Bio:
By breaking the barriers between different landscapes of music, bringing the Argentine Tango and the Brazilian forró closer together and performing as a singer and instrumentalist, besides being a composer and arranger for symphonic music, Marcelo Caldi has become one of the most brilliant and accomplished musicians of his generation. He has contributed greatly to the resurgence of the accordion in the contemporary music scene in Brazil, and is the author of the book “Tem Sanfona no Choro” (There is accordion in the Choro), which includes a homonym album. Released in 2012 by Moreira Salles Institute in partnership with Funarte (Luiz Gonzaga Centenary Award), the book recovers an unpublished material: the music sheets of the choros from Luiz Gonzaga’s early work.
Marcelo has toured with the show “Marcelo Caldi Trio” through Brazil and Portugal, performing original songs such as the forró “Lembrei do Ceará”. The song is part of the album “Forró e Choro Vol. 1” (in partnership with Fabio Luna), relaunched in 2013 by Mills Records, and nominated to the 2009 Brazilian Music Award in the instrumental category. Other titles include “Cantado” (MP,B, 2009), “Nesse tempo” (Delira, 2006) and “Intrometidos” (with Alexandre Caldi, Independent, 2003).
The musician has also arranged songs performed by the Petrobras Symphonic Orchestra, the Barra Mansa Symphonic Orchestra and the Recife Symphonic Orchestra (the last two had renowed singer Elba Ramalho participation as a special guest), in honor to Luiz Gonzaga. In the concerts alongside Petrobras Symphonic Orchestra and Recife Symphonic Orchestra, Caldi performed Sivuca’s songs to accordion and orchestra: “Rapsódia gonzaguena” and “Concerto sinfônico para Asa branca”.
In 2013, Caldi shared the stage with Gilberto Gil and Pro Arte Orchestra at MIMO Festival, performing in Ouro Preto e Olinda. He also wrote arrangements for the Young Orchestra of Paquetá and composed a song for the Radamés Gnattali Quartet. In the same year, he wrote marchinha arrangements for the Petrobras Symphonic Orchestra and the group Monobloco, in addition to composing a tribute to Dorival Caymmi for the Bahia Symphonic Orchestra. In October of 2014, Marcelo was the soloist of Radamés Gnattali’s “Concerto para acordeom, orquestra de cordas e tumbadoras”, performed alongside the Federal University of Fluminense Symphonic Orchestra.
Ao romper barreiras entre diferentes paisagens da música, aproximar o tango argentino do forró brasileiro e se apresentar como cantor e instrumentista, além de compositor e arranjador sinfônico, Marcelo Caldi se tornou um dos músicos mais completos de sua geração. É um dos responsáveis pela revitalização da sanfona no cenário contemporâneo, autor do livro “Tem sanfona no choro”, que inclui CD homônimo, lançado em 2012 pelo Instituto Moreira Salles, em parceria com a Funarte (Prêmio Centenário de Luiz Gonzaga), em que resgata um material inédito, as partituras de choros da primeira fase do rei do baião.
Compôs arranjos sinfônicos cantados por Elba Ramalho e interpretados pela Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica, Orquestra Sinfônica de Barra Mansa e Orquestra Sinfônica do Recife, em homeagem a Luiz Gonzaga.
Nos concertos com a Petrobras Sinfônica e a Sinfônica do Recife, Caldi interpretou peças de Sivuca para sanfona e orquestra, “Rapsódia gonzaguena” e “Concerto sinfônico para Asa branca”. Foi o solista do “Concerto para acordeom, orquestra de cordas e tumbadoras”, de Radamés Gnattali, junto com a Orquestra Sinfônica da Universidade Federal Fluminense, em 2014.
Compôs uma peça sinfônica inédita para Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica, em homenagem aos 450 anos do Rio de Janeiro, chamada “Alma carioca”, interpretada pela primeira vez na estreia da temporada de 2015, no Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro.
Com o show Marcelo Caldi Trio, excursionou pelo Brasil e Portugal, mostrando canções de autoria própria, como o forró “Lembrei do Ceará”. A música está no disco “Forró e Choro Vol. 1” (com Fábio Luna), relançando em 2013 pela Mills Records, e indicado ao Prêmio de Música Brasileira 2009 na categoria instrumental. Lançou ainda os discos “Cantado” (MP,B, 2009), “Nesse tempo” (Delira, 2006) e “Intrometidos” (com Alexandre Caldi, independente, 2003).
Em 2013, subiu ao palco ao lado de Gilberto Gil e Orquestra Pro Arte na MIMO, em Ouro Preto e Olinda. Também criou arranjos para Orquestra Jovem Paquetá e uma composição para o Quarteto Radamés Gnattali. Em 2014, compôs arranjos de marchinhas para Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica e Monobloco e uma homenagem a Dorival Caymmi para Orquestra Sinfônica da Bahia.
The canopy rises from Bahia to encircle the planet, but but the roots of the Matrix go back decades to Kingston, Jamaica...
I'm Sparrow. I used the contract above, Bob Marley's first (co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21, and this is a copy I made of Clement Dodd's original) to retrieve unpaid royalties from CBS Records. I retrieved money for Aretha Franklin, Gilberto Gil, Led Zeppelin, Barbra Streisand, Mongo Santamaria and many others. But what if Bob hadn't got out of Kingston, or Aretha out of Chicago? They would have been just as great but there would have been no way for the wider world to know. The world brims with brilliant artists without reach, including writers, filmmakers, painters... So in the Matrix, everybody can potentially be experienced from everywhere in the world. And the famous? Very few people (Bob and Michael Jackson aside) are famous everywhere, plus the famous like to recommend (connect to) too. The pathways are open. As they say in Bahia, "Laroyê!"
Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix. — Susan Rogers (Susan was personal recording engineer for Prince; she recorded "Purple Rain", "Around the World in a Day", "Parade", and "Sign o' the Times" and she is now director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory)
Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched! — Julian Lloyd Webber (Julian is the most highly renowned cellist in the United Kingdom; he is brother of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats...)
This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :))) — Clarice Assad (Clarice is a pianist and composer, with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world)
The Matrix uncoils from the Recôncavo of Bahia, Brazil, final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history and from where some of the most physically and spiritually uplifting music ever made (samba and its precursor chula, per the Saturno Brothers below) evolved...
By the same mathematics positioning some 8 billion human beings within some 6 or so steps of each other, people in the Matrix tend to within close, accessible steps of everybody else inside the Matrix.
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's 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.
Brazil 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 — the hand drum in the opening scene above — 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.
SPARROW/PARDAL ROBERTS
SUSAN ROGERS
JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER
CLARICE ASSAD
ALICIA SVIGALS
KAMASI WASHINGTON