Bio:
Born in Irará, Bahia. Brazil, gateway to the backlands, I have studied philosophy, German language and literature at the Federal University of Bahia; economy and philosophy in France and Germany with a brief stay in Florence; finished my MA and PhD degrees in Comparative Literature, with emphasis in hermeneutical studies at Indiana University at Bloomington, USA, as a Fulbright scholar. Professor of literature and Other Arts, Comparative Literature, Brazilian Studies; European and African Studies; and a specially designed course on Jorge Amado: A Portrait of Brazil, at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese; all at Indiana University. Professsor of metaphysics, philosophical hermeneutics, critical legal studies, scientific investigation, text theory (Ucsal and Ufba). Besides the Fulbright scholarship, I have also earned scholarships from Alliance Française, Goethe Institute, Donald Sisters, African Studies, CNPq and Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto Foundation, among others. My interest in poetry written in other languages led me to study, besides English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian. English I had started early during my High School exchange program in the US. I am interested in tennis, running, adventure tourism, music, cinema, philosophy, dance, cats and dogs.
Research areas: Literary Theory, Methodology of Legal Studies, Modernity, Theory of Discourse, Philosophical Hermeneutics; Essays, Poetry and the Novel. My favorites cities: New York, Paris, Munich, Rio de Janeiro, Saint Petersburg, Irará and Bloomington, Indiana.
Nascido em Irará, Bahia, Brazil, porta do sertão, estudei filosofia e língua e literatura alemã, na Universidade Federal da Bahia, economia e filosofia na França e Alemanha; breve passagem pela academia de filosofia de Florença; conclui mestrado e doutorado em literatura comparada, com ênfase em estudos hermenêuticos na Indiana University at Bloomington, Estados Unidos, como bolsista da Fulbright a quem muito devo. Professor de literatura e outras artes, literatura comparada, estudos brasileiros, estudos europeus e africanos, e um curso específico sobre Jorge Amado: Um Retrato do Brasil, em inglês, todos na Universidade de Indiana; professor de metafísica, hermenêutica filosófica, estudos jurídicos; pesquisa científica, teoria do texto (Ucsal e Ufba). Além da bolsa da Fulbright, também recebi bolsas da Aliança Francesa, Goethe Institute, Donald Sisters, African Studies, CNPq, Fundação Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto e várias bolsas de departamentos universitários. Amante da poesia em língua estrangeira levou a aprender inglês, francês, alemão, italiano, espanhol e russo; sendo inglês iniciado com intercâmbio como estudante secundarista. Interessado em tênis, corrida, aventura, música, cinema, filosofia da linguagem, gatos e cães.
Áreas de pesquisa: teoria literária, metodologia no direito,modernidade, teoria do discurso, hermenêutica filosófica, ensaio, poesia e romance. Cidades preferidas: New York, Paris, Munique, Rio de Janeiro, São Petersburgo e Bloomington, Indiana.
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These are pathways, originating in the sprawling cultural matrix of Brazil (Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazik, Arab, European, Asian...), integrating cultural matrixes worldwide.
Matrix ground zero is the Recôncavo of Bahia...virtually unknown center of gravity circumscribing Bahia's Bay of All Saints...end of voyage for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history...birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. Many countries are happier than Brazil, but none are more joyous.
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
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 MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced (that's me below left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).