Salvador Bahia Brazil Matrix

The Matrix Online Network is a platform conceived & built in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil and upon which people & entities across the creative economic universe can 1) present in variegated detail what it is they do, 2) recommend others, and 3) be recommended by others. Integrated by recommendations and governed by the metamathematical magic of the small world phenomenon (popularly called "6 degrees of separation"), matrix pages tend to discoverable proximity to all other matrix pages, no matter how widely separated in location, society, and degree of fame. From Quincy Jones to celestial samba in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to you, all is closer than we imagine.

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  • (Bahia)
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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.

 

  • Marcela Valdes
    I RECOMMEND

CURATION

  • from this node by: Matrix

This is the Universe of

  • Name: Marcela Valdes
  • City/Place: Bethesda, Maryland
  • Country: United States

Life & Work

  • Bio: Marcela Valdes is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine who specializes in Latino and Latin American politics and culture. Her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, Bookforum, and NPR.org, among other publications. In 2010 she received a Nieman Fellowship in Journalism from Harvard University and the Roger Shattuck Award for Criticism from the Center for Fiction. A selection of her past publications may be found here.

    Valdes was born in Massachusetts and grew up in California before moving to New York City and, later, Maryland. She has worked as a book review editor for Publishers Weekly and as a columnist for The Washington Post Book World. She was a founding editor of Críticas, an English-language magazine devoted to Spanish-language books, and has twice served on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle. She has appeared on “The Diane Rehm Show,” “All Things Considered,” “Morning Edition,” “The Kojo Nnamdi Show,” and “Morning Joe.”

Media | Markets

  • ▶ Twitter: valdesmarcela
  • ▶ Website: http://www.marcelavaldes.com
  • ▶ Articles: http://www.marcelavaldes.com/clip-file

Clips (more may be added)

  • How The Latino Vote Will Impact 2016 | Morning Joe | MSNBC
    By Marcela Valdes
    232 views
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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 Marcela Valdes:

  • 0 Journalist
  • 0 Latino Culture
  • 0 Writer

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  • Missy Mazolli Opera
  • Rowney Scott Diretor Artístico, Artistic Director
  • Jacob Collier Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Rowney Scott Salvador
  • The Umoza Music Project London
  • Nelson Cerqueira Faculdade da UFBA, Federal University of Bahia Faculty
  • Kris Davis Jazz
  • Dave Smith Percussion
  • Nubya Garcia Composer
  • Rahim AlHaj Iraq
  • Isaias Rabelo Brazil
  • Adriano Giffoni MPB
  • Guga Stroeter São Paulo
  • Imanuel Marcus Germany
  • Ibram X. Kendi Essayist
  • David Byrne Painter
  • Hamilton de Holanda Rio de Janeiro
  • Lula Moreira Pernambuco
  • Negrizu Bahia
  • Greg Ruby Composer
  • Wayne Shorter Composer
  • Patrice Quinn Actor
  • Rosa Cedrón Composer
  • Igor Osypov Composer
  • Sombrinha Samba
  • Andrew Finn Magill Violin
  • Mateus Asato Guitar
  • Mauro Diniz Samba
  • Dona Dalva Samba
  • A-KILL Building Art
  • Bebê Kramer Samba
  • Thiago Trad Berimbau
  • Lolis Eric Elie Journalist
  • Jim Hoke Record Producer
  • Gamelan Sekar Jaya Bali
  • Ronald Bruner Jr. Los Angeles
  • Amilton Godoy Classical Music
  • Nicholas Daniel Trossingen Musikhochschule Staff
  • Giba Conceição Bahia
  • Felipe Guedes Guitar
  • Zigaboo Modeliste Funk
  • Luíz Paixão Forró
  • Frank Olinsky Parson's School of Design Faculty
  • Becca Stevens Singer-Songwriter
  • Abhijith P. S. Nair Indian Classical Music
  • Danilo Pérez Multi-Cultural
  • Nigel Hall New Orleans
  • Jam no MAM Salvador
  • Yosvany Terry New York City
  • Michael Pipoquinha Brazil
  • Marquis Hill Hip-Hop
  • Vincent Valdez Printmaker
  • Gonzalo Rubalcaba Havana
  • Berta Rojas Berklee College of Music Faculty
  • Capitão Corisco Forró
  • Galactic New Orleans
  • Gabriel Grossi Rio de Janeiro
  • Paulo Martelli Violão Clássico, Classical Guitar
  • Alan Brain Peru
  • Rob Garland Jazz, Funk
  • Nahre Sol Canada
  • Alan Williams Furniture
  • Alex Clark Documentary Filmmaker
  • Adriano Souza Rio de Janeiro
  • Nara Couto Coreógrafa, Choreographer
  • Jan Ramsey Creole Music
  • Andrés Prado Lima
  • Ken Coleman Detroit, Michigan
  • Afrocidade Bahia
  • Jakub Józef Orliński Poland
  • Sam Wasson Cultural Historian
  • Gilmar Gomes Singer-Songwriter
  • Hugo Linns Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Zachary Richard Singer-Songwriter
  • THE ROOM Shibuya Soul
  • Uli Geissendoerfer Composer
  • Patty Kiss Salvador
  • Giba Conceição Candomblé
  • Mahsa Vahdat Multi-Cultural
  • Pierre Onassis Samba Reggae
  • Nancy Viégas Produtora Áudiovisual, Audiovisual Producer
  • Jay Blakesberg Photographer
  • Angel Deradoorian Singer-Songwriter
  • Jurandir Santana Barcelona
  • Simon Shaheen Composer
  • Swami Jr. Violão de Sete
  • Milton Primo Samba
  • Léo Rugero Composer
  • Bodek Janke Composer
  • J. Period Record Producer
  • Trombone Shorty New Orleans
  • Jorge Ben Brazil
  • Ed O'Brien Guitar
  • Jan Ramsey Louisiana
  • Will Holshouser Jazz
  • Iuri Passos Bahia
  • Bongo Joe Records Café
  • Mart'nália Samba
  • Joel Ross Brooklyn, NY
  • Jussara Silveira MPB
  • Adriano Souza Choro
  • John Edward Hasse Record Producer
  • McIntosh County Shouters Spirituals
  • Luques Curtis Afro-Latin Dance Music
  • Vanessa Moreno Guitar
  • Jon Batiste R&B
  • Adriano Souza Bossa Nova
  • Stefano Bollani Writer
  • Isaias Rabelo Brazil
  • Eddie Kadi Pan-African Culture
  • Bodek Janke Berlin
  • Yosvany Terry Jazz
  • Alicia Keys Author
  • Ivan Sacerdote Bahia
  • Miguel Zenón Saxophone
  • Paulinho Fagundes Rio Grande do Sul
  • Orlando 'Maraca' Valle Flute
  • Bill T. Jones Theater Director
  • Hanif Abdurraqib Writer
  • Alicia Svigals Violin
  • Jimmy Greene Composer
  • Ajurinã Zwarg Choro
  • Eddie Kadi Comedian
  • Tiganá Santana Cantor-Compositor, Singer-Songwriter
  • Ariane Astrid Atodji African Cinema
  • China Moses Actor
  • Isaac Julien England
  • Terri Lyne Carrington Jazz
  • Dadi Carvalho Rio de Janeiro
  • Erika Goldring Photographer
  • Michael Formanek Double Bass
  • Itamar Borochov Composer
  • Zé Luíz Nascimento Brazil
  • Negra Jhô AFROBIZ Salvador
  • Ajurinã Zwarg Saxophone
  • Yola Country
  • Eddie Palmieri New York City
  • Alexia Arthurs New York City
  • Sophia Deboick Writer
  • Giorgi Mikadze გიორგი მიქაძე Classical Music
  • Michael Cuscuna Writer
  • Ivan Bastos Salvador
  • Milford Graves Drums
  • Mark Stryker Author
  • Guga Stroeter Brazilian Jazz
  • Ken Avis Guitar
  • Eamonn Flynn Singer-Songwriter
  • Madhuri Vijay Novelist
  • Kiko Loureiro Helsinki
  • Monarco Brazil
  • Mona Lisa Saloy Storyteller
  • Merima Ključo Accordion
  • Michael Pipoquinha Bass
  • Pretinho da Serrinha Songwriter
  • Jorge Aragão Brazil
  • Max ZT Brooklyn, NY
  • Tambay Obenson Writer
  • Hendrik Meurkens Samba
  • Geraldine Inoa Writer
  • Pierre Onassis Brazil
  • RAM Port-au-Prince
  • Mário Santana Bahia
  • Hercules Gomes Samba
  • Bruce Williams Composer
  • Abel Selaocoe Classical Music
  • Jean Rondeau Paris
  • Anat Cohen Clarinet
  • Alphonso Johnson USC Thornton School of Music Faculty
  • James Carter Composer
  • Marília Sodré Brasil, Brazil
  • Michael Pipoquinha Brazilian Jazz
  • Khruangbin Houston, Texas
  • Flor Jorge Brazil
  • Sam Yahel Organ
  • Casa da Mãe Choro
  • Gel Barbosa Brasil, Brazil
  • Tony Allen Drums
  • Evgeny Kissin Writer
  • Jakub Knera Radio Presenter
  • Bodek Janke Drums
  • Jim Farber Writer
  • Musa Okwonga Uganda
  • Esperanza Spalding Composer
  • Cory Henry Jazz
  • Keita Ogawa Brooklyn, NY
  • Susana Baca Folklorist
  • Sérgio Pererê Actor
  • Kenny Barron Jazz
  • Hendrik Meurkens Harmonica
  • James Poyser Film Scores
  • Aruán Ortiz Piano
  • Willy Schwarz Singer
  • Toninho Nascimento Singer-Songwriter
  • As Ganhadeiras de Itapuã Bahia
  • Nação Zumbi Manguebeat
  • Nelson Faria Composer
  • Priscila Castro Carimbó
  • Andrés Prado Composer
  • Casa Preta Bahia
  • Nora Fischer Classical Music
  • Lalah Hathaway Jazz
  • Maria Rita Samba
  • Djuena Tikuna Indigenous Brazilian Music
  • Run the Jewels Hip-Hop
  • Robi Botos Film Scores
  • Luciana Souza New York City
  • Bebel Gilberto MPB
  • Mono/Poly Glitch
  • Mehdi Rajabian Multi-Cultural
  • Nêgah Santos New York City
  • Pierre Onassis Bahia
  • VJ Gabiru Videógrafo, Videographer
  • Amilton Godoy Piano Course Online
  • Carwyn Ellis Samba
  • Yosvany Terry Cuba
  • Marquis Hill Trumpet
  • Lizz Wright Gospel
  • Tim Hittle Writer
  • Elif Şafak Novelist
  • Cashmere Cat Norway
  • Kaveh Rastegar Songwriter
  • Jaques Morelenbaum Songwriter
  • MARO Portugal
  • Asa Branca Federal University of Bahia Faculty
  • Gustavo Caribé Produtor Musical, Music Producer
  • Jean-Paul Bourelly Multi-Cultural
  • Gary Clark Jr. Singer-Songwriter
  • Curtis Hasselbring Trombone
  • Camille Thurman Singer
  • Steve Cropper R&B
  • Bukassa Kabengele Brazil
  • Vânia Oliveira Salvador
  • Eddie Palmieri Composer
  • Jess Gillam Contemporary Classical Music
  • Azadeh Moussavi Film Director
  • Jared Sims Flute
  • Manolo Badrena Puerto Rico
  • Sergio Krakowski New York City
  • John Edward Hasse Curator
  • José Antonio Escobar Santiago de Chile
  • Keola Beamer Slack Key Guitar
  • Joel Guzmán University of Texas in Austin Faculty
  • Lucía Fumero Spain
  • Tom Bergeron Brazilian Jazz
  • Lula Galvão Arranger
  • Sérgio Mendes Brazil
  • Yotam Silberstein Jazz
  • Chico César Poet
  • Nei Lopes Brazil
  • Maria Drell Produtora Musical, Music Producer
  • Mona Lisa Saloy Writer
  • Toumani Diabaté Africa
  • Robertinho Silva Jazz
  • Bertram Ethnomusicologist
  • Lorna Simpson Filmmaker
  • Joe Newberry Guitar
  • Chris Boardman Television Scores
  • Tshepiso Ledwaba Steinway Piano Technician
  • Alfredo Rodriguez Piano
  • Ricardo Bacelar MPB
  • Mike Compton Old-Time Music
  • Lazzo Matumbi Samba
  • Tyshawn Sorey New York City
  • Liz Dany Barranquilla
  • Paul Anthony Smith Jamaica
  • Rachael Price Singer-Songwriter
  • Tom Zé Singer-Songwriter
  • Andrew Gilbert International Music
  • Olga Mieleszczuk Singer
  • Fábio Peron São Paulo
  • Ron Miles Cornet
  • Carlinhos Brown Brazil
  • Jeremy Pelt New York City
  • Samuca do Acordeon Chamamé
  • Gui Duvignau Brooklyn, NY
  • Tony Trischka Old-Time Music
  • Lionel Loueke Jazz
  • Jeremy Danneman Ropeadope
  • Natalia Contesse Guitar
  • Afrocidade Brazil
  • Brenda Navarrete Cuba
  • Maria Rita Rio de Janeiro
  • Karsh Kale कर्ष काळे Brooklyn, NY
  • Duane Benjamin Composer
  • Márcio Valverde MPB
  • Dafnis Prieto Percussion
  • Tonynho dos Santos Guitarra, Violão, Guitar
  • Román Díaz Cuba
  • Adam O'Farrill Trumpet
  • Bill Frisell Guitar
  • Edivaldo Bolagi Candomblé
  • Domingos Preto Santiago do Iguape
  • Daedelus Hip-Hop
  • Hisham Mayet Filmmaker
  • Flying Lotus Hip-Hop
  • Walter Pinheiro Frevo
  • Guto Wirtti Brazilian Jazz
  • Frank Olinsky Graphic Designer
  • Greg Ruby Composer
  • Wadada Leo Smith Multi-Instrumentalist
  • Chris Speed Saxophone
  • Zeca Pagodinho Samba
  • Nana Nkweti University of Alabama Faculty
  • Béla Fleck Americana
  • Nicolas Krassik Forró
  • Rita Batista Brasil, Brazil
  • Kim André Arnesen Norway
  • Helado Negro Sound Installations
  • Joshue Ashby Afro-Caribbean Music
  • Jen Shyu Dancer
  • Elza Soares Samba
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto Actor
  • Léo Rodrigues Percussion
  • Vincent Valdez Mexican-American Art
  • Vadinho França Samba
  • Jorge Washington Actor
  • Yilian Cañizares Cuba
  • Zebrinha Salvador
  • Andrés Beeuwsaert Argentina
  • Terell Stafford New York City
  • Jonga Cunha Percussion
  • Gustavo Caribé Chula
  • Magary Lord Brazil
  • Immanuel Wilkins Saxophone
  • Nana Nkweti Fiction
  • Taylor Ashton Brooklyn, NY
  • Kyle Poole New York City
  • Badi Assad Guitar
  • Billy O'Shea Science Fiction
  • Barry Harris New York City
  • Thiago Trad Salvador
  • Walter Pinheiro Choro
  • Jurandir Santana Composer
  • Cécile Fromont Martinique
  • Kenyon Dixon Singer-Songwriter
  • Marcel Powell Brazil
  • Mona Lisa Saloy Louisiana
  • Banning Eyre Photographer
  • Nate Chinen Journalist
  • Jocelyn Ramirez Author
  • Guto Wirtti Samba
  • Brandon Seabrook Composer
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto Japan
  • Alexandre Vieira Contrabaixo, Double Bass
  • Michael League Multi-Cultural
  • Munyungo Jackson Author
  • André Becker Jazz Brasileiro, Brazilian Jazz
  • Oleg Fateev Moldavia
  • Jelly Green England
  • Dermot Hussey Author

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

 

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