Gabi Guedes
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions Gabi Guedes globally... Curation
CURATION
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from this page:
by Title Holder
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Gabi Guedes
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City/Place:
Salvador, Bahia
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Country:
Brazil
Life & Work
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Bio:
Gabi Guedes é um dos mais importantes percussionistas do Brasil, em sua trajetória já passou por diversos cantos do mundo. Nascido no Alto do Gantois, cresceu ao lado da Iyalorixá Mãe Menininha e desde muito cedo se viu envolvido pelo toque – e os sons – dos tambores. Com pouco mais de 10 anos, iniciou os seus estudos de percussão ao lado dos Alabês Vadinho, Hélio, Dudu e Edinho.
Já tocou com músicos expressivos como Margareth Menezes, Lazzo, Gerônimo, Raimundo Sodré, Armandinho, Paulo Moura, Hermeto Pascoal, Orquestra Emília Biancardi, Jimmy Cliff e The Wailers, onde se tornou percussionista da Oneness Band. Gabi é mestre de percussão, e filho de santo do Ilê Omin Axé Iyá Massê e do Terreiro do Gantois.
Atua também como integrante do naipe de percussão da Orkestra Rumpilezz; além de dirigir seu projeto musical, o grupo Pradarrum, com o intuito de preservar e difundir a musicalidade dos terreiros. O repertório do grupo é formado por melodias oriundas dos terreiros, são composições direcionadas aos ritmos afro-religiosos como “Encruzilhada”, “Senhora Mãe” e “Engaramenço”, entre outras. Ele também é Percussionista da banda base da Jam no MAM (Museu de Arte Moderna).
Partiu para a Europa em 1987 tocando inicialmente na Áustria, em aulas de dança Afro. No ano de 1989 foi convidado pela Casa da Cultura do Mundo, em Berlim, para participar do festival “Percussionale 89”. No ano posterior, em Paris, ele ministrou cursos de percussão Afro-baiana. Em 1990 Gabi foi convidado por Jimmy Cliff para se tornar percussionista da Oneness Band, participando de festivais internacionais de reggae, ao lado de Burnning Spear, The Wailers Band, Melody Makers, Pato Banton, Majek Fashek; passando por países como os EUA, Alemanha, França, Japão, Hawai, Austrália, Suíça, Itália, Jamaica, Portugal e outros.
ENGLISH
Gabi Guedes is one of the heaviest percussionists of Brazil. His curriculum has recorded moments of an impressive trajectory which has taken him to all the corners of the world. Born in the Alto do Gantois, Gabi grew up next to Iyalorixá Mãe Menininha. From a very early age he was surrounded by the sound of the atabaques, traditional Brazilian drums, which reached his ears carried by the wind. At the age of 10, he started his percussion studies alongside Alabês, Vadinho, Hélio, Dudu, Edinho Carrapato and many others.
In Brazil, Gabi has played with prominent musicians such as Margareth Menezes, Lazzo, Gerônimo, Raimundo Sodré, Armandinho, Paulo Moura, Ricardo Chaves, Lourenço Rebetez, Hermeto Pascoal, Emília Biancardi Orchestra, and Jimmy Cliff and The Wailers, where he became a percussionist for the Oneness Band. Gabi is a percussion master and son of a saint from Ilê Omin Axé Iyá Massê and Terreiro do Gantois.
Currently, Gabi Guedes is a percussionist for the internationally esteemed Orkestra Rumpilezz, as well as conducting percussion lessons and workshops, alongside heading up the Pradarrum project . The group’s repertoire is formed by melodies from the terreiros (the Candomblé religion’s places of worship), compositions aimed at Afro-religious rhythms such as “Encruzilhada”, “Senhora Mãe” and “Engaramenço”, among others. He is also a percussionist for the base band of Jam at MAM (Museum of Modern Art).
Gabi left for Europe in 1987, performing initially in Austria in Afro dance classes. In 1989, he was invited by the House of World Culture in Berlin to participate in the “Percussionale 89” festival. Later that year in Paris, he taught Afro-Bahian percussion courses. In 1990, Gabi was invited by Jimmy Cliff to become the percussionist of the Oneness Band, participating in international reggae festivals, alongside Burnning Spear, The Wailers Band, Melody Makers, Banton Duck, Majek Fashek. These festivals took place in countries such as: the USA, Germany, France, Japan, Hawaii, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Jamaica, and Portugal, amongst others.
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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