CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Claudia Villela
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City/Place:
Santa Cruz, California
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Country:
United States
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Hometown:
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Current News
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What's Up?
"The closest the jazz world is likely to ever come to a female Bobby Mc Ferrin, the Brazilian -born genius with a blistering voice."
—Jazz Times
"... Remarkable, beautiful, towering voice..."
—New York Times
Life & Work
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Bio:
While growing up in Rio, Villela literally soaked up music from the air, falling asleep at night to the sounds wafting over from the samba school behind her grandmother’s house. Singing professionally as a teenager, she performed at college festivals and worked as a back-up singer. At the same time, she was strongly drawn to medicine, and eventually decided to merge her two passions, graduating with a degree in music therapy from the Brazilian Conservatory of Music in 1983.
Not long after her move to California, Villela started singing with the Stanford University Chorus, and then joined the De Anza College Jazz Singers. Eventually she won a scholarship that enabled her to study with the great jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan at the Manhattan School of Music. As Villela sees it, her music therapy background gave her the flexibility to make the musical transition from Rio to the Bay Area.
Developing a distinctive synthesis of jazz and Brazilian musical forms, she began attracting attention from musical heavy weights like tenor sax titan Michael Brecker, bass virtuoso Harvie Swartz (now Harvie S) and revered Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta, who all play on her captivating, hard-to-find 1996 album Supernova. The same year, her breathtaking album Asa Verde earned her a nomination for Jazz Singer of the Year by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD).
The year 2003 marked the release of InverseUniverse (Adventure Music), a program of dazzling original pieces created with her longtime collaborator, Rio-born guitarist Ricardo Peixoto. The exquisite harmonica contributions of guest star Toots Thielemans fulfilled Villela’s ambition of working with jazz’s foremost aficionado of Brazilian music.
After making a compelling case for herself as an inspired composer, she delivered a breathtaking session of spontaneous invention with the lavishly praised 2004 duo session featuring piano guru Kenny Werner, DreamTales (Adventure Music). Werner admitted to skepticism when Villela approached him about going into the studio without any songs prepared, but came away from the session a believer. In the fall of 2008, she received a high profile commission from New York University commissioned to set poems by several Latin American poets to music.
In recent years, Villela’s international reputation as a performer and composer has continued to grow through appearances at the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals and clubs.
Português:
Ao crescer no Rio, Villela literalmente absorvia música pelo ar, adormecendo à noite ao som que chegava da escola de samba atrás da casa de sua avó. Cantando profissionalmente desde a adolescência, ela se apresentou em festivais universitários e trabalhou como cantora de apoio. Ao mesmo tempo, sentia uma forte atração pela medicina e, eventualmente, decidiu unir suas duas paixões, formando-se em musicoterapia pelo Conservatório Brasileiro de Música em 1983.
Pouco depois de se mudar para a Califórnia, Villela começou a cantar no Coro da Universidade Stanford e depois ingressou no De Anza College Jazz Singers. Eventualmente, ganhou uma bolsa que a permitiu estudar com a grande vocalista de jazz Sheila Jordan na Manhattan School of Music. Na visão de Villela, seu histórico em musicoterapia lhe deu a flexibilidade para fazer a transição musical do Rio para a área da Baía.
Desenvolvendo uma síntese distinta de jazz e formas musicais brasileiras, ela começou a chamar a atenção de pesos pesados da música como o titã do saxofone tenor Michael Brecker, o virtuoso do contrabaixo Harvie Swartz (agora Harvie S) e o reverenciado guitarrista brasileiro Toninho Horta, todos presentes em seu cativante e difícil de encontrar álbum de 1996, Supernova. No mesmo ano, seu impressionante álbum Asa Verde lhe rendeu uma indicação para Cantora de Jazz do Ano pela Associação Nacional de Distribuidores Independentes de Gravações (NAIRD).
O ano de 2003 marcou o lançamento de InverseUniverse (Adventure Music), um programa de peças originais deslumbrantes criadas com seu colaborador de longa data, o guitarrista nascido no Rio, Ricardo Peixoto. As contribuições exquisitas da harmônica do convidado especial Toots Thielemans realizaram a ambição de Villela de trabalhar com o maior entusiasta do jazz da música brasileira.
Depois de apresentar um caso convincente como compositora inspirada, ela entregou uma sessão arrebatadora de invenção espontânea com a elogiada sessão de duo de 2004 com o guru do piano Kenny Werner, DreamTales (Adventure Music). Werner admitiu ceticismo quando Villela abordou a ideia de entrar no estúdio sem nenhuma música preparada, mas saiu da sessão como um crente. No outono de 2008, ela recebeu uma comissão de destaque da New York University para musicar poemas de diversos poetas latino-americanos.
Nos últimos anos, a reputação internacional de Villela como intérprete e compositora continuou a crescer por meio de apresentações nos festivais e clubes de jazz mais prestigiados do mundo.
Clips (more may be added)
Few people know that the Bay of All Saints was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. And few people know the transcendence these people, and their descendents, wrought. That's where this Matrix begins...
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers all over the planet.
This Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... expanding like the canopy of a rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, branches spreading to embrace the entire world...
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Salvador is our base. If you plan to visit Bahia, there are some things you should probably know and you should first visit:
www.salvadorbahiabrazil.com
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