaias Rabelo Brazilian Jazz
  • Jon Batiste Melodica
  • Varijashree Venugopal Bengaluru
  • Terri Hinte Travel Writer
  • Nana Nkweti Short Stories
  • Gavin Marwick Multi-Cultural
  • John Santos Percussion
  • Malin Fezehai Photographer
  • Jon Faddis Manhattan School of Music Faculty
  • Lorna Simpson Photographer
  • Perumal Murugan Poet
  • Andy Romanoff Photographer
  • Abderrahmane Sissako Film Producer
  • Shez Raja Tabla
  • Tero Saarinen Helsinki
  • Congahead Afro-Cuban Jazz
  • Shuya Okino Composer
  • Chico César Singer-Songwriter
  • Jeff Coffin Record Label Owner
  • Oleg Fateev Amsterdam
  • Brandon Coleman Composer
  • David Bruce Contemporary Classical Music
  • Bruce Williams Composer
  • Jau Singer-Songwriter
  • Pharoah Sanders Composer
  • Paul McKenna Scottish Traditional Music
  • Laércio de Freitas Brazil
  • Tom Green Guitar
  • Seth Swingle Multi-Cultural
  • Arifan Junior Brasil, Brazil
  • Errollyn Wallen Composer
  • Dudu Reis Bahia
  • Chris Acquavella Germany
  • Nelson Latif Cavaquinho
  • Linda Sikhakhane Johannesburg
  • Gab Ferruz Salvador
  • John Boutté Jazz
  • Herbie Hancock Piano
  • Tam-Ky Vietnamese Foods
  • Tab Benoit Guitar
  • Ben Street Jazz
  • Yosvany Terry Composer
  • Eduardo Kobra Ativista da Paz, Peace Activist
  • Alain Mabanckou Africa
  • Plinio Oyò Brasil, Brazil
  • Di Freitas Composer
  • Nicolas Krassik Rio de Janeiro
  • Peter Mulvey Folk & Traditional
  • Gilson Peranzzetta Accordion
  • J. Pierre Painter
  • Dadi Carvalho Brazil
  • Larissa Luz Bahia
  • Catherine Bent Cello Instruction
  • Paulo César Figueiredo Produtor Cultural, Cultural Producer
  • Geovanna Costa Bahia
  • Adenor Gondim Brazil
  • Simon Brook Director
  • Ben Street Bass
  • Bruce Molsky Banjo
  • Negra Jhô Salvador
  • Dwandalyn Reece Washington, D.C.
  • Leon Parker Drums
  • Gavin Marwick Composer
  • Peter Evans Experimental Music
  • Vijay Iyer Piano
  • Ben Allison Music Writer
  • Logan Richardson Flute
  • Shaun Martin Jazz
  • Walmir Lima Singer
  • Jessie Reyez Singer-Songwriter
  • Ellie Kurttz London
  • Musa Okwonga Essayist
  • David Bragger Old-Time Music
  • Nicholas Daniel Guildhall School of Music Staff
  • Maciel Salú Rabeca
  • Otis Brown III Drums
  • Matt Glaser Violin
  • Luizinho Assis Salvador
  • Lucio Yanel Argentina
  • Ben Wendel Bassoon
  • Leo Genovese Keyboards
  • Betsayda Machado Folk & Traditional
  • Léo Rugero Composer
  • Marcus Miller Film Scores
  • Larnell Lewis Toronto
  • Larisa Wiegant Utrecht
  • Vincent Valdez Mexican-American Art
  • Yamandu Costa Choro
  • Peter Serkin Classical Music
  • Tiganá Santana Diretor Artístico, Artistic Director
  • Flora Purim Percussion
  • Alicia Hall Moran Theater
  • Hugo Linns Recife
  • Antibalas Pan-Africana
  • Joe Lovano Jazz
  • Keita Ogawa Percussion
  • Kendrick Scott Drums
  • Stephanie Soileau Short Stories
  • Brett Orrison Austin, Texas
  • Joe Lovano Author
  • Steve Earle Actor
  • Plinio Oyò Chula
  • Martin Fondse Contemporary Music
  • Frank Olinsky Parson's School of Design Faculty
  • Nelson Latif Violão de Sete
  • JD Allen Jazz
  • Colm Tóibín Ireland
  • Maria Nunes Trinidad
  • Scott Yanow Writer
  • Jess Gillam Contemporary Classical Music
  • Mohamed Diab Filmmaker
  • Andrew Dickson Essayist
  • Rodrigo Caçapa Pernambuco
  • Joshua White Piano
  • Magary Lord Semba
  • Rob Garland Guitar Instruction
  • Stephan Crump Jazz
  • Simon Singh Author
  • Las Cafeteras Afro-Mexican Music
  • Susana Baca Afro-Peruvian Music
  • Los Muñequitos de Matanzas Cuba
  • Steve Earle Poet
  • Judith Hill Singer-Songwriter
  • Jerry Douglas Music Director
  • Chubby Carrier Louisiana
  • Wayne Escoffery Yale Faculty
  • Mario Ulloa Brazil
  • Paulinho da Viola Brazil
  • André Mehmari São Paulo
  • João Callado Music Producer
  • Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah Mardi Gras Indian
  • Matt Garrison Composer
  • Liberty Ellman Brooklyn, NY
  • Leandro Afonso Federal University of Bahia
  • Ofer Mizrahi Singer-Songwriter
  • Eric Bogle Folk & Traditional
  • Donald Harrison Composer
  • Derron Ellies Composer
  • Flying Lotus DJ
  • Marcel Camargo Composer
  • Paul Cebar Singer-Songwriter
  • Leonardo Mendes MPB
  • Marcos Portinari Brasil, Brazil
  • G. Thomas Allen Countertenor
  • Giveton Gelin Bahamas
  • Roy Ayers Vibraphone
  • Nelson Cerqueira Poeta, Poet
  • Dee Spencer Jazz
  • Bruce Williams Jazz
  • Thiago Amud Rio de Janeiro
  • John Schaefer Writer
  • Tarus Mateen Bass
  • Pedro Martins Jazz
  • Dhafer Youssef ظافر يوسف Tunis
  • Gilad Hekselman Photographer
  • Nego Álvaro Samba
  • Ashley Pezzotti New York City
  • William Skeen Cello
  • João Teoria Jazz Afro-Baiano, Afro-Bahian Jazz
  • Samba de Nicinha Samba
  • Mike Compton Folk & Traditional
  • Jorge Pita Salvador
  • Burhan Öçal Tanbur
  • Keith Jarrett Composer
  • Duane Benjamin Bass
  • Daniil Trifonov Piano
  • Martyn House
  • Greg Kot Writer
  • Adriano Souza Piano
  • Tom Piazza Music Writer
  • Paddy Groenland Guitar
  • Elisa Goritzki Salvador
  • Steve McKeever Record Label Owner
  • Rita Batista Apresentadora de Televisão, Television Presenter
  • Thiago Trad Música Experimental, Experimental Music
  • Bhi Bhiman Singer-Songwriter
  • Aruán Ortiz Contemporary Classical Music
  • Luiz Santos Multi-Instrumentalist
  • PATRICKTOR4 Bahia
  • 小野リサ Lisa Ono Guitar
  • Lenny Kravitz Actor
  • Adam Rogers Classical Guitar
  • Art Rosenbaum Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Celino dos Santos Chula
  • Safy-Hallan Farah Journalist
  • Wynton Marsalis Composer
  • Carlos Aguirre Composer
  • Jan Ramsey Funk
  • Monk Boudreaux Louisiana
  • Gord Sheard Humber College Music Faculty
  • Oscar Bolão Photographer
  • Giba Gonçalves Candomblé
  • Duane Benjamin UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Faculty
  • Deesha Philyaw Columnist
  • Guinha Ramires Brazil
  • João Luiz Brazil
  • Amit Chatterjee Sitar
  • Samba de Lata Samba
  • Zigaboo Modeliste Second Line
  • Ivan Sacerdote Bahia
  • Shemekia Copeland Singer
  • Negrizu Bahia
  • Jan Ramsey Second Line
  • Saul Williams Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Shirazee Africa
  • Amy K. Bormet Singer
  • Henrique Araújo Composer
  • Yoron Israel Jazz
  • Capitão Corisco Pífano
  • Wayne Krantz New York City
  • Elie Afif Beirut
  • Eduardo Kobra São Paulo
  • Stephen Guerra Brazil
  • Márcio Valverde Brazil
  • Jorge Aragão Samba
  • Rogério Caetano Guitar
  • Caetano Veloso Singer-Songwriter
  • Terence Blanchard New Orleans
  • Elio Villafranca Cuba
  • Badi Assad Singer-Songwriter
  • Ken Avis Documentary Filmmaker
  • Tyler Gordon Artist
  • Alfredo Del-Penho Singer-Songwriter
  • Gamelan Sekar Jaya Indonesia
  • Yosvany Terry Percussion
  • Elizabeth LaPrelle Educator
  • Johnathan Blake New York City
  • Joanna Majoko Zimbabwe
  • Béla Fleck Songwriter
  • Emily Elbert Folk Funk Jazz Blues
  • Jam no MAM Local de Música ao Vivo, Live Music Venue
  • BIGYUKI Jazz, Electronic, R&B, Soul
  • Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh Fiddle
  • Ronald Bruner Jr. Singer
  • Christian Sands New York City
  • Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh Hardanger d'Amoré 10-string Fiddle
  • Mark Bingham Record Producer
  • Charles Munka Painter
  • Fred Hersch Piano
  • Martin Fondse Film Scores
  • Mário Santana São Braz
  • Márcia Short Brazil
  • Sarah Jarosz Folk & Traditional
  • Keshav Batish Multi-Cultural
  • Joel Ross Vibraphone
  • Rez Abbasi Guitar
  • Kirk Whalum Saxophone
  • Joatan Nascimento Brazil
  • Martin Fondse Arranger
  • Patty Kiss Guitarra Baiana
  • Lakecia Benjamin Ropeadope
  • Scott Devine Bass
  • John Donohue Cartoonist
  • Alex Conde Flamenco
  • Daymé Arocena Jazz
  • Terri Hinte Music Writer
  • Little Dragon Sweden
  • Sunna Gunnlaugs Piano
  • Stan Douglas Photographer
  • Otto Percussion
  • Jon Cowherd Piano
  • Luciana Souza Songwriter
  • Glória Bomfim Afoxé
  • Brigit Katz Toronto
  • Zé Luíz Nascimento Drums
  • Lucian Ban Composer
  • Alita Moses Jazz
  • Nancy Ruth Jazz
  • Shoshana Zuboff Harvard Business School Faculty
  • Ivan Neville New Orleans
  • Jared Sims Clarinet
  • Morgan Page House
  • Cimafunk Singer-Songwriter
  • Lilli Lewis Louisiana Red Hot Records
  • Mohamed Diab Egypt
  • Zeca Pagodinho Brazil
  • Shankar Mahadevan Film Scores
  • Roots Manuva Hip-Hop
  • Sean Jones Jazz
  • J. Pierre New Orleans
  • Djuena Tikuna Brazil
  • Michael Kiwanuka Singer-Songwriter
  • Nancy Ruth Vocal Instruction
  • Sérgio Pererê Composer
  • Pedro Martins Brazil
  • César Orozco Composer
  • Dani Deahl Record Producer
  • John Donohue New York City
  • Wadada Leo Smith Trumpet
  • JD Allen New York City
  • João Luiz Hunter College Faculty
  • Mika Mutti Composer
  • Walter Ribeiro, Jr. Singer-Songwriter
  • Colson Whitehead Literary Critic
  • Léo Rugero Film Scores
  • Luis Paez-Pumar Journalist
  • Colson Whitehead Writer
  • Gian Correa Choro
  • Andrew Gilbert Journalist
  • Merima Ključo Theater Scores
  • Zara McFarlane Singer-Songwriter
  • Matt Glaser Author
  • Marvin Dunn Educator
  • Yazz Ahmed Bahrain
  • Tom Schnabel Author
  • Nduduzo Makhathini Record Producer
  • Giba Gonçalves Bahia
  • Shannon Alvis Choreographer
  • António Zambujo Singer
  • Johnny Vidacovich Drums
  • Roy Ayers Jazz, Funk, R&B, Soul, Hip-Hop
  • Ry Cooder Americana
  • Benoit Fader Keita Techno
  • Nic Hard DJ
  • Flora Purim Guitar
  • Aurino de Jesus Samba
  • Yayá Massemba Vale do Capão
  • David Chesky Composer
  • Edmar Colón Composer
  • Fábio Luna Samba
  • Kronos Quartet Contemporary Classical Music
  • Regina Carter Manhattan School of Music Faculty
  • Abel Selaocoe Johannesburg
  • Laura Cole Canada
  • Lenna Bahule Brazil
  • The Bayou Mosquitos Tex-Mex
  • Nora Fischer Contemporary Classical Music
  • Mehdi Rajabian Multi-Cultural

 'mātriks / "source" / from "mater", Latin for "mother"
We're a real mother for ya!

 

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