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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.

 

  • David Ngwerume
    I RECOMMEND

CURATION

  • from this node by: Criador acima/Creator above

This is the Universe of

  • Name: David Ngwerume
  • City/Place: Harare
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Hometown: Musana, Zimbabwe

Life & Work

  • Bio: David Ngwerume is a sculptor & lawyer in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Contact Information

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Telephone: +263 24 2704177

Media | Markets

  • ▶ Twitter: DavidNgwerume
  • ▶ Article: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/31/i-wanted-my-art-to-resonate-the-zimbabwean-sculptor-responding-to-covid-with-creativity
  • ▶ Article 2: http://www.hmetro.co.zw/lawyer-sculptor-chef-in-one/

Clips (more may be added)

  • 2:53
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    By David Ngwerume
    34 views
  • 1:14
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  • 1:17
    Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume uses art to combat Covid-19 | Oneindia News
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  • 2:45
    Zimbabwean Sculptor Encourages COVID Vaccination and Masking Up Through Art
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Previous
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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 David Ngwerume:

  • 0 Africa
  • 0 Harare
  • 0 Sculptor
  • 0 Zimbabwe
  • Plínio Fernandes Brazilian Classical Guitar
  • Rumaan Alam Essayist
  • Pedrito Martinez Congas
  • Nahre Sol Piano
  • Carlos Blanco Compositor, Composer
  • Raymundo Sodré Samba de Roda
  • Msaki Record Label Owner
  • Psoy Korolenko Псой Короленко Moscow
  • Lakecia Benjamin Ropeadope
  • Sameer Gupta Brooklyn, NY
  • Bill Frisell Composer
  • Jaleel Shaw Saxophone
  • Sunna Gunnlaugs Composer
  • William Parker Poet
  • Kurt Andersen Journalist
  • Mono/Poly Experimental Music
  • Martin Hayes Irish Traditional Music
  • Musa Okwonga Berlin
  • Johnny Vidacovich New Orleans
  • Martin Fondse Contemporary Music
  • Jay Blakesberg Photographer
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto Composer
  • João Luiz Brooklyn, NY
  • Nicholas Gill Writer
  • Peter Slevin Chicago, Illinois
  • Jason Marsalis Drums
  • Pat Metheny Composer
  • Saileog Ní Cheannabháin Piano
  • Irma Thomas Soul
  • Cara Stacey Musicologist
  • The Umoza Music Project Rap
  • Ofer Mizrahi Guitar
  • Oscar Bolão Photographer
  • Seth Swingle Multi-Cultural
  • Marisa Monte Brazil
  • Muri Assunção LGBTQ
  • Alex Rawls New Orleans
  • Nancy Viégas MPB
  • Omari Jazz Electronic Futurism
  • Doug Adair Singer-Songwriter
  • Dwandalyn Reece Writer
  • Sergio Krakowski Pandeiro Instruction
  • Meklit Hadero Singer-Songwriter
  • Tigran Hamasyan Piano
  • Immanuel Wilkins NYU Faculty
  • Dr. Lonnie Smith R&B
  • Daru Jones Jazz
  • J. Cunha Cenógrafo, Scenographer
  • Fidelis Melo Produtor Cultural, Cultural Producer
  • Michael League Multi-Cultural
  • Olivia Trummer Jazz
  • Roque Ferreira Chula
  • Omar Sosa Marimba
  • Yvette Holzwarth Film, Television Recording
  • Orquestra Afrosinfônica Salvador
  • Nate Smith Jazz
  • Ivan Neville R&B
  • John Boutté Jazz
  • Bob Mintzer Jazz
  • Shamarr Allen Hip-Hop
  • Mark Turner New York City
  • Antibalas New York City
  • Anat Cohen New York City
  • Nabih Bulos Classical Music
  • Django Bates Multi-Instrumentalist
  • John Medeski Piano
  • Trombone Shorty New Orleans
  • Alicia Hall Moran New York City
  • Teresa Cristina Brazil
  • Matt Ulery Record Label Owner
  • Henrique Araújo Cavaquinho
  • Dave Eggers Writer
  • Demond Melancon Louisiana
  • Lô Borges Minas Gerais
  • Maria Bethânia MPB
  • Paulão 7 Cordas Guitar
  • Sunna Gunnlaugs Iceland
  • Tito Jackson R&B
  • Rodrigo Caçapa Guitar
  • António Zambujo Lisbon
  • Saileog Ní Cheannabháin Raelach Records
  • Mauro Senise Brazil
  • Paddy Groenland Guitar
  • Banning Eyre African Guitar
  • Jonathan Scales New York City
  • Derrick Hodge R&B
  • Ajurinã Zwarg Percussion
  • Sharita Towne Multidisciplinary Artist
  • Isaac Julien Filmmaker
  • David Sedaris Writer
  • Berkun Oya Actor
  • G. Thomas Allen Jazz
  • Riley Baugus North Carolina
  • Robin Eubanks Jazz
  • Diosmar Filho Bahia
  • Corey Harris Guitar
  • Sandro Albert Record Producer
  • Las Cafeteras Chicano Music
  • Cécile McLorin Salvant Jazz
  • Dezron Douglas Bass
  • Iroko Trio Latin American Music
  • Philip Glass New York City
  • Abel Selaocoe Composer
  • Kiko Souza R&B
  • Rogê Singer-Songwriter
  • Elisa Goritzki Bahia
  • Taylor McFerrin Brooklyn, NY
  • Alexandre Vieira Jazz Brasileiro, Brazilian Jazz
  • Ben Wendel Brooklyn, NY
  • Sharita Towne Stereo Photography
  • Paquito D'Rivera Afro-Cuban Jazz
  • Nicolas Krassik Rio de Janeiro
  • Papa Mali New Orleans
  • John Archibald Writer
  • Benny Benack III Trumpet
  • Luiz Santos Percussion
  • Fidelis Melo Jornalista, Journalist
  • Ivan Lins Piano
  • Ricardo Herz Rabeca
  • Mark Stryker Jazz
  • Alana Gabriela Salvador
  • Jamie Dupuis Guitar
  • Rosa Passos Guitar
  • Yelaine Rodriguez Bronx, NY
  • Marisa Monte Brazil
  • Marcos Suzano Rio de Janeiro
  • Béco Dranoff DJ
  • Brian Jackson Soul
  • Eric Galm Trinity College Faculty
  • Anthony Hervey Trumpet
  • Anthony Coleman Composer
  • Márcio Valverde Brazil
  • Immanuel Wilkins NYU Faculty
  • Andrew Dickson Art Critic
  • Ofer Mizrahi Indian Slide Guiter
  • Keola Beamer Hawaii
  • João Camarero Guitar
  • Ron Mader Travel Specialist
  • Arturo Sandoval Jazz
  • Arturo O'Farrill Bandleader
  • Tiganá Santana Cantor-Compositor, Singer-Songwriter
  • Run the Jewels Hip-Hop
  • Scott Yanow Music Critic
  • Katuka Africanidades Loja de Roupa, Clothing Store
  • Galactic Funk
  • Imanuel Marcus War Correspondent
  • Brian Jackson Flute
  • Tero Saarinen Choreographer
  • Wadada Leo Smith Composer
  • Maria Drell Produtora Musical, Music Producer
  • Albin Zak Americana
  • Banning Eyre Guitar
  • Vijay Gupta Classical Music
  • Scotty Apex Hip-Hop
  • Júlio Lemos Composer
  • André Becker Brasil, Brazil
  • Luizinho Assis Salvador
  • Itamar Vieira Júnior Writer
  • Aurino de Jesus Bahia
  • Babau Santana Pandeiro
  • Onisajé Bahia
  • Ramita Navai Journalist
  • John McWhorter Linguist
  • Ron McCurdy Trumpet
  • Cédric Villani Paris
  • Carlos Lyra Bossa Nova
  • Benoit Fader Keita Electro Music
  • Ronaldo Bastos Lyricist
  • John Santos Afro-Latin Music
  • John Medeski Funk
  • Nancy Ruth Vocal Instruction
  • Joe Chambers Composer
  • Kronos Quartet String Quartet
  • Román Díaz Cuba
  • Robi Botos Toronto
  • Louis Marks Podcaster
  • Rodrigo Caçapa Pernambuco
  • Diedrich Diederichsen Music Journalist
  • Mulatu Astatke Ethiopia
  • Joshua Abrams Theater Scores
  • Logan Richardson Kansas City, Missouri
  • Evgeny Kissin Contemporary Classical Music
  • Ronald Bruner Jr. Los Angeles
  • Brad Ogbonna Photographer
  • Colson Whitehead Literary Critic
  • Super Chikan Mississippi
  • Patrice Quinn Los Angeles
  • Yunior Terry Bass
  • Maria Rita Samba
  • Darren Barrett Reggae
  • Onisajé Dramaturga, Playwright
  • Andrés Beeuwsaert Composer
  • Marcelinho Oliveira Record Producer
  • Shalom Adonai Samba Rural
  • Jas Kayser Panama City
  • Milford Graves Vocals
  • THE ROOM Shibuya Dance Club
  • Walter Smith III Jazz
  • Alexa Tarantino Jazz at Lincoln Center Faculty
  • Elodie Bouny Composer
  • Shuya Okino Radio Presenter
  • Arthur Jafa Sculptor
  • Warren Wolf Baltimore, Maryland
  • Ry Cooder Singer-Songwriter
  • Lula Galvão Brazil
  • Ben Cox Filmmaker
  • Gilad Hekselman Guitar
  • Richard Galliano Jazz
  • Guto Wirtti Composer
  • Fabian Almazan Film Scores
  • Omar Sosa Afro-Cuban Jazz
  • Miguel Zenón Puerto Rico
  • Ethan Iverson Avant-Garde Jazz
  • Rowney Scott Jazz Brasileiro, Brazilian Jazz
  • Nana Nkweti University of Alabama Faculty
  • Chau do Pife Forró
  • Marc Ribot Guitar
  • Gregory Hutchinson Drum Clinics
  • Jamz Supernova London
  • Darol Anger Fiddle
  • Luiz Santos Multi-Cultural
  • Philip Sherburne Menorca
  • Jas Kayser Drums
  • Léo Rugero Film Scores
  • Ronell Johnson Tuba
  • Isaiah J. Thompson New York City
  • Vinson Cunningham Writer
  • Lina Lapelytė Lithuania
  • Jeremy Danneman Klezmer
  • Milford Graves Multi-Cultural
  • Jan Ramsey Cajun Music
  • Helado Negro Singer-Songwriter
  • Irma Thomas Songwriter
  • Mário Pam Brazil
  • Leonardo Mendes Violão, Guitar
  • Hot Dougie's Bar Restaurante
  • Chelsea Kwakye Writer
  • Seth Swingle Folk & Traditional
  • Olga Mieleszczuk Accordion
  • John Donohue Artist
  • Seu Jorge Brazil
  • Alexa Tarantino Woodwinds
  • Wouter Kellerman Fife
  • J. Velloso Bahia
  • Michael W. Twitty Food Writer
  • John Medeski Keyboards
  • Jaques Morelenbaum Rio de Janeiro
  • Christopher James Record Producer
  • Dave Smith Alternative, Improv
  • Gian Correa Guitar
  • Samuca do Acordeon Composer
  • James Grime University of Cambridge Faculty
  • Maria Bethânia Samba de Roda
  • VJ Gabiru Brasil, Brazil
  • Darren Barrett Composer
  • Lula Moreira Percussion
  • Giorgi Mikadze გიორგი მიქაძე Georgian Folk Music
  • Luizinho do Jêje Percussion
  • Nomcebo Zikode Singer-Songwriter
  • Yunior Terry Havana
  • Swami Jr. Samba
  • Sting Singer-Songwriter
  • Nêgah Santos New York City
  • Alicia Hall Moran Theater
  • Ron Miles MSU Denver Music Faculty
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates Black American Culture & History
  • Luizinho Assis Produtor Musical, Music Producer
  • Cássio Nobre Viola Machete
  • Manu Chao Record Producer
  • Nana Nkweti Writer
  • Bill T. Jones Choreographer
  • Tal Wilkenfeld Los Angeles
  • Tiganá Santana Diretor Artístico, Artistic Director
  • Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Music Producer
  • Brandon Coleman Composer
  • Gabriel Grossi Samba
  • MARO Singer-Songwriter
  • Lavinia Meijer Harp
  • José Antonio Escobar Classical Guitar
  • Cristiano Nogueira Travel Marketer
  • Germán Garmendia Singer
  • Noam Pikelny Bluegrass
  • Doug Wamble Guitar
  • Terrace Martin Multi-Instrumentalist
  • The Assad Brothers Classical Guitar
  • Menelaw Sete Brasil, Brazil
  • Luizinho do Jêje Brazil
  • John Patitucci Berklee College of Music Faculty
  • Mike Marshall Mandolin
  • Mou Brasil Bahia
  • Oscar Peñas Barcelona
  • Asma Khalid Podcaster
  • Scotty Apex Rapper
  • Jon Batiste Jazz
  • Alex de Mora Photographer
  • Otto Manguebeat
  • Howard Levy Harmonica Instruction
  • Kiya Tabassian كيا طبسيان Multi-Cultural
  • Nubya Garcia Saxophone
  • Issa Malluf Arabic Percussion
  • Thiago Espírito Santo Jazz
  • Paulão 7 Cordas Rio de Janeiro
  • Stephanie Soileau University of Chicago Faculty
  • Gabrielzinho do Irajá Samba
  • Mulatu Astatke Keyboards
  • Gustavo Di Dalva Composer
  • Fábio Peron Compositor, Composer
  • Chris McQueen Austin, Texas
  • Joatan Nascimento Brazil
  • Ryan Keberle Piano
  • Liron Meyuhas Composer
  • Zachary Richard Guitar
  • Emicida Brazil
  • Dan Trueman Composer
  • Gonzalo Rubalcaba Cuba
  • Terri Hinte Music Writer
  • Alexandre Vieira Brasil, Brazil
  • Anthony Coleman New School's Mannes School of Music Faculty
  • Ryan Keberle R&B
  • Peter Erskine Author
  • Paulinho da Viola Singer-Songwriter
  • Orrin Evans Composer
  • Mona Lisa Saloy Louisiana
  • Patricia Janečková Soprano
  • Jean Rondeau Paris
  • Wolfgang Muthspiel Contemporary Classical Music
  • Eddie Palmieri Piano
  • Riley Baugus Luthier
  • Kevin Hays Piano
  • João Luiz Hunter College Faculty
  • Jeremy Danneman Clarinet
  • Mario Ulloa Salvador
  • Utar Artun Microtonal
  • Nicolas Krassik Samba
  • Mingo Araújo Brazil
  • Cedric Watson Singer-Songwriter
  • Michael Formanek Bandleader
  • Chad Taylor Jazz
  • Milton Primo Brazil
  • Christopher Seneca Writer
  • Nabihah Iqbal Guitar
  • Conrad Herwig New York City
  • Richie Stearns Old-Time Music
  • Steve Cropper R&B
  • David Sánchez Georgia State University School of Music Faculty
  • Bobby Sanabria Manhattan School of Music Faculty
  • Gian Correa Samba
  • Magda Giannikou Singer
  • Ivo Perelman Jazz
  • The Umoza Music Project Senga Bay

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

 

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