CURATION
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from this page:
by Augmented Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Marko Djordjevic
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City/Place:
Boston, Massachussetts
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Country:
United States
Current News
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What's Up?
ABOUT SVETI
The evolution of the group’s sound is documented on three album releases. The self-titled debut, SVETI, and the 2001 follow up, Live Kolach were released by Benito Records. The new album Where I Come From is out on Firma Entertainment.
The working group, in different formations from trio to septet, features Brad Mason (trumpet), Eli Degibri (sax), Nir Felder (guitar), Elliot Mason (trombone), Aaron Goldberg (piano) and Matt Pavolka (bass). The group is currently touring in support of Where I Come From.
On the wide-ranging talent of this group, Phil Di Pietro of Allaboutjazz proclaimed “SVETI is a group of absolutely monster musicians.”
Life
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Bio:
Marko Djordjevic has played on more than 40 albums and has thousands of live performances to his credit.
Some of the artists Djordjevic has performed and recorded with include: Matt Garrison, Wayne Krantz, Jonah Smith, Clarence Spady, Lucky Peterson, Jacques Schwartz-Bart, Garry Willis, Hal Crook, Bill Frisell, Lionel Loueke, Aaron Goldberg, The Itals, Chris McDermott, and Eric Lewis.
Djordjevic graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music, where he was accepted on a scholarship at the tender age of 16. One of the finest musicians of our era, Blue Note recording artist Lionel Loueke says: “Marko is one of the greatest drummers out there. He possesses incredible technique, and a musical mind to match it! I love playing with him because he is so creative and unique!”
For more than ten years SVETI has been the creative outlet for Djordjevic. As the composer for SVETI, he writes music inspired by the rich musical tradition of his Balkan roots, but with a nod to the “Western” artists who have influenced him; from Coltrane and Weather Report to Zappa and the Police.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
"It's one thing to be a brilliant drummer, with impeccable time and phenomenal technique; it's another to be one that can compose and arrange with the best of them. Marko does exactly that on Where I Come From. On top of it all, he surrounds himself with the finest talent, creating a musical juggernaut that breaks all boundaries. It's music steeped in tradition yet entirely original!"
- Gonzalo Silva, Metronom Magazine
Drummer Marko Djordjevic has written a very beautiful ballad in "Don't Be Sad." The melody is a simple plea. The playing is virtuosic. Sveti produces a compelling sound.
- Jazz.com
This album by the Serbian virtuoso and his group Sveti invites us on a musical odyssey. Rich in rhythm, color, texture and melody has already won praise from critics in the US. A great musician is inviting you in - feel free to enter!
- Philippe Legare, Batteur Magazine, France
Marko is a world class drummer and composer. He is one of the best and perhaps the most stylistically original drummer in contemporary music today. This CD shows Marko's prowess as a hard swinging jazz player, a master of odd metered folkloric music, an amazing soloist and a truly original composer. Buy this CD! You may just hear the shape of things to come in modern drumming.
- Lucas Pickford, bassist extraordinaire
Clips (more may be added)
When creators curate people (and entities) for what they do and where they do it, a matrix is generated.
Following human society, by the mathematical magic of the small-world phenomenon, all inside such a matrix tend to within degrees of all others inside.
And by logical extension, to within degrees of all humanity.
It is almost completely unknown that the Recôncavo of Bahia was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet.
And widely unknown that Brazil — a repository of African deities now largely forgotten in their lands of origin — absorbed over ten times the number of Africans taken to the United States of America.
And unknown that 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 — 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.
Great culture is great power. This matrix begins here and opens pathways to cultures and creators everywhere.
Recently accessed from:

"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...
Ground Zero for the project was the culture born in Brazil's quilombos (in Angola a kilombo is a village; in Brazil it is a village either founded by Africans or Afro-Brazilians who had escaped slavery, or — as in the case of São Francisco do Paraguaçu below — occupied by such after abandonment by the ruling class):

...theme for a Brazilian Matrix, from an Afro-Brazilian Mass by
Milton Nascimento
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.
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