CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Cyro Baptista
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City/Place:
New York City
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Country:
United States
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Hometown:
São Paulo, Brazil
Life & Work
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Bio:
Cyro Baptista's list of credits resembles a "Who’s Who" of contemporary music. He embarked on extensive tours with Yo-Yo Ma's Brazil Project, Trey Anastasio's Band (of Phish), John Zorn's Electric Masada, Herbie Hancock's Grammy-winning "Gershwin’s World," as well as Sting and Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints."
His collaboration spans a diverse spectrum of artists, including David Byrne, Kathleen Battle, Gato Barbieri, Dr. John, Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Palmer, Melissa Etheridge, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Barenboin, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo-Ma, Medeski Martin & Wood, Spyro Gyra, Trey Anastasio from Phish, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Santana, and Sting. Additionally, he has worked with esteemed Brazilian musicians such as Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Ivan Lins, Marisa Monte, and Nana Vasconcelos.
Cyro has contributed to five Grammy-winning albums: Yo-Yo-Ma’s "Obrigado Brasil," Cassandra Wilson's "Blue Light 'Til Dawn," The Chieftains' "Santiago," Ivan Lins' "A Love Affair," and Herbie Hancock's highly acclaimed "Gershwin's World." His main project, Beat the Donkey, was the subject of a documentary recorded for the prestigious WGBH-TV Boston program 'La Plaza,' which won 3 New England EMMY Awards in 2002 and continues to be broadcasted on PBS stations nationwide. Cyro collaborated with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra for a modern jazz concert celebrating Brazilian Carnaval.
The debut album of Beat the Donkey, released by TZADIK, was selected by The New York Times as one of the ten best alternative albums of 2002. Readers of JAZZIZ and DRUM magazine voted it as the "Best Brazilian CD of the Year" and named Cyro "Best Percussionist of 2002." Downbeat Magazine's 51st annual critics' poll recognized Cyro as a "Rising Star" in percussion.
His first solo recording, Villa Lobos/Vira Loucos, which intertwines his compositions with those of the brilliant Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos, has been hailed as "the most courageous, bright, funny, dramatic, and imaginative work in recent memory."
Blue Note Records released Supergenerous, a duo CD recorded with guitarist Kevin Breit (KD Lang, Cassandra Wilson). Billboard described Supergenerous as "pure aural pleasure," while the Washington Post praised it as "a marvelous debut that manages to feel outside and intimate at the same time."
Beyond all this, Cyro has been involved in composing music for Nickelodeon's children's television programming.
Português:
Os créditos de Cyro Baptista se assemelham a um "Quem é Quem" da música contemporânea. Ele fez extensas turnês com o Projeto Brasil de Yo-Yo Ma, a Banda de Trey Anastasio (do Phish), o Electric Masada de John Zorn, o premiado com o Grammy "Gershwin’s World" de Herbie Hancock e "Rhythm of the Saints" de Sting e Paul Simon.
Sua colaboração abrange um amplo espectro de artistas, incluindo David Byrne, Kathleen Battle, Gato Barbieri, Dr. John, Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Palmer, Melissa Etheridge, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Barenboin, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo-Ma, Medeski Martin & Wood, Spyro Gyra, Trey Anastasio do Phish, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Santana e Sting. Além disso, ele trabalhou com respeitados músicos brasileiros como Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Ivan Lins, Marisa Monte e Nana Vasconcelos.
Cyro contribuiu para cinco álbuns vencedores do Grammy: "Obrigado Brasil" de Yo-Yo-Ma, "Blue Light 'Til Dawn" de Cassandra Wilson, "Santiago" de The Chieftains, "A Love Affair" de Ivan Lins e o altamente aclamado "Gershwin's World" de Herbie Hancock. Seu principal projeto, Beat the Donkey, foi tema de um documentário gravado para o prestigiado programa 'La Plaza' da WGBH-TV Boston, que ganhou 3 Prêmios Emmy do Novo Inglaterra em 2002 e continua sendo transmitido em estações da PBS em todo o país. Cyro colaborou com Wynton Marsalis e a Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra para um concerto de jazz moderno em celebração ao Carnaval brasileiro.
O álbum de estreia do Beat the Donkey, lançado pela TZADIK, foi selecionado pelo The New York Times como um dos dez melhores álbuns alternativos de 2002. Os leitores das revistas JAZZIZ e DRUM votaram-no como o "Melhor CD Brasileiro do Ano" e nomearam Cyro como "Melhor Percussionista de 2002". A pesquisa anual de críticos da revista Downbeat Magazine reconheceu Cyro como uma "Estrela em Ascensão" na percussão.
Sua primeira gravação solo, Villa Lobos/Vira Loucos, que entrelaça suas composições com as do brilhante compositor brasileiro Heitor Villa Lobos, foi aclamada como "o trabalho mais corajoso, brilhante, engraçado, dramático e imaginativo em memória recente".
A Blue Note Records lançou Supergenerous, um CD em duo gravado com o guitarrista Kevin Breit (KD Lang, Cassandra Wilson). A Billboard descreveu Supergenerous como "puro prazer auditivo", enquanto o Washington Post o elogiou como "uma estreia maravilhosa que consegue ser externa e íntima ao mesmo tempo".
Além disso, Cyro esteve envolvido na composição de música para a programação infantil da Nickelodeon.
Clips (more may be added)
We use the mathematics of the small world phenomenon to transform the creative universe into a creative village wherein all are connected by short pathways to all... (Wolfram explains how above)
This Integrated Global Creative Economy uncoils from a sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix...
Great culture is great power.
"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"
Our Matrix was conceived under a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to Havana and the provinces of Cuba to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...*
Sodré
*...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré, who summed up the irony in this sequence by opining for the ages: "Where there's misery, there's music!" Hence A Massa, anthem for the trod-upon folk of Brazil, which blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south until...
And hence a platform whereupon all creators tend to accessible proximity to all other creators, irrespective of degree of fame, location, or the censor.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome (where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where we built this matrix as an extension of our record shop).
Assis Valente's (of Santo Amaro, Bahia) "Brasil Pandeiro" filmed by Betão Aguiar
Betão Aguiar
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
Replete with Brazilian greatness, but we listened to Miles Davis and Jimmy Cliff in there too; visitors are David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR/WXPN
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar found us (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.
The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
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.comAcross the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
Wolfram MathWorld
Ex Terra Brasilis
Alicia Svigals
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Roberto Mendes
Luciano Calazans
Gustavo Caribé
J Velloso
Lázaro Ramos
Fernando Guerreiro
Maria Marighella
Russell Okung
Bule Bule
Caetano Veloso
RÁDIO MATRIX