Beleza Pura ("Pure Beauty")...roots samba-de-roda from Parafuso, Bahia! Click below to play: 

Bule-Bule was behind this festa de samba held on November 20th, 2005.  The band played to the left of the roda (circle).

A guy who sure knows how to throw a party!

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As Paparutas, on the Ilha do Paty in Bahia's Bay...

The Ilha do Paty was once the location of a quilombo (village or collection of villages founded by runaway slaves from the region's numerous sugarcane plantations), and the quilombo continues there to this day (although, like Brazil's other quilombos, it is no longer known as such, the currently used term being remanescente do quilombo ("remains of a quilombo"). In English that sounds dead, and these places are very much alive.

Mario -- from the fishing village of Santo Estevão -- on the rudder,
returning from Paty (in the background), December 14th, 2007

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Salvador, Bahia: March 29th, 2008

Feliz Aniversário Salvador!
(Happy Birthday! 459 Years Old on March 29th, 2008!)

 
Music by the Incomparable Pixinguinha (son of Bahian emigrants to Rio)!

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Salvador, Bahia: January 17th, 2008

Today is the day of Salvador's celebrated Lavagem do Bonfim!  In the immortal words of Paulinho de Camafeu...

Quem tem fé, vá a pé!

There's a great song about the Lavagem do Bonfim, written by the venerable Walmir Lima. The version below is sung by sublime Mariene de Castro...

Listen to Walmir Lima's "Ilha de Maré"

Mariene de Castro

Walmir Lima in Cana Brava Records

Ah, eu vim de Ilha de Maré minha senhora
Prá fazer samba na Lavagem do Bonfim
Saltei na rampa do mercado e segui na direção
Cortejo armado na Igreja da Conceição
Aí de carroça andei, comadre,
Aí de carroça andei, compadre

Ah, quando eu cheguei no Bonfim minha senhora
Da carroça enfeitada eu saltei
Com água, flores e perfume,
A escada da colina eu lavei

Aí foi que eu sambei, compadre
Aí foi que eu sambei, comadre...
Aí foi que eu sambei, compadre
Aí foi que eu sambei, comadre...

Ah, I've come from Tide Island my lady
To samba at the Lavagem do Bonfim
I got off at the market ramp and headed for the cortege
Ready at the Church of the Immaculate Conception
From there I went by wagon, comrade,
From there I went by wagon, compadre

Ah, when I arrived in Bonfim my lady
From the decorated wagon I descended
And with water, flowers and perfume,
I washed the stairway on the hill

And it was then that I sambaed, compadre
And it was then that I sambaed, comrade...
And it was then that I sambaed, compadre
And it was then that I sambaed, comrade.

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, November 17th, 2007

Today's New York Times Travel Section has an article on Bahia, from a perhaps more cultured POV than my sawdust-on-the-floor musings...

Brazil's Beach Party
(free signup required to read the Times online)

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, July 7th, 2007

POSSESSION...

(I apologize, I've been asked to remove this video by the terreiro.)

...during a ceremony tonight at house of candomblé Ilê Axé Inginoquê Omorossí, in the Castelo Branco suburb of Salvador.  Babalorixá (head priest) Edvaldo baixa o santo (incorporates an African deity)...

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Salvador, Bahia: Sunday, June 24th, 2007

Jonathan Shearer is the Ultimate BBC Castaway

Old friends turn up in strange places sometimes...

Lost & Found

I shared digs here in Salvador with one in particular -- Jonathan -- a Burnsian raconteur with a brogue and a personality by turns acid and honey, who upon being refused service by Preto Velho at the old man's bar in Pelourinho turned to me and asked "Have I ever been in here before?..."  It took me years to gather up the courage to ask for a drink there myself (I was served...)

No way!

Then another fine day up in Maceio a fellow rudely barged past Jonathan into the men's room on the beach, whereupon Jonathan simply turned the latch to the pisser from the outside, locking the impolitic urinator in.  I wish the story had ended there, but after bellowing and having been released by his buddies the rude man took umbrage, ran to his car, pulled out a gun, and sent poor Jonathan scurrying in an unceremonious zig-zag trying to avoid the irate fellow's pot shots.

There are a million Jonathan stories...

Jonathan's Brazilian bride asked Jonathan to bind her hands to the rope hanging over the bed (to which a mosquito net was usually attached), and Jonathan did so using his old public school tie.  A hoarse whisper "Now you can do anything you want," to which Jonathan replied (in Portuguese of course) "Fine, what I really feel like is a drink and a read!", leaving the poor woman to fend for herself.  The tie was never wearable again and the marriage didn't last too long either.

Eventually Jonathan ran out of whatever was keeping him here and he was off to Russia (where he spent Christmas Eve in jail)...and on to Istanbul...and Kazakhstan and Vietnam.  One Christmas he sent me Florence Nightingale from Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians, and I was so taken by the beauty of  the name "Victoria" on the page (as in "Queen") that I bestowed it upon my daughter when she was born.

Time passed and I heard that Jonathan was studying ornithology in England...

Then I get a phone call from another old friend: "Hey! Guess what! Jonathan was on that English reality TV show Castaway, and he won!

Nobody else but Jonathan...

Well Jonathan used to call me Mr. Brush-with-Fame because of my royalty work for Paul Simon, Philip Glass, the Estate of Duke Ellington, Barbra Streisand, Airto Moreira, the Flamingos and the Cadillacs, etc. etc....

But now my brush extends to Jonathan himself!  At least for his well-deserved ten minutes anyway (hope it's longer!).  If ever a pain-in-the-ass with a heart of gold bestrode this planet (or caroused the cobbled streets of Salvador)...

O Lord, Thou kens what zeal I bear,
When drinkers drink, an' swearers swear,
An' singin there, an' dancin here,
Wi' great and sma';
For I am keepit by Thy fear
Free frae them a'

Parabéns Jonathan Shearer!  Você é o cara!

Hey! What about the time all of Jonathan's clothes were stolen by a thief who stepped over him as he lay snoring on his patio?

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, June 23rd, 2007

Tomorrow is the Feast day of São João, but the festa is celebrated the night before...tonight in other words.

This is a back-to-where-you're-from festival, with people emptying Salvador and heading to the small towns of their birth in the interior, where traditionally front doors are left open and tables are set with an assortment of sweets (most made from corn) and liqueurs (the most popular made from the genipapo fruit).

Groups of friends and family wander the town, visiting one house after another, while forró is played in streets lit with bonfires.

Lots of firecrackers and bottle rockets too...too many if you ask me...but then I'm not twelve years old anymore!

(If you don't know, forró -- faw-HAW -- is a type of Africanized hillbilly music played in Brazil's Northeast, especially in the interior.  The song below is by the great Luiz Gonzaga.)

Listen to Forro!

Luiz Gonzaga (1912 - 1989)

Viva São João!  Viva!

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Salvador, Bahia: Friday, June 22nd, 2007

George Bush to Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, on June 19th, 2007...

Kermit Ruffins of New Orleans

"Proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it's over."

Transcript on Official White House Site

Well I guess we got a real joker in the White House!

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Salvador, Bahia: Thursday, June 21st, 2007

The following is my translation of an email from Jota Velloso, sent yesterday, Wednesday, June 20th, 2007...

Father Pote realizes an initiation of a son of Exu, in Santo Amaro

Exu is most certainly the most famous member of the Afro-Bahian pantheon.  He's the messenger, the lord of "all pathways", principally that of communication between men and gods.  Exu very rarely manifests himself in a filho-de-santo (son-of-a-saint) and this extraordinary event took place exactly in the land of Dona Canô, Caetano and Maria Bethânia, where it appears that God gives to all born there the power of communication with Exu.  And it's going to be there, in Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, more specifically in the Terreiro de Candomblé Ilê Axé Oju Onirê, that Babalorixá (pai-de-santo) José Raimundo Lima Chaves, better known as Pai Pote (Father Pote), will be initiating "a son of the Recôncavo" as a filho-de-santo of the orixá Exu.

The initiation will take place this Thursday, June 21st, beginning at 5 p.m., in the Terreiro Oju Onirê, em Santo Amaro.  A rare happening for those interested in the universe of African divinities.

Laroiê!

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Salvador, Bahia: Monday, June 11th, 2007

It was forty years ago today, or tomorrow rather -- and I'm not quoting Sargent Pepper's but looking rather at another swing into the light from Jim Crow America -- that the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the appellants in the case of Loving v. Virginia.

Here's a section of the law which was overturned:

"Punishment for marriage. -- If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years."

Well lock me up Sheriff Crow!  But then my own marriage came later and in a place where interracial marriages are only frowned upon in the "upper" reaches of society, but I digress...

The Couple Who Shattered the Race Barrier

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Salvador, Bahia: Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

The video below was taken in Santo Amaro, Bahia, in the house of Roberto Mendes.  It's something of an afternoon jam session in the style of Bahian chula.  Roberto is accompanied by Raimundo Sodré and a couple of younger friends.

Chula in Santo Amaro, Bahia

And below is one of Roberto Mendes's compositions in the hands of beautiful Jurandir Santana and friends.  Jurandir is a jazz guitarist from Salvador who was raised on the American jazz standards, but who then returned to his roots and now plays music based in Afro-Brazilian styles and rhythms.  He's playing a viola de dez, an instrument traditionally utilized in the music of the Recôncavo.

Jurandir Santana and Band

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Salvador, Bahia: Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

The Last of the Tincoãs...Mateus Aleluia, outside of São Francisco do Conde in the Bahian Recôncavo, on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007.

Last of the Tincoãs

Listen to Os Tincoãs

On Monday, June 4th, 2007...

Mateus Aleluia will present a show of music inspired in candomblé, orixás, and nkisis (the candomblé angola equivalent of the orixás) in Pelourinho -- in the new Casa Colonial on the Terreiro de Jesus (this is the large yellow house set on the square's southeast corner).

Casa Grande on the Island of Cajaiba, São Franciso do Conde, Bahia

The expansive residence in the paradisical setting above was the abode of the tyrannical Barão de Cajaiba (Baron of Cajaiba), infamous for his cruelty to his slaves.  Not surprisingly, there was a quilombo hidden away on another island in the area, one which still exists to this day.

And, in a twist of modern irony, the entire island was recently purchased and will be developed as a luxury resort (well, the setting is paradisical after all!).  I just wonder how many of the resort's guests will even be aware of places in the area such as the house of candomblé angola across the way, from where this photograph was taken...

Mateus Aleluia & Zeca Afonso at Zeca's home in Pitangueira

Zeca Afonso is leader of samba-chula group Filhos de Pitangueira ("Sons of Pitangueira"), based in the Pitangueira neighborhood of São Francisco do Conde.  Zeca is adamant to the point of rigid about what instruments may be used to play samba-chula (maintaining, for example, that atabaques -- the conga-like drums used in candomblé -- have no place in this music), and how and by whom the music may be danced (one woman at a time...and women only...understand?!).  There is, however, an explanation for his seeming arbitrariness...

Zeca's great-great-grandfather was a slave brought over from Africa, and, according to the oral history of the family, this ancestor didn't learn his samba-chula here in Brazil...he brought it with him.

He went on to teach it to his son, who taught it to his son, who taught it to his son, and both of the latter (Zeca's grandfather and father) taught it to Zeca.

Zeca, twelve years old, at his grandfather's deathbed, made at his grandfather's request a promise to carry on the family tradition.  This task was and continues to be taken so seriously by Zeca that right up to today he refuses to alter in the slightest degree the manner in which his grandfather played the music and saw it danced to.

Zeca is content with this... maybe his grandfather is too.

Zeca's Filhos de Pitangueira is one of the groups featured on the CD above...with an interesting video here (em português!) made with respect to this CD and with samba-de-roda's officially being named (are you ready?)...an "Obra Prima of Humanity's Oral and Immaterial Patrimony" by UNESCO.

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, May 26th, 2007

In Salvador and looking for something to do tonight?  There are two shouldn't misses...

One is at Ilê Aiyê's headquartes in Curuzu (a district of the neighborhood of Liberdade), in a place called "Senzala do Barro Preto" (any taxi driver will know how to get there...Curuzu is within long-stroll distance of Pelourinho...I used to do it all the time).

The event is the return of Ilê Aiyê's weekly Saturday night ensaios ("rehearsals", but in Salvador when used like this it means "shows"), wherein they often have guest artists...and tonights guests are devoted to samba: Raimundo Sodré, Roberto Mendes, Neto Balla, Senty o Drama, and Afro 7.

Moreover, Neto Balla has gone from Rio-style partido alto to samba-de-roda (he is Bahian, after all!); tonight is the album release party for his new CD O Samba da Bahia.

From 10 p.m. and be ready to boogie!

The other is at wonderful Casa da Mãe, in Rio Vermelho, where Jota Velloso and his Cavaleiros (Knights) of São Jorge will be getting down to Jota's MPB and samba from Jota's hometown (Santo Amaro, Bahia).

From 9 p.m. and be ready to boogie here too!

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Salvador, Bahia: Sunday, May 20th, 2007

The Bahia-Online Open Forum is back!

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Salvador, Bahia: Monday, April 16th, 2007

Jota Velloso, producer of extremely cool (roots) music (by Bahia-Online's reckoning anyway!) -- including the Dona Edith do Prato album -- will be joined by assorted guests to give shows in Pelourinho on Wednesday and Thursday, April 18th & 19th, and Wednesday and Thursday, April 25th & 26th, at Teatro XVIII.

This small theater is located on Rua Frei Vicente, 18, around the corner and down a hill from Cana Brava Records.  If you don't know where it's located (not a lot of people not native to the area do) just get to Pelourinho and ask!

The show will include music from the Bahian Recôncavo (Jota is Caetano Veloso's nephew, born and bred in Santo Amaro) and MPB.

Cover is 4 reais!  Only in Bahia!

And hey! Also on Wednesday, April 18th, at 8:00 p.m., Jota's musical companion Luciano Salvador Bahia will present a show of his own music at the ISBA Theater in Salvador's neighborhood of Ondina, at Rua Macapá 128 (right on the seafront).

What else is notable about Luciano? Well, (among other things) he produced Bule-Bule's wonderful album Licutixo, and he is a part of a killer band making its way to Europe at the end of this summer (Brazilian winter) to light the old continent up with its first show ever of the grooving roots music of Bahia! (see above under "Coming to a Theater Near You!").

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Salvador, Bahia: Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

This next Thursday, March 1st, 2007, will see the opening of Salvador's sixth...

Festival Internacional de Artistas de Rua
(International Festival of Street Artists)

...twenty groups from eleven countries on four continents...running through Saturday, March 4th, the first day's events taking place in Salvador's Praça Municipal, the festival then moving on to Salvador's neighborhood of Ribeira (in the cidade baixa, or lower city).  More information on the poster above, and even more to be found on their site at www.festivalderua.com (assuming your Portuguese is in good order, amigão(ona)!).

And hey!...among the artists are Ramiro Musotto, Tetê Espindola, and Barravento!

Robinson

And, Al Sharpton talks sense in the final paragraphs of an -- as usual -- spot-on article by the Washington Post's euphonious Eugene Robinson...

"I think of my grandfather, the son of a slave, the son of a man who was bought and sold in that horrific manner, and my grandfather opened up a grocery store and took care of his family and raised 17 children," Sharpton said. "That's what his generation did. Now what are we going to do? Are we a generation that wants to be defined by nothing more than using the n-word and having all this gangster attitude? This information doesn't just put the responsibility on society, it puts the responsibility on me. On us." The entire article is here (free signup required)

And as far as I'm concerned...in both America and Bahia, where the effects of slavery continue to so profoundly affect us right up to today...us is us.

Addendum

From the March 1st, 2007 edition of the Los Angeles Times...

My link to Strom Thurmond... What it was like to learn about a family connection to the famous segregationist.

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Salvador, Bahia: Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Today, finally, electricity has come to the quilombo of Vitória do Paraguaçu, a community located six kilometers outside of Cachoeira, Bahia (the locale's origin's leaving no doubt in that the place is still referred to as a "senzala" by the people who live there).

Cachoeira is located some one hundred kilometers from Salvador, and access to Vitória is either by way of a dirt road or via the Paraguaçu river.

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Salvador, Bahia: Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

Ash Wednesday...the party's over...memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris...

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Salvador, Bahia: February 17th, 2007

Saturday of Carnival... when it really gets going...

* * * EXT: THE ISLAND CAMP - WATER'S EDGE - EARLY NIGHT Zoom stands looking out across the bay. In the distant sky FIREWORKS EXPLODE OVER SALVADOR A VOICE from behind him: MADALENA (OC) Saturday night Zoom... He spins around. A dulcet apparition on white sand, hair tousled by seabreeze, vault of stars. MADALENA (cont’d) Saturday night of Carnival in Bahia. MADALENA CONTINUES The biggest celebration on the planet. We have something to celebrate... DISSOLVE TO:   EXT: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BAY - NIGHT Zoom climbs out into the shallow water and pulls the boat up to shore. Madalena removes her shoes, hitches up her skirt and climbs over. Zoom secures the boat. Visible from where Zoom and Madalena have landed, at the edge of the water -- A CIRCLE OF WOMEN IN FULL WHITE DRESSES AND WHITE HEADWRAPPINGS MADALENA An offering to Yemanjá. God and love together as part of the same thing... Within the circle of women a GIRL, also dressed in white, pushes a BASKET OF FLOWERS out into the water. Unseen by Zoom and Madalena, it's Babalu. * * *

This Dance Can Kill

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Salvador, Bahia: February 15th, 2007

Countdown...

Get your fantasia out of the closet and put it on!  Because today, at 6 p.m., Rei Momo (the Carnival King) receives the keys to the city, and Carnival in Bahia is on!

Cara, she pulls that turban tight!

And if you haven't gotten your Gandhy turban stitched up yet you might want to consider having Carmelita do it for you...she's got the rep for doing the best (she's the turbanteira of choice for the Gandhy directorate and hey!...she did mine too!).

You'll find her down by the Filhos de Gandhy headquarters in Pelourinho through Saturday.

And, guess who popped into Cana Brava Records yesterday! Right! I knew you'd know! Sambista Walmir Lima! Of course you remember his hit "Ilha de Maré"...sung by Alcione. No? Your memory needs refreshing? Well Mariene de Castro's version is below (and wouldn't you know!...it's samba-de-roda!).

Bamba Baiano! His birita is on the counter.

Listen to Walmir Lima's "Ilha de Maré"

And yet another samba-de-roda from Walmir's just-recorded CD, sung together with a real force behind real Bahian music...bamba Edil Pacheco.

Listen to Walmir Lima's "Flor do Santo Amaro"

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Salvador, Bahia: February 14th, 2006

Who watches over the streets of Bahia?

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Ipirá, Bahia: January 28th, 2007

Samba Rural in the marketplace of Ipirá, in the Bahian sertão...the backlands.

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Salvador, Bahia: January 11th, 2007

Today is the day of Salvador's celebrated Lavagem do Bonfim!  In the immortal words of Paulinho de Camafeu...

Quem tem fé, vá a pé!
(He -- or she -- who has faith, goes on foot!)

A jaiô!

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Salvador, Bahia: December 14th, 2006

May 26, 1930 - December 14, 2006

Severino Dias de Oliveira...Bard of the Northeast...the Incomparable Sivuca!

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Salvador, Bahia: December 13th, 2006

Dona Edith do Prato

Sunday, December 17th

The Lady with the Plate and a first-class band from Santo Amaro in the Bahian Recôncavo will perform at an interesting space in Rio Vermelho -- the back room of record store Mídia Loca -- next Sunday, December 17th, from 6 p.m. or so.

(Mídia Loca is located at Rua Fonte do Boi, number 10.  Rua Fonte do Boi is the street that runs from the coastal road back to Hotel Pestana.  Easy to find.  The telephone number is 3334-2077)

This is a very chilled place, like hanging out at a friend's house, with beer and soft drinks served from a big styrofoam cooler at the back of the room.  There is no charge for entrance.

Dona Edith has had a couple of strokes and walks with assistance...but she has lost neither her refined sense of rhythm nor the ebulliant spirit has for so long lit up the festas of Santo Amaro.  She is a lovely woman.  This show will be a wonderful experience.

Lady with a Plate

Ninety-year-old Dona Edith do Prato's (Edith Oliveira Nogueira) eponyminously entitled Dona Edith do Prato is a result of the delicious collaboration of Dona Edith herself, As Vozes da Purificação (The Voices of Purification, a group of women singers whose exultant spirit has only been compounded by their substantial years on this planet), Maria Bethânia, Caetano Veloso, and others.  Musical direction as well as the record's beautiful guitar work (in the style so unique to samba-de-roda) were the provenance of Paulo Dáfilin.

This record is samba-de-roda at its finest, eleven of the songs being in the public domain (including a song very well known to capoeiristas: Marinheiro Só) hence making the recording something of a record of heritage as well as well as an exquisite work of art.

The first and last tracks were recorded in the quintal (backyard) of Dona Canô's house in Santo Amaro (Dona Canô is Maria Bethânia and Caetano Veloso's mother), and the remainder were recorded at Elias Filho's Studio Palco Livre in (the Salvador neighborhood of) Rio Vermelho.  The album really begins on the second track (which features Maria Bethânia).

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Salvador, Bahia: December 8th, 2006

December 8th is an important day in Bahia, day of the Festa de Nossa Senhora da Conceição -- Bahia's patron "saint" -- held in the cidade baixa (lower city).

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Salvador, Bahia: December 4th, 2006

Festa de Santa Bárbara

A beautiful event in Pelourinho and the Baixa dos Sapateiros...the Festa de Santa Bárbara (Santa Bárbara is syncretized with Iansã, female Yoruban divinity of the winds and tempests; in that red and white are Iansã's colors these are worn by the majority of the festa's participants today).

Mass at the Festa de Santa Bárbara in Pelourinho, Salvador, Bahia: 2006

"Epa hei" -- the traditional Yorban greeting to Iansã -- is heard everywhere as people greet each other...

Epa Hei!

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Salvador, Bahia: December 3rd, 2006

Bambas, Sambadores & Sambadeiras!

There will be an hours-long parade today of samba starting from Campo Grande and winding up at the Praça Municipal.  The "concentration" (following the local way of putting it -- concentração) will be at 1 p.m., meaning that's the time the first group out will gather to leave.  This would probably put the actual starting time at around 2 p.m.

Do you know the way to San José?  Hmm... Dionne Warwick on Brazil and Salvador in today's (London) Sunday Times.

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Salvador, Bahia: December 2nd, 2006

Today is the 35th Dia do Samba (Samba Day) in Bahia, and as usual that repository of culture called "Edil Pacheco" has organized Salvador's munificent festivities...

The result is an homage to iconic Dorival Caymmi in the Praça Municipal (also called Praça Tomé Souza, the public square in front of the elevator to the lower city), scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

Bahian artists include Antonio Carlos & Jocafi, Nelson Rufino, Walmir Lima, Chocolate da Bahia, Firmino de Itapoã, Gal do Beco, Miriam Tereza, Guiga de Ogun, Vânia Bárbara, Vevé Calazans, Walter Queiroz, Paulinho Boca de Cantor, Claudete Macedo, Almir do Apache, Roque Bentenqüê, Neto Balla, Paulinho Camafeu, Muniz do Garcia, Viola de Doze, and Aloísio Menezes.

From Rio we'll see Jair Rodrigues, Benito di Paula, and Nilze Carvalho.  And...

Wonderful Roque Ferreira is at Casa da Mãe tonight in Rio Vermelho, with Jota Velloso, Luciano Salvador Bahia, and Da  Ilha "The Earthshaker" Mendez.

Haja fôlego!

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Salvador, Bahia: November 27th, 2006

Cool music in Pelô (Pelourinho) tonight... Cortejo Afro (a bloco afro with, like, style!) will be joined by special guests Raimundo Sodré and Sine Calmon in Praça Tereza Batista, from 9 p.m.  Vai ser de arrasar! (Gonna bring down the house!)

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Salvador, Bahia: November 25th, 2006

Today, Saturday, November 25th, is Dia da Baiana (Day of the Bahiana).  The following is taken from our Festas page...

Dia da Baiana

November 25th.  Participated in by dozens of Baianas traditionally dressed in white hooped lace dresses and colored beads representative of  various orixás, Dia da Baiana opens with a mass at church Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos (Church Our Lady of the Rosary of the Blacks) on the Largo do Pelourinho... and continues with a lunch of traditional Bahian food, samba de roda and other activities at the SENAC restaurant, also located on the largo.  This festa is not traditional, having been started by state tourism agency Bahiatursa in the '80s.

Also, there'll be documentary -- Axé do Acarajé ou a Quizila de Oxalá -- shown today at 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., in the Teatro Sesc on the Largo do Pelourinho (telephone 3340-4000).

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Salvador, Bahia: November 21st, 2006

The REAL Kramer was here at Bahia-Online headquarters last year -- that would be Kenny Kramer -- Seinfeld producer Larry David's across-the-hall neighbor and inspiration for the series' manic character played by Michael Richards.  Richards, as you may have already heard, is the untoward fellow who several days ago disgraced himself via his repeated onstage use of the loaded expletive nigger (and if this is news to you, no, Richards didn't meant to be ironic or innocently provocative...).

The original is always best!

Well said!

The REAL Kramer is a salt-of-the-earth good guy and a big Brazilian music fan!  He has an entertaining site here.  We LOVE you Real Kramer!

And getting back to Michael Richards, Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post has some interesting things to say here about the Richards rant and still-existent racism in America (in order to read the Post a free sign-up is necessary).

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Salvador, Bahia: November 20th, 2006

Today is Brazil's Dia de Consciência Negra (Black Consciousness Day), and bloco afro Ilê Aiyê will hold their now traditional march (this is the sixth year) through the neighborhood of Liberdade to Lapinha beginning at 3 p.m. this afternoon.  Other blocos afros participating are Malê Debalê, Ókanbí, Olodum, Muzenza, Cortejo Afro, and Os Negões. The event will be a colorful regalia of drumming and dancing.

There will also be a march from Campo Grande to the Praça Municipal  -- the Marcha Zumbi dos Palmares honoring the last king of the Quilombo of Palmares -- beginning at the same time.

It was on this date in 1695 that Zumbi of Palmares was killed by Portuguese troops.

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Salvador, Bahia: November 13th, 2006

From our "What's On" page...

Sunday, November 19th, 2006
Vai rolar festa! (The party's gonna roll!)

Roots Samba-de-Roda in Rio Vermelho

João do Boi, of Samba de Roda São Brás, and his grandsons

Sunday evening (from 5 p.m. till 8:30 p.m. or so), November 19th, will see -- at Casa da Mãe in Rio Vermelho -- Samba de Roda São Brás, a roots samba-de-roda group from the small community of São Brás, outside of Santo Amaro.  This is the Bahian equivalent of old bluesmen hollerin' the blues...in this case they're gritando chula (hollerin' chula) to hot hot drumming, viola de doze, and guitar...while the ladies ever so elegantly dance.  Everybody else will be dancing too!  If you like roots music at all this shouldn't be missed!!!  More on where this will be taking place here...

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Salvador, Bahia: November 3rd, 2006

Jurandir at Salvador's Kickin' Casa da Bossa

Vinícius de Moraes is truly there in spirit too!

Guitarist Jurandir Santana and his band tore Casa da Bossa up last night (musically speaking of course), playing hot and cool jazz built over hot and hotter Afro-Bahian rhythms.  The band cooks again tonight and tomorrow night from 10 p.m.  More on the "What's On" page...

Listen to Jurandir Santana's "Ajexí"

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Salvador, Bahia: October 15th, 2006

Tomorrow night, from 8 p.m., house of candomblé Gantois (in Federação) will host a festival ceremony in honor of Omolu.

Vestments of Obaluaé (Omolu)

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Salvador, Bahia: October 11th, 2006

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Brazil, the day of Brazil's patron saint Nossa Senhora Aparecida.  All commerce (with the exception of food and beverages) is closed.  And hey!  Monday is the Dia dos Comérciarios (Tradesmen's Day)...most stores will be closed then too!  Better do your shopping on Friday or Saturday!

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Salvador, Bahia: September 27th, 2006

Today is the day of Cosme and Damião, Catholic saints (marytred in 4th century Syria) and in Bahia now syncretized with with the orixás ibejis ("ibeji" is Yoruban for "twins").  The day is celebrated with friends and family partaking of carurú, a meal with its basis in okra.

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Salvador, Bahia: September 22nd, 2006

Finally, after having been brusquely elbowed aside by "axé music" in the mid 1980s, Brazil's fundamental music is retaking its position of fundamental importance in Bahia's Carnival 2007, the theme of this upcoming carnival being...

SAMBA!

Before the advent of the big commercial bloco Carnival had samba schools, and this coming Sunday, September 24th, at the Cruz Caida in Salvador's Praça da Sé, from 3 p.m. (given that this is Bahia, this starting time should be taken with a grain of salt), representatives from 11 of these traditional schools together with Salvador's newest (A Lira Imperial do Samba) will get out their cuícas, surdos, and tamborims and do it proud!

Listen to Alaor Macedo of A Lira Imperial do Samba

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Salvador, Bahia: September 16th, 2006

Happy birthday Claudionor Viana Teles Velloso, Dona Canô, 99 years young today!

Maria Bethânia & Caetano Veloso's mother Dona Canô of Santo Amaro to the right, and Dona Victoria of Salvador to the left...

* Some years ago Daniela Mercury -- on her record Feijão e Arroz -- recorded a clever song entitled "Dona Canô" by ex-Olodum master drummer and current leader of the all-girl drumming troupe Didá, Neguinho do Samba...

Listen to "Dona Canô"

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Salvador, Bahia: September 4th, 2006

Our buddy, travel writer Rupert Mellor waxes eloquently on Bahia in the publication where he once held the position of Metro Editor...the London Times: Hip, happening, unhurried...it'll drive you balmy!

Mr. Mellor strikes an uncharacteristically inelegant pose, Brazilian national drink in hand...

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Salvador, Bahia: September 3rd, 2006

Today, gathering in Campo Grande at midday, and then moving down along the Carnival circuit on Avenida Sete de Setembro in the direction of Salvador's Centro Histórico, is the fifth Parada Gay da Bahia (Bahian Gay Pride Parade).

Gilberto Gil's daughter Preta is this years "godmother" for the event, and the trio elétricos will include one featuring singer Mariene de Castro and guitarist Juradir Santana.  Vai ser uma festa mesmo!

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Salvador, Bahia: August 31st, 2006

Tonight (and tomorrow and Saturday nights) at the recently inaugurated Casa da Bossa (a nightclub dedicated to bossa nova) Miúcha will present a show (beginning at 10 p.m.) of the music of Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, and (her brother) Chico Buarque (Miucha is also Bebel Gilberto's mother).

The house is located in Rio Vermelho on the Largo de Santana; telephone is 3334-8922 and entrance is 80 reais.

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Salvador, Bahia: August 20th, 2006

Festa de Omolu, tonight at the Gantois house of candomblé, beginning at 8 p.m.

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Salvador, Bahia: July 25th, 2006

Salvador, city of music, finds itself honored by the presence of yet another very notable musician in its midst...Bob Telson.

At house of candomblé Ilê Axé Inginoquê Omorossí

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Salvador, Bahia: July 1st, 2006

Tomorrow -- July 2nd, 2006 -- marks the 183rd year of the Independence of Bahia (achieved on July 2nd, 1823).  Kind of strange, in that the date of the Independence of Brazil falls nearly a year earlier, on September 7th, 1822.  But Portuguese troops had continued to occupy Bahia until they were put to the run nearly a year after Brazil had declared independence.

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Salvador, Bahia: June 24th, 2006

Viva São João!  (the great harvest festival of Brazil's Nordeste...)

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Salvador, Bahia: June 13th, 2006

Today is the day of the Festa de Santo Antônio (Feast Day of Saint Anthony)... bands have been circulating for days here in Pelourinho as a part of the festivities, the tune most commonly heard being (not surprisingly) "Santo Antônio".  The link below opens up a player with Jota Velloso's version of this song from his CD Aboio para um Rinoceronte.  He is joined by the Vozes da Purificação and by Gantois' (one of Salvador's principal houses of candomblé) Grupo Ofá.

Listen to Jota Velloso's "Santo Antônio"

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Salvador, Bahia: June 10th, 2006

Like so much great music, bossa nova was born in Bahia...

Today marks the 75th birthday of bossa nova inventor and son of Bahia (born in Juazeiro) -- João Gilberto.

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Salvador, Bahia: June 4th, 2006

Jota Velloso, of the prolific Velloso family of Santo Amaro, is Bahia's premier producer of Bahian roots music.  More on his projects shortly...

Jota Velloso, June 4th 2006

Speaking of Gantois, this next Thursday, June 15th, will see a festa in honor of Oxossi held at the terreiro, beginning at 8:00 p.m.  The festa opens with a traditional candomblé ceremony in the house itself, followed by food and drink out back.  Should you go, dress suitably.

Beloved Dona Edith; after a lifetime of enlivening Santo Amaro's parties with her high spirits and samba-de-roda, a CD was produced by Jota Velloso and released by Maria Bethania.  True beauty doesn't fade with the passing years. Jota organized a show in São Paulo for the girls from Santo Amaro...

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Salvador, Bahia: May 12th, 2006

Tomorrow, May 13th, 2006 marks 118 years since the legal abolition of slavery in Brazil (which took place in 1888).  The event is celebrated in Santo Amaro, Bahia's Bembé do Mercado, an event which began as one man with a drum in a public square -- trying out his newfound freedom -- and which is now a full-bore expression of Afro-Bahian folklore and religion.

Candomblé at the Bembé in Santo Amaro, Bahia

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, April 29th, 2006

Festa no Recôncavo!

Music, folklore, and dance in Santo Amaro, Bahia, beginning at 9 p.m. tonight in Espaço Terreno (located in Santo Amaro's Praça da Purificação).

Among many others the show will feature Jota Velloso and Dona Nicinha's wonderful Samba de Roda de São Brás.

Samba de Roda de São Brás

Entrance is free.

Salvador, Bahia: Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

Feliz aniversário (happy birthday) Salvador!  457 years old today!

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, March 25th, 2006

Samba-de-roda and samba rural in the Alto da Cruz neighborhood of Camaçari (north of Salvador), at churrascaria Tambor Lascado's ("Ripped Drum") 3rd Festival de Cachaça. Telephone numbers are (71) 9985- 5573 and 3621-9074.

Entrance is 15 reais, and the show will feature Bahian roots greats Raimundo Sodré and Bule-Bule.

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Salvador, Bahia: Friday, March 17th, 2006

Festa in Arembepe, the lavagem beginning today and running through Monday in this small seaside community set 42 km to the north of Salvador.  In addition to Ilê Aiyê and the Filhos de Gandhy (participating in the religion-based lavagem itself), 20 Carnival blocos will parade and 2 stages have been set up to accommodate artists as diverse as Viola de Doze, Margareth Menezes, Lazzo Matumbi, Mariene de Castro and others.

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Salvador, Bahia: Friday, March 10th, 2006

Marienne de Castro -- and some wonderful friends -- will give a show entitled Santo de Casa ("House Saint") featuring music of Santo Amaro and the Recôncavo and Brazil's Nordeste ("Northeast"), tonight in the Solar do Unhão on Avenida Contorno, here in Salvador (the stage backdrop is the water of the Baia de Todos os Santos).

The friends include Grupo de Samba-de-Roda de Nicinha (unforgettable; Nicinha is a force-of-nature!), Peu Meuhay e Os Pneumáticos (rolling drums constructed out of tires), and Capitão Corisco e Bando Virado no Mói de Coentro.

Foods typically served in the Recôncavo will be served on the grounds of the solar.

Starting time is 6 p.m., tickets are 20 reais (10 for students with I.D.)

The musicians who will be accompanying Marienne are of the very first class; this show is full of promise!

 

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Salvador, Bahia: Wednesday, March 1st, 2006

Quarta-Feira de Cinzas (Ash Wednesday), and Carnival is over (almost; in Bahia it unofficially continues into Wednesday afternoon).

Maybe we'll see you here for CARNIVAL BAHIA 2007... You can mark your calendars for THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH, 2007, and prepare for the next time the keys to the city of Salvador are turned over to Rei Momo.

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Salvador, Bahia: Friday, February 24th, 2006

Last night, at 8 p.m., the mayor of the city of Salvador turned the keys of the city over to Rei Momo (the Carnival King), and

Carnival in Bahia is on!

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Salvador, Bahia: Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

In a stunning break with tradition (for Bahiaphiles anyway), this year the Filhos de Gandhy will parade in blue turbans instead of white.  This is to foil the counterfeiters of the abadás the filhos wear (and blue was chosen to honor Yemanjá, goddess of the seas).

Dr. Jaçanã Costa

And... what are you going to do during Carnival when you bite into that cocada and one of your fillings falls out?  Or when the site of all these beautiful people here gives you an overwhelming desire to have your teeth lickable clean!

Or whatever!  Bahia-Online has a wonderful dentist/dental surgeon friend who is available for dental emergencies and non-emergencies alike here in Salvador.  Her name is Jaça and she speaks fluent English, and if you need or are afraid you might need to have delicately able hands in your mouth, don't panic!  You'll find more information here...

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Salvador, Bahia: Thursday, February 16th, 2006

Today is the day of the Lavagem de Itapoan, the last festa de largo (street party) before Carnival 2006 (which begins one week from today, on Thursday, February 23rd).

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Salvador, Bahia: Thursday, February 2nd, 2006

Today, the 2nd of February, is the day of Salvador's most beautiful festival...the Festa da Yemanjá!

Lady of the Salt Waters

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Salvador, Bahia: Monday, January 16th, 2006

Today is Segunda-Feira Gorda -- Fat Monday -- the Monday following the Lavagem de Bonfim.  After the lavagem the barracas in the vicinity of the Igreja de Bonfim have picked up and moved to the area along the beach in Salvador's neighborhood of Ribeira, where the traditional festa de largo (street party) will take place all day today and into the night.

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Salvador, Bahia: Wednesday, December 7th, 2005

December 8th is the day of the Festa da Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia, held in the Cidade Baixa in the area around the Mercado Modelo (and in front of the Igreja da Senhora da Conceição da Praia).

Nossa Senhora da Conceição is the patron "saint" of Bahia.

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Salvador, Bahia: Sunday, December 4th, 2005

Epa hei Iansã!

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, December 3rd, 2005

       Iansã

Tomorrow, Sunday, December 4th, is the day of Salvador's yearly Festa da Santa Bárbara.  Santa Bárbara is syncretized with Yoruban goddess Iansã, and the festa (in typical Bahian fashion) combines elements of Catholicism and Candomblé.

Apart from the morning masses, manifestations of candomblé are more in evidence: the wearing of red & white (Iansã's colors), the constant shout from one friend to another of the greeting used for Iansã: "Epa hei!", the Baianas in their white dresses with broadly hooped skirts...

More here, and on this page. 

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Salvador, Bahia: Friday, December 2nd, 2005

Today is the yearly Dia do Samba (Samba Day) here in Salvador, organized (as ever) by the irrepressible Edil Pacheco.

This year the show, including performances by Dudu Nobre, Teresa Cristina, Walmir Lima, Riachão, Bule-Bule, Baby do Brasil, Sr. Pacheco, and others, takes place in the praça at the top of the Elevador Lacerda (Praça Municipal), beginning at 6 p.m.

Vá no pé!

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Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, November 19th, 2005

Cesária Evora

This weekend, in honor of Brazil's Dia da Consciência Negra (Black Consciousness Day, a yearly celebration falling on November 20th), the Festival África Brasil will take the stage at Salvador's Farol da Barra (a lighthouse set at the tip of the peninsula upon which Salvador is located).

Saturday (from 6 p.m.) will see performances by Miriam Makeba (South Africa), Margareth Menezes, Didier Awadi (Senegal), Inaicyra, Daniela Mercury, Olodum, Ilê Aiyê, Thandiswa Mazwai (South Africa), and others.

Sunday (also from 6 p.m.) will see performances by Cesária Evora (Cabo Verde), Malê Debalê, Mestre Lua, Gerônimo, Carlinhos Brown, Muzenza, Manda Maravilha (Angola), and others.

The shows are free.

There is also a Encontro de Sambadores e Sambadeiras this Sunday, built around samba-de-roda and samba rural, organized by Bule-Bule, and taking place in the little municipality of Parafuso, Bahia.  That's where I'll be.

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Salvador, Bahia: Monday, November 14th, 2005

Next Sunday, November 20th 2005, is Brazil's Dia da Consciência Negra (Black Consciousness Day).  The day will be celebrated -- as customary -- by Ilê Aiyê's parade from Curuzu through Liberdade to Lapinha.

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Salvador, Bahia, Monday, November 14th, 2005

And Sunday, November 20th 2005 won't be a good day for anybody planning on exiting the Elevador Lacerda and crossing the street on their way to the Mercado Modelo.  The traffic, which flows quickly enough there on normal days, will have been given over a race through the streets of Salvador's Comércio district in cars of the Formula Renault category.

Formula Renault is one step below Formula 1, and the addition of this race to Salvador's calendar adds one more facet to the multichotomy that is Brazil.

Formula Renault

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Salvador, Bahia: Friday, November 4th, 2005

Dona Ivone Lara

The first Ensaio do Bloco Alerta Geral (or, "show for carnival samba group Alerta Geral") will take place this coming Sunday, November 6th, and will feature Samba's Great First Lady Dona Ivone Lara.

Sra. Lara is the first woman to break into the ranks of samba composers, and she's done it very well.  Among her compositions are Alguém me Avisou and Sonho Meu, both recorded by a number of Brazil's greatest artists.

The show will take place at Codeba, in the cidade baixa close the the ferryboat terminal, beginning at 2 p.m. (there will be a number of other acts, and Dona Ivone will come onstage a good deal later).  Entrance is 10 reais.

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Salvador, Bahia: Thursday, November 3rd, 2005

One transatlantic yacht race from France to Salvador is barely over (the single-handed Mini Transat was won on October 26th) and another is due to begin.

The Transat Jacques Vabre -- a two-handed race in open 50 & 60 meter monohulls -- starts today from Le Havre.  Fourteen multihulls following a different course will set out on Sunday.

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Salvador, Bahia: Monday, October 30th, 2005

Tomorrow marks the 32nd anniversary of the founding of bloco afro Ilê Aiyê.  At 8 p.m. 80 drummers and singers will march from the plano inclinado in the neighborhood of Liberdade, down the Ladeira do Curuzu, to Ilê Aiyê's headquarters Senzala do Barro Preto where there will be a number of musical presentations.

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Mariene de Castro

Salvador, Bahia: Monday, October 24th, 2005

Wonderful roots samba singer Mariene de Castro will perform this Wednesday night (October 26th, 2005) at the Teatro Sesi in Rio Vermelho (on the waterfront at Rua Borges do Reis, 9) beginning at 9 p.m.

Sra. de Castro eschews crossover/pop axé music trappings, mining the fertile Bahian recôncavo and coming up with real gold.

She's the real thing.

Tickets are 10 and 20 reais.

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Carnival at Praça Castro Alves

Salvador, Bahia: Saturday, October, 15th, 2005

PERCPAN -- The Panorama Percussivo Mundial opens at Teatro Castro Alves on Friday, September 17th, and runs through Sunday, September 19th, with shows beginning at 8 p.m.

The lineup includes Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, and Virginia Rodriguez, Salvador songstress of the powerful churchlike voice.

Salvador, Bahia: Thursday, September 9, 2004

Thursday, September 9th, 2004, at 7 p.m. is the opening of the Jornada Internacional de Cinema da Bahia (International Journey of Bahian Cinema) at the Museu de Arte Moderna (Museum of Modern Art), located in the Solar de União.

The festival closes on September 16th, and the intervening period will see films presented on various screens throughout the city.  One of the principal attractions will be the showing of Fernando Trueba's Milagre do Candeal (Miracle in Candeal) in Carlinhos Brown's Candyall Ghetto Square, with the participation of renowned Cuban musician Bebo Valdés.

Slavery in Brazil is a thing of the past?  Unfortunately the answer is "no":  The Hunt for Slave Outposts in the Amazon

Happy birthday Brazil!  182 years of independence!  Festa in Campo Grande after the parade down Avenida 7 de Setembro.

Timbalada in New York City!  At 43rd and 6th Avenue!  Tomorrow is Brazil Day in New York, and the streets will see the painted drummers, capoeira, lots of wonderful Braziliana, and lots and lots of people!

From now until Sunday, September 12, runs Festa Águas de Oxalá at the terreiro de candomblé Casa Branca (Ilê Axé Yá Nassô).  Ceremonies will be held as usual on Sunday nights (8 p.m.), but white (Oxalá's color) must be worn (if you don't have white clothes and you want to go, you can make do with beige).  No photographs are permitted on the terreiro until the termination of the festa.

Preparations begin today in the neighborhood of São Lázaro for the Festa de São Roque, on Monday.  In Salvador's houses of candomblé Omolu will honored.  Both are considered divine protectors against illness.

Omolu is also known by the name "Obaluê", more commonly known in Cuba as "Babalu" (the name which Desi Arnez as Ricky Ricardo would yell after playing a rhythm that very few watchers of I Love Lucy were aware was a call to an African divinity!).

Ilê Aiyê's public ensaios start up again one week from tonight -- Saturday, August 14th at around 9 p.m. -- on the Ladeira do Curuzú in Salvador's neighborhood of Liberdade.

Dance Brazil's Festival of Dance and Capoeira (under the tutelage of Jelon Vieira) is under way!  The final days of the festa, August 13th and 14th, will see performances of Dance Brazil works Jornada and Mameluco at the Teatro Castro Alves.

More information may be had at (71) 321-7389 and (71) 9152-5620.

Looking around Salvador trying to find Carlinhos Brown? Don't bother! He's in San Sebastian, Spain, for the Jazzaldia Festival de Jazz, which runs from July 23rd 'til July 28th.

Today is the 102nd anniversary of Rua Chile, the street which runs between Praça Municipal (at the top of the Elevador Lacerda) and Praça Castro Alves. This thoroughfare, which was Salvador's center of society from the forties through the seventies, has actually existed in one form or another since Salvador's founding. But it was christened with its present name on this date in 1902 to honor visiting officials of Chile's naval forces.

Today is a holiday here, Bahia's Dia de Independência (Independence Day), celebrated by a parade down Avenida Sete de Setembro (September 7th Avenue; September 7th is Brazil's Independence Day).

On this day in 1823 the forces of a Portuguese encirclement and blockade of Salvador (which had led to starvation in the city) were broken by Bahian troops.

Today (and tonight) is the festa de São Pedro, marking the end of the São João and winter holiday season.

Today marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of Salvador's best known Catholic church (and a place honored in candomblé as a house of Oxalá), the Igreja do Bonfim.

Tonight is the vespera of São João here in the Brazil's Northeast. Neighborhoods and towns are gaily festooned with banderinhas (brightly colored little flags hanging from cords which zig-zag back-and-forth across streets and public squares) and palm cuttings.

Though there is plenty of festa in the capital(s), the tradition is to head into the interior -- to the pequena cidades (small towns) -- where forró and quadrillas (Brazilian square dancing) will reign supreme. São João is a harvest festival, a family-and-friends-coming-together festival, a wonderful celebration of community.

Viva São João!

Tomorrow, Thursday, June 10th, is the feriado (holy day/holiday) of Corpus Christi in Brazil. Most businesses will be closed, with the exception of stores remaining open for the upcoming Dia dos Namorados (Valentine's Day, in so many words), which is next Saturday.

Bahia, Terra do Sol? Salvador is wrapped in a pewter-colored cloud, one of the periodic squalls of wind, rain, and mist to which the city is prone this time of year. The meteorologists say the weather should clear by Wednesday, but for many of those who live here the rains are atmospheric and welcome. This doesn't include many of the poor, however, living in clay-brick shacks perched perilously on hillsides. The structures are prone to deadly collapse as the clay soil beneath gives way.

Brazilians rule in the fast lane! Salvador native Tony Kanaan is the man to beat in tomorrow's Indianapolis 500. But don't discount two-time winner Helio "Spiderman" Castroneves (last year's winner Gil de Ferran retired at the end of the season)!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (May 28th, 29th, and 30th) will see a series of talks (in Portuguese) on African Religion in Brazil -- Orixás, Bankissis e Voduns; Religiosidade de Matriz Africana no Brasil -- at the Old Medical School in Pelourinho's Terreiro de Jesus.  There is no charge for entrance.  The contact number is 237-2859.

Happy 90th Birthday Dorival Caymmi! Saravá! (Dorival Caymmi, composer of música maravilhosa!)

Mixing it Up Brazilian-Style, with Capoeira and Flying Feet!  The New York Times on Son of Salvador Jelon Vieira's DanceBrazil at New York City's Joyce Theater!  (Master of Capoeira and Choreographer Jelon Vieira and his friend Loremil Machado were the first to take capoeira out of Brazil and into the United States).

Today is the anniversary of Brazil's official "discovery".  Five hundred and four years ago Pedro Álvares Cabral came ashore (in what is now Porto Seguro, Bahia) and claimed the territory for Portugal.

It wasn't really much of a discovery though because at least one Spanish ship had already visited the territory which would become Brazil, and of course hundreds of thousands of people were already living here!

Tomorrow (April 21st) is Brazilian national holiday honoring Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, better known as Tiradentes (or "Tooth Puller"; among other things he worked as a dentist).  Tiradentes led a separatist revolt against the Portuguese and wound up being hanged in Rio.

Today is Dia dos Índios -- Indian Day -- in Brazil. Although the Indians' way of life has suffered greatly in Bahia, tribal areas still exist (particularly in the south) and a very considerable portion of the population has some Indian ancestry (my wife and children included!).

Happy birthday Salvador! 455 years old today!

See the New York Times on "A Brazilian Dance of Life of Death", the yearly Festa da Boa Morte in Cachoeira, Bahia (registration required).

SALVADOR BAHIA HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY CARNIVAL! It started last Thursday night and runs until Wednesday morning.

The last lavagem (ritual washing) before Carnival is today (and tonight). This is the Lavagem de Itapoan, up in Salvador's neighorborhood of Itapoan (alternatively spelled Itapuã). The program is the usual: Syncretic Bahian ceremony combining African religion and a Catholic setting, then music and dancing way into the night.

Salvador, Bahia: Monday, February 2, 2004

The drums are beating in Salvador's neighborhood of Rio Vermelho, and offerings are being set upon the Atlantic waves for goddess of the salt waters Yemanjá.  Salvador city residents gather by the thousands on this day to pay tribute and cast flowers into the sea.  If a flower moves out away from the shore, then the offering has been accepted.

The Spirit ("Soul" might be more apt) of Carnival is in the air tonight as members of Rio samba school Mangeira join Bahiana Margareth Menezes for her weekly ensaio in Salvador's cidade baixa!

Next on Salvador's agenda -- A Festa de Yemanjá -- Monday, February 2nd. The festa follows the familar Bahian arc of sacred to profane; the earlier part of the day given over to the delivery of offerings to the sea goddess, and the latter to music and dancing.

Segunda-Feira Gorda -- "Fat Monday" -- the big festa in (the Salvador neighborhood of) Ribeira after the Lavagem de Bonfim, is today and tonight.  But the last week in in the Bahian capitol has been one of unseasonable rain more akin to an Irish winter than a Brazilian summer (though warmer, mind you), and the festivities are sure to be dampened.

Today is the day of the Lavagem de Bonfim, a drumming accompanied trek through the cidade baixa ("lower city") from the Mercado Modelo to the Igreja do Bonfim ("Church of Bonfim"), by, initially, scores of white-dressed Bahianas bearing flowers, and thereafter, tens of thousands of the faithful of Salvador.

Upon reaching the church, the Bahianas wash the steps (lavagem is "washing") in order to honor the orixá Oxalá, the Father, who is syncretized with Jesus Christ.

That's the sacred. The rest is an enormous party, both at the Mercado Modelo earlier in the day, and in the area of Bonfim later and until after nightfall.

From midnight tonight through tomorrow night (Tuesday) the Festa da Lapinha, also known as the Festa dos Reis ("Feast of the Kings") will take place in Salvador's Largo da Lapinha (the kings referred to are those who followed the star to Bethlehem).  Between now and Carnival the season of festas de largo and lavagems is in full swing!

Capoeira is not the only fighting style where excellence reigns in Salvador da Bahia.  Last night Salvador native Acelino Freitas -- an undefeated lightweight boxer more commonly known in Brazil as Popó -- won the 35th fight of his career.

Votive candles were set into seabreeze-protecting depressions in the sand, and the New Year was greeted by Salvador residents dressed in white, casting flowers into the sea in the hopes that Yemanjá  would accept their offerings and aid them in their hopes for the year to come...

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Tonight: A pre-New Year's party with Margareth Menezes and Olodum in Pelourinho's Largo Tereza Batista.

Tomorrow night Salvador joins the rest of the world in inaugurating 2004. But what Salvador has that the rest of the world doesn't is the sublime music of Toquinho played by the master himself onstage at the Farol da Barra! Toquinho will be joined by Vania Abreu and others in a tribute to the poetry, music, and life of Vinicius de Moraes. Feliz Ano Novo!

Feliz Natal!

Today is the feast day of Santa Bárbara, syncretized with Iansã. Much of Salvador awoke today (whether they wanted to or not) to the sound of fireworks as the sun first broke over the Atlantic, at 4:30 a.m.

Today is the opening of the V Mercado Cultural, which runs through the 7th of December. The Mercado is a drawing together of widely diverse musical and visual artists, with workshops, conferences, and artistic showcases scattered around the city.

There's a webpage with further information here.

Salvador da Bahia is at the other end of a transatlantic race now! Today at 12:00 noon, ten solo sailors in Open 60 IMOCA class monohulls will set out on the 4,100 mile journey to La Rochelle, France, with an ETA for the first arrival on the 18th of December, '03.

From the Washington Post: The Beat Goes On and On -- Drumming and Dancing from Rio to Salvador da Bahia.

Today is Brazil's Dia Nacional de Consciencia Negra, "Black Consciousness Day". The day will be celebrated in Salvador by a march (a Terçeira Caminhada da Liberdade, "the Third Liberty March") from Curuzú (where Ilê Ayê's headquarters is situated), through Liberdade, to Pelourinho. The march is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Axé Zumbi!

Another transatlantic dash from France (Le Havre) to Salvador! Twenty-two Open 60 and 50-foot monohulls and two 50-foot multihulls moved out into the English Channel yesterday at 15:00 hours local (French) time. Two sailors have been airlifted by helicopter to safety (after their boat lost its keel). One boat has dismasted. And three more boats are limping back to port.

The Open 60 trimaran start from Le Havre will be at 10:00 local (French) time on Wednesday, November 5th. A great website can be reached by clicking on the banner below.