There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination.  Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, beating drums and luscious jazz harmonics -- there's no other place like it in the world.  And while Rio, or its fame anyway, tends toward the elegant and "sophisticated" end of the spectrum, Bahia tends toward the other.  Bahia is the land of the drum...

APARTMENTS

A Brave New Musical World!
For Immediate Release:
sparrowroberts@gmail.com

Our Mission: To make the unknown genius in the shack in Brazil as easy to find as Lady Gaga.

How? As everybody knows, there are two (2) mega-networks out there now with musicians floating around on them, Facebook and Myspace Music...but neither of these giants directly addresses a fundamental question in terms of music on their sites: How does one know where to go?

Answer: Follow the directions pointed out by people you deem worth listening to. This is the basis of a quietly revolutionary project called The MusiCodex.


Genius (right) in a shack in Brazil, with a fan (me).

It works like this...

A codex is a book (in Latin), and in the MusiCodex people have pages. And as in a book one may turn a page, in the MusiCodex one may decide what pages his/her/their own page will turn to. The MusiCodex is vectored! It's directioned by its participants!

Voilà! Open sesame! A democracy of musical discovery! A fast-break around the slow-moving corporate Kremlin!

For example, I'm on your page and I think you are cool. I look to see who your page opens to (can be as many other pages as you like). Maybe that's how I found you in the first place, arriving from somebody else's page. And on and on, and on.

Now try following Facebook or Myspace Music friends one after another, or Twitter followers... See? Chaos! A subtle paradigm shift in the perspective of the world's oldest means of idea propagation, word-of-mouth, offers boggling opportunities which haven't, till now, been explored.

The codex's motto is "Music in our time and the people who live it." This means that everybody to whom music is important --the people who make it, the people who work with it, the people who just listen to it -- all are likewise welcome to be a part of it, and have their say.
Codexed!

Please note that codex pages come in two flavors, independent and (preponderantly at this early stage) article/biographic. People who sign up are independent. Article/biographics are written by the MusiCodex (about people/groups which we for whatever reason find compelling), and are linked from by (!) the MusiCodex. People/groups are welcome/encouraged to take over their biographics and do as they wish with them!


Codex  (ˈkəʊdɛks) 
— n  , pl codices
1. volume, in book form, of manuscripts of an ancient text.
2. Obsolete:  A legal code.
3. A music platform established Brazil in the manner of Archimedes' lever, that is, a place to stand and move the world, leverage vested in the length and quantity of musical pathways as available to the unknown genius as to the established artist.
[From Latin: tree trunk, wooden block, book]

*esteemed previous visitors represented by points of light


Need a lift? Wonderful Bule Bule of Antônio Cardoso, Bahia, leads into Brasil Pandeiro, by wonderful Assis Valente of Santo Amaro, Bahia, Brazil (more on Bule Bule on his page in the Codex). Beautiful musicians all here, and this production ROCKS (sambas?)!

What Is Salvador's Relationship With the Recôncavo?

(And why does it matter?)

For a lot of people -- both those who live here and those who come here -- it doesn't matter. But to the point is an anecdote related to me by Mateus Aleluia, of Os Tincoãs, a now-legendary vocal group from Cachoeira: "A Bahian slave once said to his master, 'You have conquered us, but our culture will conquer yours.'" Whether this is true or not hinges upon what one calls culture, but in that the pervading art of Bahia -- as in most all Brazil -- is musical, and given that the greatest root of this musical culture is buried deep within Recôncavo massapé, a strong argument may be made for its validity.

Continued on Salvador...

...And God Created Man in His Own Image

São Benedito (Saint Benedict) welcomes you from his place on the wall (first on the right after one enters) of the newly reopened Igreja da Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos (Church of Our Lady of the Black Men's Rosary). The church was closed for 2 years and 8 months while undergoing "renovation" under the auspices of the Bahian Ministry of Tourism. Then it rained, water leaked through the newly "repaired" walls, and the paint ain't gonna be there for long. Nothing like "work" banked by the Bahian government to help nature take its toll! But the Afro-Bahian drumming during Catholic mass, with singing in Yoruban? You're not going to hear that in Notre Dame (though presumably the paint on the walls of the magnificent structure on the Île de la Cité is not bubbling up, the French having wisely left that to le ballon rouge).

Alain Zamrini's Wonderful Apartments
Support is here on the ground 24/7!

Daniel Blumenthal's Commendable Apartments
Support is here on the ground 24/7!

HOTELS
Hotels & Apartments in Salvador, afield in Bahia, and even Rio.
Reserve securely here, there, and everywhere through Booking.com
MUSIC
The MusiCodex: It's a Brave New Musical World! Live in it!
FEATURES

Bahia-Online

 

Salvador
A Short History of Salvador da Bahia
Carnival in Bahia
The Old City: Pelourinho

Neighborhoods, Streets, Praças & Byways

A Tour Guide to Salvador & Environs

Blood, Sweat, & Prayers: Sites & History

Once Upon a Night in Brazil: A Short History of Brazilian Music

Sweet Fields, Bitter Harvest: The Music of Bahia

About Us

The Sacred & the Profana: Festas

Food & Eating Out in Salvador

Drinking in Salvador

The Beach Scene

Islands in the Bay

What's On in Salvador

Frequently Asked Questions

Radio Cana Brava
Hottest Rhythms, Coolest Tunes

Download GREAT Brazilian Music

Ubiquitous Deities: Candomblé

Capoeira: Dance Like a Baryshnikov & Hit Like a Kalashnikov

Afoxés & Blocos Afros

Percussion Classes, Percussion Legends: Heaviest Hands

Brazilian Music Workshops & Tours

Group Lodging, Professional & Student
Learning Portuguese: Lessons & Classes
Money Matters
Buying Property in Bahia
S.O.S. Salvador: Volunteer Work
How to Avoid Being Robbed & Cheated
Off the Beaten Track
How to Get Around: Buses, Taxis, & Cars
Black Market: Bahian Bazaar
Outside of Salvador

Other Voices

Kindred Spirits & Fellow Travellers

Dental Help in Salvador

Current Weather & the Forecast


Same as it ever was: A Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos on the Largo do Pelourinho...built by Bahian slaves, and ex-slaves and open -- as always -- to everybody.


sparrowroberts@gmail.com