CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
João Mendes
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City/Place:
Salvador, Bahia
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Country:
Brazil
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Hometown:
Santo Amaro, Bahia
Life & Work
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Bio:
Violonista, guitarrista, compositor e produtor musical, graduando em música popular pela UFBA. Nascido em Santo Amaro da Purificação (1990), Recôncavo baiano, logo se interessou pelo violão e aos 6 anos deu início as suas primeiras aulas de música. Foi aos poucos observando e absorvendo a linguagem rítmica peculiar do violão do recôncavo, proveniente das rodas de samba da Bahia e explorando esse sotaque junto a outras possibilidades, outras sonoridades, desenvolvendo sua própria maneira de dialogar com esse legado que abarca questões artísticas, culturais, identitárias, ancestrais e políticas.
Integrante da banda de Roberto Mendes, Pirombeira e Recôncavo Experimental. Como músico acompanhante contribuiu em trabalhos com: Mariene de Castro, Virgínia Rodrigues, Baby do Brasil, Margareth Menezes, Josyara, Bule Bule, entre outros.
Um dos criadores do Grupo Pirombeira, contemplado em diversas premiações como na Mostra SESC de Música – Ano 2, pela composição “Farinha”, e o troféu de Melhor Banda pelo Prêmio Caymmi de Música. Em 2017, o grupo lançou seu primeiro disco autoral e venceu duas das quatro principais categorias do Prêmio Caymmi de Música: Melhor Show e Melhor Música com Letra. O primeiro álbum da banda também foi indicado ao 18° Grammy Latino, como Melhor Projeto Gráfico de Álbum.
Produtor de trilhas sonoras: espetáculos teatrais e de dança, documentários, publicidade e cinema.
ENGLISH
Guitarist, composer and music producer, studying popular music at UFBA. Born in Santo Amaro da Purificação (1990), in the Recôncavo region of Bahia, he soon became interested in the guitar and began his first music lessons at the age of 6. He gradually observed and absorbed the peculiar rhythmic language of the recôncavo guitar, which comes from the samba circles of Bahia, and explored this accent alongside other possibilities, other sounds, developing his own way of dialoguing with this legacy that encompasses artistic, cultural, identity, ancestral and political issues.
He is a member of Roberto Mendes' band Pirombeira and Recôncavo Experimental. As an accompanying musician he has contributed to works with: Mariene de Castro, Virgínia Rodrigues, Baby do Brasil, Margareth Menezes, Josyara, Bule Bule, among others.
One of the creators of Grupo Pirombeira, he has won several awards, such as the Mostra SESC de Música - Ano 2, for his composition "Farinha", and the trophy for Best Band at the Prêmio Caymmi de Música. In 2017, the group released their first album and won two of the four main categories of the Caymmi Music Award: Best Show and Best Song with Lyrics. The band's first album was also nominated for the 18th Latin Grammy Award for Best Album Graphic Design.
Producer of soundtracks for theater and dance shows, documentaries, advertising and cinema.
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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