Salvador Bahia Matrix
  • Sign in
  • Join Everybody Here
    Loading ...
View All Updates Mark All Read
  • Matrix Home
  • Categories are Here!
  • Showcase Music
  • Add Videos/SC
  • Add Photos
  • (Bahia)
  • Questions?
  • 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...

 

It 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..."

 

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.

 

  • Gerson Silva
    I RECOMMEND

CURATION

  • from this node by: Matrix+

This is the Universe of

  • Name: Gerson Silva
  • City/Place: Salvador, Bahia
  • Country: Brazil
  • Hometown: Recife, Pernambuco

Life & Work

  • Bio: Guitar and mandolin player, music director, record producer, recording studio owner...

    Was music director for Olodum, Carlinhos Brown, and the Pracatum School of Music & Technology.

Contact Information

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Telephone: +55 (71) 99248-2970

Media | Markets

  • ▶ Instagram: gerson_sillva

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 Gerson Silva:

  • 2 Bahia
  • 2 Brazil
  • 2 Guitar
  • 2 Music Director
  • 2 Record Producer
  • 2 Salvador
  • Eli Saslow Writer
  • Tedy Santana Salvador
  • Camille Thurman Singer
  • Tony Kofi Composer
  • Donna Leon Crime Novels
  • Michael Garnice Reggae
  • Aubrey Johnson Singer
  • João Teoria Bandlíder, Bandleader
  • Siphiwe Mhlambi South Africa
  • Yilian Cañizares Jazz
  • Snigdha Poonam Journalist
  • Geovanna Costa Bahia
  • Chris Thile Folk & Traditional
  • Chris Boardman Arranger
  • Hugo Linns Brazil
  • Thomas Àdes Contemporary Classical Music
  • James Gadson R&B
  • Taylor Ashton Drawings
  • Anna Webber Avant-Garde Jazz
  • Christopher Nupen Classical Music
  • Vincent Valdez Painter
  • David Greely Cajun Fiddle
  • Abel Selaocoe Classical Music
  • Michael Doucet Fiddle
  • Hélio Delmiro Composer
  • John Waters Songwriter
  • Maciel Salú Singer
  • Trilok Gurtu Indian Classical Music
  • Ricardo Bacelar Advogado, Lawyer
  • Marcel Camargo Los Angeles
  • Dadi Carvalho Rio de Janeiro
  • Lenny Kravitz Singer
  • Alex Rawls Music Writer
  • Huey Morgan DJ
  • Ben Okri Short Stories
  • Gregory Hutchinson New York City
  • Márcio Bahia MPB
  • Allen Morrison Jazz History Lecturer
  • Inaicyra Falcão Opera
  • Luizinho do Jêje Brazil
  • Quincy Jones Record Producer
  • Filhos de Nagô Samba de Roda
  • Paulo Costa Lima Bahia
  • Philipp Meyer Austin, Texas
  • Chucho Valdés Cuba
  • Kurt Rosenwinkel Composer
  • Giba Gonçalves Percussion
  • Luis Paez-Pumar Writer
  • Bernardo Aguiar Percussion
  • Etienne Charles Trumpet
  • Gord Sheard Ethnomusicologist
  • Carla Visi Singer
  • Mykia Jovan New Orleans
  • Ken Avis Guitar
  • Manuel Alejandro Rangel Venezuela
  • Jaques Morelenbaum Film Scores
  • Yazhi Guo 郭雅志 Jazz
  • Imani Winds Chamber Music
  • Pedrito Martinez Percussion
  • Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro Brazil
  • André Becker Jazz Brasileiro, Brazilian Jazz
  • John Santos Writer
  • Alicia Svigals Writer
  • Ben Harper Singer-Songwriter
  • Frank Negrão Bass
  • Snigdha Poonam Journalist
  • Antônio Pereira Brazil
  • Marc-André Hamelin Classical Music
  • Carlinhos Brown Singer-Songwriter
  • Philip Glass Composer
  • Brett Kern West Virginia
  • Alana Gabriela Salvador
  • Armandinho Macêdo Mandolin
  • Ari Rosenschein Indie Pop
  • Andrew Huang Canada
  • Dan Trueman Norwegian Traditional Music
  • Robert Randolph Funk
  • Dee Spencer Sound Designer
  • Mauro Refosco Compositor de Teatro, Theater Scores
  • Lula Moreira Composer
  • Casa da Mãe Espaço Cultural/Cultural Space
  • Vanessa Moreno MPB
  • Marc Johnson Composer
  • Carla Visi Salvador
  • Nabihah Iqbal DJ
  • George Porter Jr. Bass
  • Clint Smith Writer
  • Elio Villafranca Caribbean Music
  • Tia Surica Samba
  • Hisham Mayet Photographer
  • Flora Purim Singer-Songwriter
  • Psoy Korolenko Псой Короленко Jewish Music
  • Meklit Hadero Singer-Songwriter
  • Tony Allen Afrobeat
  • Myles Weinstein Agent
  • Las Cafeteras East Los Angeles
  • Mariana Zwarg Universal Music
  • Joachim Cooder Americana
  • Luiz Santos Latin Jazz
  • Tal Wilkenfeld Guitar
  • Adam O'Farrill Trumpet
  • Júlio Lemos Violão de Sete
  • Dale Barlow Australia
  • Chucho Valdés Composer
  • Ubiratan Marques Música Afro-Brasileira, Afro-Brazilian Music
  • Celsinho Silva Choro
  • Yasushi Nakamura New York City
  • Moacyr Luz Rio de Janeiro
  • Paulo César Pinheiro Rio de Janeiro
  • PATRICKTOR4 Produtor Musical, Music Producer
  • Eliane Elias New York City
  • Ron Blake Juilliard Faculty
  • Robi Botos Ropeadope
  • Gustavo Di Dalva Salvador
  • João Callado Music Producer
  • Carrtoons Songwriter
  • Molly Tuttle Americana
  • Guinga Guitar
  • Matt Parker Mathematics
  • Herlin Riley New Orleans
  • Gregory Porter Jazz
  • Richard Bona Jazz
  • Sarah Jarosz Banjo
  • Greg Ruby Gypsy Jazz
  • Ronell Johnson Second Line
  • Andrew Finn Magill Composer
  • Eric Alexander Composer
  • Cainã Cavalcante Guitar
  • Otmaro Ruiz Jazz
  • Jamie Dupuis Harp Guitar
  • Arifan Junior Brasil, Brazil
  • Omar Hakim Composer
  • Iuri Passos AFROBIZ Salvador
  • Nancy Viégas Bahia
  • Jurandir Santana Brazilian Jazz
  • Matt Ulery Loyola University Faculty
  • Moreno Veloso Pandeiro
  • Ken Dossar Bahia
  • Wadada Leo Smith Jazz
  • Laura Beaubrun Art Therapist
  • Dadá do Trombone Jazz Afro-Baiano, Afro-Bahian Jazz
  • Victoria Sur Singer-Songwriter
  • Marcela Valdes Latino Culture
  • Marcus Strickland Saxophone
  • Pierre Onassis Bahia
  • Papa Mali Guitar
  • Oswaldinho do Acordeon Accordion
  • Mahsa Vahdat Multi-Cultural
  • Garth Cartwright New Zealand
  • Burhan Öçal Bendir
  • Jason Moran Composer
  • Brian Stoltz New Orleans
  • Andrew Dickson Writer
  • Adriene Cruz Quilts
  • Melanie Charles Singer-Songwriter
  • Filhos da Pitangueira Chula
  • Jean-Paul Bourelly Avant-Blues-Rock
  • Rissi Palmer Americana
  • Issac Delgado Havana
  • Utar Artun Film Scores
  • Omer Avital Oud
  • June Yamagishi Guitar
  • Dave Douglas New York City
  • Clint Smith Poet
  • Anne Gisleson Writer
  • Savoy Family Cajun Band Louisiana
  • Imanuel Marcus News Site Owner, Editor-in-Chief
  • Gilmar Gomes Percussion
  • Myron Walden Flute
  • Stephen Guerra Brazil
  • Edil Pacheco Songwriter
  • Elie Afif Dubai
  • Justin Brown Drums
  • John Schaefer Radio Presenter
  • Nelson Cerqueira Ensaísta, Essayist
  • Jess Gillam Concert Promoter
  • Deesha Philyaw Writer
  • Forrest Hylton Brazil
  • Jared Sims Ropeadope
  • Andrés Prado Afro-Peruvian Music
  • Stephanie Foden Bahia
  • Garth Cartwright DJ
  • Kiko Horta Piano
  • Serwah Attafuah Singer
  • Maria Bethânia Brazil
  • Iuri Passos Salvador
  • Brett Kern Ceramic Artist
  • Stan Douglas Filmmaker
  • Negra Jhô Turbantes, Turbans
  • Brian Lynch University of Miami Frost School of Music Faculty
  • Leandro Afonso Film Editor
  • Elizabeth LaPrelle Singer-Songwriter
  • Little Simz London
  • Danilo Pérez Boston
  • Edmar Colón Jazz
  • David Simon Journalist
  • Roosevelt Collier Pedal Steel Guitar
  • Nana Nkweti University of Alabama Faculty
  • Robert Glasper Songwriter
  • Siphiwe Mhlambi Photographer
  • Randy Lewis Music Critic
  • Kotringo Japan
  • Rogério Caetano Guitar
  • Alexandre Vieira Compositor, Composer
  • Rob Garland Jazz, Funk
  • Gian Correa Violão de Sete
  • Immanuel Wilkins New School Faculty
  • Mono/Poly Experimental Music
  • Raul Midón Singer
  • Masao Fukuda Music
  • Orrin Evans Neo Soul, Acid Jazz
  • Towa Tei テイ・トウワ DJ
  • Dezron Douglas Bass
  • Capitão Corisco Pífano
  • Mohamed Diab Filmmaker
  • Luizinho Assis Brasil, Brazil
  • Leo Genovese Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Catherine Russell New York City
  • Karsh Kale कर्ष काळे Indian Classical Music
  • Pretinho da Serrinha Rio de Janeiro
  • Ivan Bastos Brasil, Brazil
  • Arto Tunçboyacıyan Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Martin Fondse Multi-Cultural
  • Michelle Mercer Writer
  • Neymar Dias Brazil
  • Cleber Augusto Songwriter
  • Willie Jones III Drums
  • Mark Turner Composer
  • Aditya Prakash Carnatic Music
  • António Zambujo Fado
  • Patricia Janečková Czech Republic
  • Michael Cuscuna Record Producer
  • Kronos Quartet Contemporary Classical Music
  • Nara Couto MPB
  • Pedro Aznar Argentina
  • David Ritz Writer
  • Ajurinã Zwarg Saxophone
  • Jean-Paul Bourelly Composer
  • Ronaldo Bastos Rio de Janeiro
  • Oscar Bolão Choro
  • Kotringo Tokyo
  • Mohini Dey Indian Fusion
  • Cássio Nobre Samba de Roda
  • Márcio Valverde Samba de Roda
  • Joshua Abrams Composer
  • Giba Gonçalves Brazil
  • J. Velloso MPB
  • Tony Allen Paris
  • Mika Mutti Composer
  • Albin Zak Musicologist
  • Madhuri Vijay Novelist
  • Alan Williams Metal Artist
  • Andra Day R&B
  • Paul Mahern Punk Rock
  • Wilson Simoninha Music Producer
  • James Brandon Lewis Essayist
  • Carlos Henriquez Jazz
  • Leci Brandão Brazil
  • James Gavin Journalist
  • Tom Piazza Novelist
  • Alex Conde Arranger
  • MicroTrio de Ivan Huol Bahia
  • Cécile McLorin Salvant Illustrator
  • André Mehmari São Paulo
  • Cinho Damatta Brasil, Brazil
  • Kiya Tabassian كيا طبسيان Multi-Cultural
  • Kevin Burke Fiddle
  • Jahi Sundance Hip-Hop
  • Kim Hill Singer
  • Carol Soares Brazil
  • Swizz Beatz Art Collector
  • Jeff Coffin Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music Faculty
  • Eric Galm Caribbean Studies
  • Matt Garrison Brooklyn, NY
  • Henrique Cazes Cavaquinho
  • Kiko Freitas Rio de Janeiro
  • Ryan Keberle Manhattan School of Music Faculty
  • Armen Donelian Piano
  • Paulo Aragão Composer
  • Bule Bule Forró
  • Olga Mieleszczuk Accordion
  • Seckou Keita Kora
  • Duane Benjamin Jazz
  • Teodor Currentzis Conducter
  • Gian Correa Brazil
  • Keshav Batish Drums
  • Luizinho do Jêje Salvador
  • Tatiana Eva-Marie Swing
  • Robertinho Silva Composer
  • Eliane Elias Piano
  • Renata Flores Rapper
  • Billy Strings Songwriter
  • William Parker New York City
  • King Britt Record Producer
  • Steve Earle Americana
  • Eric Harland Composer
  • 小野リサ Lisa Ono Singer
  • Adam Rogers New York City
  • Stanton Moore Second Line
  • Di Freitas Composer
  • Bebê Kramer Brazilian Jazz
  • Aneesa Strings Los Angeles
  • Ivan Neville Keyboards
  • Jorge Washington Actor
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Television Writer
  • Safy-Hallan Farah Journalist
  • Jakub Józef Orliński Opera
  • Jamie Dupuis Banjo
  • Miles Mosley Double Bass
  • Lalah Hathaway R&B
  • Kotringo Piano
  • Henry Cole Drums
  • Julia Alvarez Novelist
  • Leo Nocentelli Funk
  • Hugo Linns Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Marília Sodré Salvador
  • Geovanna Costa Cantora-Compositora, Singer-Songwriter
  • G. Thomas Allen Jazz
  • Kris Davis Piano
  • Cleber Augusto Rio de Janeiro
  • Bebê Kramer Choro
  • Issa Malluf Doumbek
  • Ben Allison Multi-Cultural
  • Peter Serkin Classical Music
  • Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah Mardi Gras Indian
  • Juçara Marçal São Paulo
  • Avishai Cohen אבישי כה Bass
  • Issac Delgado Timba
  • Greg Osby Composer
  • David Simon Television Writer
  • Intisar Abioto Writer
  • Georgia Anne Muldrow Hip-Hop
  • Chico César Paraíba
  • Weedie Braimah Drums
  • Plinio Oyò Viola Machete
  • Pharoah Sanders Jazz
  • Michael Cleveland Indiana
  • Jimmy Dludlu Highlife
  • Antonio Sánchez Film Scores
  • Simone Sou Record Producer
  • Simone Sou Percussion
  • Bob Bernotas Jazz Historian
  • Christopher Seneca New York City
  • Turíbio Santos Brazil
  • Edmar Colón Saxophone
  • Júlio Lemos Brazil
  • Berkun Oya Playwright
  • PATRICKTOR4 Bahia
  • Julia Alvarez Middlebury College Faculty
  • Danilo Caymmi Television Scores

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

 

Copyright ©2022  -  Privacy  -  Terms of Service  -  Contact  - 

Open to members of the worldwide creative economy.

You'll use your email address to log in.

Passwords must be at least 6 characters in length.

Enter your password again for confirmation.

This will be the end of your profile link, for example:
http://www.matrixonline.net/profile/yourname

Please type the characters you see in the image. May take several tries. Sorry!!!

 

Matrix Sign In

Please enter your details below. If are a member of the global creative economy and don't have a page yet, please sign up first.

 
 
 
Forgot Password?
Share