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Otmaro Ruiz inside
THE INTEGRATED GLOBAL CREATIVE ECONOMY
I CURATE

This is the Universe of

Name: Otmaro Ruiz
City/Place: Los Angeles, California
Country: United States
Hometown: Caracas, Venezuela

CURATION

from this node by: Matrix+

Life & Work

Bio: Considered one of the most important jazz pianists in the current scene, Venezuelan Otmaro Ruiz is known for his versatility and virtuosity. After working intensively in Venezuela with artists such as Soledad Bravo and Ilan Chester, Otmaro moves to Los Angeles in 1989 to join the group of great names of the jazz world such as Alex Acuña, Justo Almario y Abraham Laboriel, with whom still collaborates in diverse projects.

With an intense musical career, filled with concerts, workshops and recordings worldwide, Otmaro worked for 5 years with Dianne Reeves as a pianist and musical director. During this period, Otmaro participated in the recording project of her CD “In The Moment – Live in Concert”, which won the Grammy Award 2001. In that same year, Alex Acuna’s album “Acuarelas de Tambores, also with Otmaro’s collaboration, was nominated to a Grammy. His collaboration with Weston Woods Studios for the Scholastic Series of animated children videos have won important recognitions like the “2004 Audie Award” in the Children Production Category and Bronze Remi at the 2004 Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival (for the Soundtrack of “Chato and The Party Animals”); Otmaro also received a Life Time Special Award “International Exposure” from the Venezuelan National Artist’s Institute (for outstanding career in a foreign country). In 2012, Otmaro was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Musical Arts from Shepherd University. His work as an arranger was recognized by the American Academy of Recording Arts with a 2016 Grammy Nomination and a double Latin Grammy Award Nomination in 2019.

The long list of re-known musicians with whom Otmaro works, constantly confirms his versatility, proving that this jazz giant sails with ease in many different styles, from Straight-Ahead jazz to Pop-Rock, from the most authentic Salsa & Afro-Cuban to the most exciting Fusion, with unusual ability to express his own language both at the acoustic piano and in the electronic world of synthesizers. Among these amazing artists: John McLaughlin, Randy Brecker & Bill Evans’ SoulBop Project, Simon Phillips’ Protocol, Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, John Patitucci, Paquito D’Rivera, Jing Chi, Nana Caymmi, Dori Caymmi, Akira Jimbo, Frank Gambale, Peter Erskine, David Weckl, Art Davis Quintet, Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, Alain Caron, Gino Vannelli, Tolu, Frank Morgan, Robben Ford, Vinnie Colaiuta and Jon Anderson.

Regarded as one of the most sought-after keyboardists for recordings in today’s scene, Otmaro is still able to dedicate time to teaching, scoring of movie sound-tracks and to the production of his works as a leader with original compositional material, captured in the CDs “Otmaro Ruiz plays Ryuichi Sakamoto”, “Distant Friends”, “Nothing to Hide”, “Latino” and in his most recent album “Sojourn”. Released in September 2008, Sojourn encompasses the rhythmic complexity, harmonic sophistication and melodic beauty of his most recent compositions, under the architecture of a constant equilibrium, and presented with his own quartet, with the talented Jimmy Branly (drums), Carlos Del Puerto (acoustic bass) y Ben Wendel (saxophones and bassoon). In 2015, Otmaro produces and releases the album “Catina DeLuna and LADO B Brazilian Project featuring Otmaro Ruiz”, earning his first Grammy Nomination in the Arranging category, and in 2018,”Elemental” is released, featuring legendary bassist Jimmy Haslip and Jimmy Branly. “Elemental” marks the realization of a long time dream of producing a more electric infused Fusion project. “Elemental” generated international accolades and a double nomination at the Latin Grammy Awards in the categories of Best Arrangement and Best Jazz Album.

Otmaro Ruiz worked as Jazz Piano Faculty at University of Southern California (USC), at Cornell School of Contemporary Music at Shepherd University, has been a frequent guest clinician at Los Angeles Music Academy (LAMA), at Musicians Institute (MI) and continues to travel the world not only as a performer, but also as an educator, dictating workshops and Masterclasses in top conservatories.

Contact Information

Management/Booking: For Information on Bookings in the U.S., Online Master Classes and Lessons:
[email protected]

For Information or Bookings in Europe and South America:
Alejandro Orellana / Artemedios
Direct Music Collective
+39-06-99344184
[email protected]
[email protected]

Media | Markets

▶ Twitter: otmaroruiz
▶ Instagram: otmaroruiz
▶ Website: http://www.otmaro.com
▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/guaicamacutopichon
▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCnkVKP27es-wwQ3g_tpk7UA

Quotes, Notes & Etc. “He is one of my favorite musicians. Besides being a great composer, arranger, Otmaro can also play all styles and any genre on both keyboards and acoustic piano. BTW, we all have a special gift and OT has a very unique and wonderful one. He recorded on several of my CDs and always will be my first call.”
ALEX ACUÑA (Drum legend / Member of Weather Report)

“Otmaro is one of the greatest keyboardists I ever played with. His astonishing abilities and the musical ear that guides them puts him into the top levels of “rarified” musical talent. He is terrific!”
JEFF BERLIN (Bassist extraordinaire)

“February 1988, I was staying in LA for my recording. One night I visited some club in Ventura Blvd to see the show of Dori Caymmi. The music was wonderful and I was so attracted by the playing of the keyboard player. All the notes he played were so rich musically and hit the strings of my heart. After the show, I went straight to the back stage and said to the guy “You are so wonderful” The guy was Otmaro. Since then, he has been my “first call”. It is truly wonderful experience to make music with him. He is different. He has something very special. I truly think so.”
AKIRA JIMBO (Drummer extraordinaire / Co-founder of Casiopea)

“Jazz with rich harmonic content, sophisticated melodic material and exciting improvisation… but filled with emotion, images and stories… we might have arrived to yet another music category… Otmaro’s work is “Cinematic Jazz”..
JACQUES BRAUNSTEIN (Venezuelan / International Jazz Radio Personality)

I first heard about Otmaro when he was a rising star (a young buck full of piss and vinegar) I was immediately impressed by his musical sense and embarrassing wealth of skills. After almost 14 years, I believe Ot has accomplished what only serious and uncompromising artists do, and that is, settle the ongoing argument between sound and space, hammering out notes from places in the heart. Self-possession in lieu of self-indulgence. One of my favorite pianists.
My constant respect and admiration.
GINO VANNELLI (Pop-Rock-Jazz Legend)

On one opportunity, I took Leny Andrade to listen to Otmaro playing solo piano. Otmaro played “Stella by Starlight”. When he finished, Leny look at me very surprised and pleased. Otmaro continued with “Body and Soul”. Leny smiled and squeezed my hand. Otmaro siguio con “Autumm Leaves”. Leny held her head between her hands. And so the jazz recital continued until Otmaro, as a finale, started dealing with a Venezuelan piece. When he concluded, Leny told me: “YES!!!”… she stood up, applauded until exhaustion while yelling BRAVO!!!, BRAVO!!!, and when Otmaro approached our table, she hugged him and kissed him. She would just not release him!!! Otmaro gave us a lesson: “Talk about your people and you shall reach universality”
CHUCHITO SANOJA (Venezuelan Composer)

“Otmaro, playing the piano is one of those rare musical gems that combines exquisite taste with prodigal technical abilities. He is jazz, he is latin, he is humorous… and he is damn good at all of them.”
ILAN CHESTER (Venezuelan Pop Celebrity)

“Few years back, just before a major tour of Europe and the US, I lost my keyboard player to Wayne Shorter.
I had heard about Otmaro, but never heard his music, so my call to him to bail me out was’ grasping at the unknown’ except for high recommendation. He came in and already by the middle of the first rehearsal, we had forgotten the name of my original keyboard player! …What more can I say ?! Otmaro is genial ! ”
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN (Jazz Guitar Legend)

“Otmaro is a singularly fascinating artist in his beautiful technique and unbridled passion at the piano. His devotion to music and his generosity have inspired me each time we play. I have never known a pianist like him. He has enormous experience as an arranger, composer and ensemble leader and yet is willing to collaborate in an egoless way that I find profound and inspiring. What a great and amazing soul he is.”
Rhiannon (Master Vocalist / Actress / Improviser)

My Instruction

Lessons/Workshops: I feel fortunate to have had a rich history as a touring and recording musician for 40+ years across many different styles. I also have a true passion for transferring this knowledge to students. “Music Educator” has been on my CV as both a private group, individual, and Master Class instructor & lecturer, and also as higher learning faculty, e.g. USC Thornton School of Music for 7+ years, Cornell School of Contemporary Music at Shepherd University for 7+ years, etc.

Despite the many roads travelled since I myself was a student, I look back with a clear recollection of my past as an aspiring musician in Venezuela. I yearned for a time and place where I could access the caliber of mentorship I required. Both the over-mystification and the excessive, “casual” tone of available instruction was completely frustrating.

Therefore, my Personal Mission is to be a clear, supportive teacher – to articulate concepts in as many ways as possible so that any student can process and apply them. The über-talented, “all-ears” jazz pupil will simply not assimilate information the same way a PhD Classical Pianist does; it’s my responsibility to customize presentation of material to match how each student learns optimally.

The scope of our lessons can cover anything from:
• Basic – yet vital – piano technique and relaxation drills
• Jazz harmony
• Impromptu re-harmonization tips
• Improvisation (traditional jazz, no-BS-modern, crossover and beyond…)
• Specific, “to the point” content applied to Fusion, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian musical traditions; this can encompass practical application, plus theory and historical context, as desired.

Our meetings can be structured as Lectures or Coaching [for those who are already looking for different perspectives to be applied to on-going projects]. I can address specific concerns & questions or design a specific course of action. “Flexibility” being the operative word, without sacrificing substance or objectivity.

Next Steps:
1) Reach out today for rates to [email protected]
2) Decide on lesson frequency: weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, etc.
3) Schedule a mutually available time(s)
4) Pick a platform: FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, etc.

I truly look forward to sharing some music with you!!!

Clips (more may be added)

4:07
The COVID19 LOCK-DOWN SERIES: FALLEN ANGELS - Otmaro Ruiz, Hadrien Feraud & Nicolas Viccaro
By Otmaro Ruiz

181 views
0:07:17
Otmaro Ruiz, Abraham Laboriel y Alvaro López (Solo de Piano e Improvisación)
By Otmaro Ruiz

173 views
1:30:00
Arturo Sandoval Institute Presents Otmaro Ruíz!
By Otmaro Ruiz

197 views

Otmaro Ruiz Curated

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 anybody 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.

SALVADOR BAHIA BRAZIL

English ↓ Português →

Sprawled across broad equatorial latitudes...

Stoked and steamed and sensual in the broadest sense of the word...

Limned in prosody & cadenced song...

Set in a conundrum wrapped in a smile inside an irony...

From Bahia, with love: All of this — based in short-range connections between vastly disparate people and entities in the (integrated) global creative economy — began among the sublimely moving people below, and below them. Music: Assis Valente of Santo Amaro, Bahia; Video: Betão Aguiar of Salvador, Bahia

"Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor / The time has come for these bronzed people to show their value..."

You are now within the vast, virtual, arboreal canopy of a rainforest tree rising from Brazil ... concatenating, intertwining branches encircling the planet...manifesting writers and journalists, painters, filmmakers, choreographers, computer programmers, sound and set designers, fashion designers, mathematicians…from Brooklyn, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Mombasa, Tokyo... all inexorably tending to close-connectedness with all others.

This matrix began with a question: How is it possible to make Brazil’s most historically important musicians discoverable by people living anywhere around the Earth?

Answer: Include them in a seemingly preternaturally interaccessible curation system (the magic herein is mathematics) which would also include members of the creative economy from everywhere else.

Thus it becomes possible for anybody who knows of Quincy Jones to discover João do Boi ("John of the Ox", the vastly important Son House of Brazil) in just four (or conceivably fewer) steps (Quincy Jones > Alfredo Rodriguez > Munir Hossn > Roberto Mendes > João do Boi).

And if Herbie Hancock 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, chefs...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required (nor capable). Real intelligence, yes.

These are not isolated examples. Short pathways of few steps between widely disparate creative people are universal throughout the matrix. Such is the mathematical power of the small world phenomenon, the phenomenon responsible for “six degrees of separation”, joining most human beings to most others within some six or so steps. This is the matrix’s superpower.

Question: What's with the Hebrew letter on matrix media pages?

Answer: Web Aleph.

Question: How is this a matrix?

Answer: The original meaning of "matrix" is "source", derived from "mater", Latin for "mother" (hence our motto: We're a real mother for ya!). The Matrix Online Network is a virtual realization of Web Aleph, allowing people to actually move from members of the Global Creative Economy to other members of the GCE (thus an Integrated Global Creative Economy: IGCE) in accessible steps. The matrix opens up and unites the creative world in a way which hasn't been possible since mankind first blew through a bone flute some 40,000 years ago.

Question: Why not use Artificial Intelligence rather than human curation?

Answer: Artificial Intelligence makes personal music recommendations based upon what any given person has chosen to listen to previously (and upon what people deemed to have similarities to any given person have chosen to listen to previously). But matrix curation is general, not personal. And moreover, while AI recommendations for music can satisfy some people, such recommendations are currently impossible for the work of writers, painters, choreographers, filmmakers, actors, chefs...

The Matrix is capable of reaching deeply, per João's village of São Braz, in the Bahian Recôncavo...

Landings of Enslaved by Numbers

Endpoint of a centuries-long enforced odyssey, the region of the Bahian Recôncavo received more enslaved human beings than any other port-of-call throughout the entire history of mankind. One irony is that these people created some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever sung and danced to. Another irony — true in the United States as well — is that their music would evolve to become the national music of the country which had enslaved them. A meta-irony then is that these two gargantuan ironies are almost completely unknown.

Number of Embarked/Disembarked Enslaved at Selected Landings from 1514 to 1866:

Bahia, port unspecified *

Embarked: 1,339,627

Disembarked: 1,206,934

* “Bahia” above is the archaically used name for the city of Salvador. These are the numbers for Salvador and the Recôncavo.

The numbers below are for Bahia including Taipu and Porto Seguro:

Bahia

Embarked: 1,347,121

Disembarked: 1,213,691

Rio de Janeiro

Embarked: 1,216,113

Disembarked: 1,099,908

Brazil

Embarked: 3,515,638

Disembarked: 3,165,307

Mainland North America

Embarked: 359,628

Disembarked: 301,740

Our source is the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database centered at Emory University and available online at http://slavevoyages.org/

Dear friend, wherever (and whomsoever) you may be—

Have you 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 (the Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind's existence on this planet), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present...

Brazil is not a European nation. It is not a North American nation. It is not an East Asian nation. Brazil 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.

"Onde tem miséria, tem música!"* - Raymundo Sodré (↓)

* "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...

The network was built in an obscure record shop evincing this cauldron (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar found it) in a shimmering Brazilian port city...

...it was inspired in (the kabbalah-inspired fiction of) Borges' (phenomenal 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 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

(0ur radio — built below — is here)

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

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, music which remains a potent force on the remainder of its native ground, the Recôncavo proper, where it is danced to on pounded earth, under moonlight broken by banana, palm and mango leaves, lifting the souls of its participants almost like something religious, which it was, and gods aside, is.

The Brazilian "aleph" doesn't hum... it dances and sings. And all is more connected than we imagine.

Welcome to the kitchen!

From Salvador with love,

- Pardal "Sparrow" Roberts

Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for over 30 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, 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 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. In a sense, this rainforest tree sprouted from a streetcorner in Harlem.

Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.

Imagine João do Boi!

Espalhados por amplas latitudes equatoriais...

Empolgante e fumegante e sensual no sentido mais amplo da palavra...

Delineado em prosódia e canção cadenciada...

Situado num enigma envolto de um sorriso dentro de uma ironia...

Da Bahia, com afeto: Tudo isso – baseado em conexões de curto alcance entre pessoas e entidades muito díspares na economia criativa global (integrada) – começou entre as pessoas sublimemente comoventes abaixo, e abaixo delas. Música: Assis Valente de Santo Amaro, Bahia; Vídeo: Betão Aguiar de Salvador, Bahia

"Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor / The time has come for these bronzed people to show their value..."

Você está agora dentro do vasto, virtual, dossel arbóreo de uma árvore da floresta tropical que se ergue do Brasil... concatenando, entrelaçando galhos que circundam o planeta... manifestando escritores e jornalistas, pintores, cineastas, coreógrafos, programadores de computador, designers de som e cenografia, designers de moda, matemáticos... do Brooklyn, Berlim, Buenos Aires, Cidade do Cabo, Mombasa, Tóquio...

Este matrix começou com uma pergunta: Como é possível fazer com que os músicos historicamente mais importantes do Brasil sejam descobertos por pessoas que vivem em qualquer lugar da Terra?

Resposta: Inclua-os em um sistema de curadoria aparentemente sobrenaturalmente interacessível (a magia aqui é matemática) que também incluiria membros da economia criativa de todos os outros lugares.

Assim, torna-se possível para quem conhece Quincy Jones descobrir João do Boi (o imensamente importante músico de raizes profundíssimas) em apenas quatro (ou concebivelmente menos) passos (Quincy Jones > Alfredo Rodriguez > Munir Hossn > Roberto Mendes > João do Boi).

E se Herbie Hancock estiver dentro do matrix, então qualquer pessoa em sua página – seja acessando de um campus em L.A., um pub em Dublin, um shebeen na Cidade do Cabo, uma barraca na Mongólia – estará a poucos passos transitáveis de Raymundo Sodré, mesmo que não saibam nada do Brasil e desconheçam que Sodré canta/dança neste planeta. Sodré, derrubado do poleiro da fama pela ditadura brasileira, tem agora a alternativa de acesso ao mundo através do vasto potencial da teoria das redes.

...na medida em que outros artistas e tal — escritores, pesquisadores, cineastas, pintores, coreógrafos, chefs... em todos os lugares — também têm. Inteligência artificial não necessária (nem capaz). Inteligência real, sim.

Este não é um exemplo isolado. Caminhos curtos de poucos passos entre pessoas criativas amplamente díspares são universais em toda a matriz. Tal é o poder matemático do fenômeno do mundo pequeno, o fenômeno responsável pelos “seis graus de separação”, unindo a maioria dos seres humanos à maioria dos outros em cerca de seis passos. Esta é a superpotência da matriz.

Pergunta: O que há com a letra hebraica nas páginas da mídia matrix?

Resposta: Web Alef.

Pergunta: Como isso é uma matrix?

Resposta: O significado original de "matrix" é "fonte". A Matrix Online Network é uma realização virtual da Web Alef, permitindo que as pessoas realmente passem de membros da Economia Criativa Global para outros membros da ECG (portanto, uma Economia Criativa Global Integrada: ECGI) em etapas acessíveis. O matrix abre e une o mundo criativo de uma forma que não era possível desde que a humanidade tocou pela primeira vez uma flauta de osso há cerca de 40.000 anos.

Pergunta: Por que não usar Inteligência Artificial em vez de curadoria humana?

Resposta: A Inteligência Artificial faz recomendações pessoais de música com base no que uma pessoa escolheu ouvir anteriormente (e no que as pessoas consideradas semelhantes a alguém escolheram ouvir anteriormente). Mas a curadoria matricial é geral, não pessoal. Além disso, embora as recomendações de IA para música possam satisfazer algumas pessoas, essas recomendações são atualmente impossíveis para o trabalho de escritores, pintores, coreógrafos, cineastas, atores, chefs...

O Matrix é capaz de atingir profundamente...

Desembarques de Escravizados por Números

Ponto final de uma odisséia forçada de séculos, a região do Recôncavo baiano recebeu mais seres humanos escravizados do que qualquer outro porto de escala em toda a história da humanidade. Uma ironia é que essas pessoas criaram algumas das músicas mais edificantes fisicamente e espiritualmente já cantadas e dançadas. Outra ironia - verdadeira também nos Estados Unidos - é que sua música evoluiria para se tornar a música nacional do país que os escravizou. Uma meta-ironia, então, é que essas duas ironias gigantescas são quase completamente desconhecidas.

Número de Escravizados Embarcados/Desembarcados em Desembarques Selecionados de 1514 a 1866:Bahia, porto não especificado *

Embarcados: 1.339.627

Desembarcados: 1.206.934

* “Bahia” acima é o nome arcaico usado para a cidade de Salvador. Esses são os números de Salvador e do Recôncavo.Os números abaixo são para a Bahia incluindo Taipu e Porto Seguro:

Bahia

Embarcados: 1.347.121

Desembarcados: 1.213.691

Rio de Janeiro

Embarcados: 1.216.113

Desembarcados: 1.099.908

Brasil

Embarcados: 3.515.638

Desembarcados: 3.165.307

América do Norte continental

Embarcados: 359.628

Desembarcado: 301.740

Nossa fonte é o Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database centrado na Emory University e disponível online em http://slavevoyages.org/

Caro amigo, onde (e quem quer que) você esteja—

Você já reparou como lugares diferentes espalhados pela face do globo parecem quase existir em universos diferentes? Como se estivessem permeados por algo semelhante ao éter luminífero do século XIX, único, determinado pela história daquele lugar? É como um truque de luz da mente (suponho), mas de pé na praia ou escarpa em Salvador e olhando para a Baía de Todos os Santos para o grande Recôncavo, e atento ao que aconteceu lá (o Recôncavo foi o último porto de - clamar por mais seres humanos escravizados do que qualquer outro lugar ao longo de toda a existência da humanidade neste planeta), deve-se ser levado à inevitável conclusão de que estamos em um lugar único para a história e para o presente...

O Brasil não é uma nação europeia. Não é uma nação norte-americana. Não é uma nação do leste asiático. O Brasil atravessa - selva e deserto e centros urbanos densos - tanto o equador quanto o Trópico de Capricórnio. O Brasil absorveu mais de dez vezes o número de africanos escravizados levados para os Estados Unidos da América e é um repositório de divindades africanas (e sua música) hoje amplamente esquecidas em suas terras de origem. Era uma espécie de refúgio para os sefarditas que fugiam de uma Inquisição que os seguiu através do Atlântico (aquele símbolo não oficial da música nacional do Brasil – o pandeiro – quase certamente foi trazido para o Brasil por essas pessoas).

Pelas savanas ressequidas do interior do nordeste/nordeste culturalmente fecundo do Brasil, onde o feiticeiro Hermeto Pascoal nasceu na Lagoa da Canoa e foi criado em Olho d'Águia, grande parte da população aborígene do Brasil foi absorvida por uma cultura caboclo/quilombola pontuada pela Estrela de Davi. Três culturas - de três continentes - correndo por suas vidas, sua confluência formando uma quarta sem precedentes. Pandeirista no telhado. Em nenhum outro lugar, mas aqui.

"Onde tem miséria, tem música!"* - Raymundo Sodré (↓)

* Observado durante uma conversa que ia da Bahia ao Haiti e Cuba a Nova Orleans e o lado sul de Chicago e Harlem às aldeias da Irlanda e aos acampamentos ciganos e shtetls da Europa Oriental...

A rede foi construída em uma obscura loja de discos evidenciando este caldeirão (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar o encontrou) em uma cintilante cidade portuária brasileira...

...foi inspirada na (ficção inspirada na cabala) de Borges (conto fenomenal) El Aleph, aquele no pilar da Mesquita de Amr, no Cairo, onde o universo em sua totalidade ao longo de todos os tempos é perceptível como um zumbido infinito das profundezas da pedra.

Ela "funciona" em virtude do fenômeno do "mundo pequeno"... o mesmo responsável pelo fato de que a maioria dos 7 bilhões ou mais de seres estão dentro de 6 graus ou menos uns dos outros.

Ela foi descrita (até certo ponto) e pode ser acessada através deste artigo do jornal britânico The Guardian (que elegeu nossa rádio de artistas matrix como uma das dez melhores do mundo):

www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/apr/17/10-best-music-radio-station-around-world

(O nosso rádio — construído abaixo — está aqui)

Com David Dye para o Rádio Nacional dos EUA, National Public Radio: www.npr.org/2013/07/16/202634814/roots-of-samba-exploring-historic-pelourinho-in-salvador-brazil

De acordo com o "espírito" acima, nosso logotipo é um cortador de cana. Foi projetado por Walter Mariano, professor de design da Universidade Federal da Bahia para refletir as origens da música em que a loja se especializou, música que continua sendo uma força potente no restante de sua terra natal, o Recôncavo propriamente dito, onde é dançada à terra batida, sob o luar quebrado por folhas de bananeira, palmeira e manga, erguendo as almas de seus participantes quase como algo religioso, o que era, e deuses à parte, é.

O "alef" brasileiro não cantarola... dança e canta. E tudo está mais conectado do que imaginamos.

Bem-vindo à cozinha!

De Salvador com amor,
- Pardal "Sparrow" Roberts

Anos atrás em NYC (vivo aqui no Brasil há mais de 30 anos) eu "resgatei" royalties não pagos (performance e mecânica) para artistas/compositores incluindo Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass e muitos outros. Aretha me ligou do nada em relação ao dinheiro devido pela Atlantic Records. Allen Klein ligou sobre o dinheiro devido ao espólio de Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) ligou apenas para ver se ele tinha algum dinheiro não pago circulando por aí (o mundo da realeza era uma selva cheia de tubarões, para destruir metáforas, e duvido que tenha mudado).

Mas o cliente (e amigo) pertinente no presente contexto é Earl "Speedo" Carroll, dos Cadillacs. Earl passou de doo-wopping nas esquinas do Harlem para o sucesso no topo das paradas para trabalhar como zelador na escola primária PS 87 no lado oeste de Manhattan. Com tudo isso, ele nunca perdeu o que o fez grande. De certa forma, esta árvore de floresta tropical brotou de uma esquina no Harlem.

A grandeza e a fama são muitas vezes confundidas. O primeiro deve ser acessível independentemente do segundo.