In this matrix it's not which pill you take, it's which pathways you take, pathways originating in the sprawling cultural matrix of Brazil: Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, European, Asian... Ground Zero is the Recôncavo of Bahia, absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings — and for the enchantment these people created — presided over by the ineffable city of Salvador da Bahia: Black Rome

 

("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano Veloso, son of the Recôncavo, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)

  Caetano Veloso

 

 

  Susan Rogers

"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."

—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory

 

  Randy Brecker

"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"

 

  Kamasi Washington

"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."

—Banch Abegaze: manager, Kamasi Washington

 

  Clarice Assad

"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"

—Clarice Assad: Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world

 

  Julian Lloyd-Webber

"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"

—Julian Lloyd-Webber: UK's premier cellist; brother of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)

 

  Alicia Svigals

"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"

—Alicia Svigals: World's premier klezmer violinist

 

Developed here in the Historic Center of Salvador da Bahia ↓ .

 

 

  Bule Bule (Assis Valente)

"♫ The time has come for these bronzed people to show their value..."

 

  Betão Aguiar

Production: Betão Aguiar

 

 

MATRIX MODUS OPERANDI

  Sônia Guajajara

Recommend somebody and you will appear on that person's page. Somebody recommends you and they will appear on your page.

 

  Maria Marighella

Both pulled by the inexorable mathematical gravity of the small world phenomenon to within range of everybody inside.

 

  Fernando Guerreiro

And by logical extension, to within range of all humanity outside as well.

 

  Wolfram MathWorld on the Small World Phenomenon

  Matemática Wolfram sobre o Fenômeno Mundo Pequeno

8 billion human beings tend to within six degrees of connection to each other.

 

  Lázaro Ramos

In a small world great things are possible.

 

 

MATRIX (PARDAL)

  Sparrow/Pardal Roberts

I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...

 

  Sparrow/Pardal Roberts

...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...

 

  Sparrow/Pardal Roberts

...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.

 

Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).

 

 

MATRIX MUSICAL

 

I built the Matrix below (I'm below left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).

A Massa (do povo carente) / The Masses (of people in need)

A Massa (do povo carente) / The Masses (of people in need)
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RÁDIO MATRIX / The Guardian

Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian. If you create too, join them in the Matrix.

 

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