CURATION
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from this page:
by Title Holder
Network Node
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Name:
Vadinho França
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City/Place:
Salvador, Bahia
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Country:
Brazil
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Location & Map:
Rua da Independência, nº 68 – Sala 202, Nazaré, Salvador-BA CEP 40.040-340 [open map]
Life & Work
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Bio:
Vadinho França é presidente do bloco de samba de carnaval Alvorada, em Salvador da Bahia, Brasil.
Bloco Alvorada, hoje, Instituto Cultural Alvorada Bahia, foi fundado em 1º de janeiro de 1975, por grupo de estudantes secundaristas do colégio Estadual Severino Vieira. O Alvorada é o pioneiro do carnaval da sexta-feira, quando ainda que não existia o desfile antes de seu nascimento e desde os primeiros passos, a sua sede é localizada na Rua da Independência, nº 68 – sala 202, Nazaré, CEP 40.040-340.
Hoje é o mais antigo bloco de samba de Salvador em atividade com seus 46 anos de existência e vem se firmando enquanto um dos agentes culturais que atuam na sobrevivência do samba dentro do Carnaval. Além disto, firma enquanto referência para surgimento de novos espaços, entidades e movimentos que fortalecem o samba baiano. O Bloco Alvorada protagoniza em seus desfiles e festas, o espaço do samba baiano e em todo carnaval, apresenta em seu desfile, o espaço para convidados de outras regiões do país, principalmente, trecho Rio/São Paulo.
Esta resistência resultou no seu reconhecimento e respeito, adquirido pelo empenho e trabalho ao longo destes 45 anos na Bahia, conservando a identidade do samba na sua composição. O Alvorada consagrou-se por ser um espaço aberto do carnaval de interação entre o samba urbano, samba rural e principalmente, samba de roda. A tradição abre as portas para as novas formas de se fazer samba, através dos novos grupos, atrações e músicas que surgem a todo ano.
O Bloco também desenvolve atividades culturais, regadas a samba, movimentando a economia local e contribuindo na manutenção da cultura baiana. Construiu um caminho próprio de se manter atrelado a proposta de desenvolvimento cultural baiano, à medida que contribui para manter viva as expectativas de fomentar a revitalização do Centro, tendo a cultura como forma de sustentabilidade desta ação e a partir de duas perspectivas: cultural e social.
English:
Vadinho França is president of Carnival samba bloco Alvorada, in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil...
The bloco, today, the Alvorada Bahia Cultural Institute, was founded on January 1, 1975, by a group of secondary students from the Severino Vieira State School. Alvorada is the pioneer of Friday's carnival, even though there was no parade before its birth, and since its early steps, its headquarters have been located at Rua da Independência, No. 68 - Room 202, Nazaré, ZIP code 40.040-340.
Today, it is the oldest samba bloco in Salvador still active, with 46 years of existence, and it is establishing itself as one of the cultural agents that contribute to the survival of samba within Carnival. Additionally, it serves as a reference for the emergence of new spaces, entities, and movements that strengthen Bahian samba. The Alvorada Block stands out in its parades and parties, representing the space of Bahian samba, and every carnival, it presents space for guests from other regions of the country, mainly from the Rio/São Paulo area.
This resistance has resulted in its recognition and respect, earned through dedication and work over these 45 years in Bahia, preserving the identity of samba in its composition. Alvorada has become renowned for being an open space for carnival interaction between urban samba, rural samba, and especially samba de roda. Tradition opens the doors to new ways of making samba, through new groups, attractions, and songs that emerge every year.
The Block also carries out cultural activities, infused with samba, stimulating the local economy and contributing to the maintenance of Bahian culture. It has built its own path of staying linked to the proposal of Bahian cultural development, as it contributes to keeping alive the expectations of fostering the revitalization of the Center, with culture as a form of sustainability for this action and from two perspectives: cultural and social.
Clips (more may be added)
We use the mathematics of the small world phenomenon to transform the creative universe into a creative village wherein all are connected by short pathways to all... (Wolfram explains how above)
This Integrated Global Creative Economy uncoils from a sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix...
Great culture is great power.
"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"
Our Matrix was conceived under a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to Havana and the provinces of Cuba to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...*
Sodré
*...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré, who summed up the irony in this sequence by opining for the ages: "Where there's misery, there's music!" Hence A Massa, anthem for the trod-upon folk of Brazil, which blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south until...
And hence a platform whereupon all creators tend to accessible proximity to all other creators, irrespective of degree of fame, location, or the censor.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome (where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where we built this matrix as an extension of our record shop).
Assis Valente's (of Santo Amaro, Bahia) "Brasil Pandeiro" filmed by Betão Aguiar
Betão Aguiar
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
Replete with Brazilian greatness, but we listened to Miles Davis and Jimmy Cliff in there too; visitors are David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR/WXPN
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar found us (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.
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 founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Salvador is our base. If you plan to visit Bahia, there are some things you should probably know and you should first visit:
www.salvadorbahiabrazil.comAcross the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
Wolfram MathWorld
Ex Terra Brasilis
Alicia Svigals
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Roberto Mendes
Luciano Calazans
Gustavo Caribé
J Velloso
Lázaro Ramos
Fernando Guerreiro
Maria Marighella
Russell Okung
Bule Bule
Caetano Veloso
RÁDIO MATRIX