Monday through Sunday
Beco de Rosália

What: Beco de Rosália (Rosália's Alley) is a swinging bar/restaurant with excellent live music seven nights a week.
What Time: Open from 7 p.m., with music starting up around 8 p.m. and running to sometime between 10 and 11.
Location: The neighborhood of Barris, in central Salvador, on the bairro's main street Rua General Labatut, across the street and up a bit  from the Biblioteca Central (Central Library)...a taxi ride from the nearer side of Pelourinho (the Praça da Sé side) will (should!) set you back 8 or 9 reais.
Telephone:
Cover: 2 reais when the music is playing...can you believe it!
Notes: The Beco is located in a courtyard just off the street, in the open air but with a tentlike covering a couple of stories overhead so people don't have grab things up and squeeze inside (like so many place in Salvador) if it starts to rain.

Your host Fab Fabrício

Owner Fabrício is almost always on hand, quick to grab the telephone and offer an impromtu prize for whoever can name the title of a song the band will play a few bars of , or whoever is first to name the capital of Burundi or some such place, all in good fun. The Beco is also a musicians' hangout and you're as likely as not to have some really talented people scattered around you.

The food is very good and very reasonably priced, medium-sized pizzas (one size only) running some 12 to 16 reais or so, and there's good artesenal cachaça on the premises as well as beer, etc.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Mother Yemanjá's House of Music & Culture

Where: Casa da Mãe (Mother's House), the mother here being Yemanjá, Yoruban goddess of the sea.  Casa da Mãe sits right across the street from the beach where on every February 2nd Yemanjá's offerings are taken out to be left floating on the ocean.
What: A cultural space/restaurant/bar devoted to music, with a special emphasis on the music and arts of the Recôncavo.
What Time: Open from 1 p.m to 2 a.m. or so Fridays through Saturdays, with music from 9:00 p.m., and open from 1 p.m. on Sundays, with music from 5 p.m.
Location: In Rio Vermelho, across from the Atlantic Ocean and the casa do peso (weighing house) of the local fishermen, at Rua Guedes Cabral, 81 (some 50 meters up the coastal road from the Largo de Santana and easier to find than it sounds).
Telephone: 3334-3041
Cover: 5 reais during the hours that music is being played, lots of times they don't charge anything though.
Notes: A very cool place -- a house across from the water in Rio Vermelho -- converted into a restaurant/bar and run as a part of NGO Roda Baiana by a group of young people from Santo Amaro.  Casa da Mãe is a dancing-in-the-aisles type of place.

Casa da Mãe

Monday Nights

What: Cortejo Afro
Where: Pelourinho's Praça Tereza Batista
What Time: From 8 p.m. (or so)
Entrance: 20 reais
Notes: Cortejo Afro is a bloco afro founded by ex-Olodum artistic director Alberto Pitta in 1997.  Their motto is "Elegantamente Sofisticado" (Elegantly Sophisticated), and they are part of an artsy crowd stretching as far afield as New York City.  Don't hold this against them though!  Their approach works...good music...drama...visuals...lots of interesting guest musicians...all founded in a true and solid Bahian ethos.

Where: Pimentinha
What Time: From 8 p.m.
Location: In Boca do Rio at Rua Dom Eugênio Sales, 11
How to Get There: By taxi.  From Barra or Pelourinho the fare should come to between 25 and 30 reais.
Notes: A very strange bar run by an androgynous pai/mãe de santo (Anísio Augusto Pimenta Filho, nicknamed"Pimentinha") who ritualistically blesses patrons as they enter with water cast from shaken leaves.  Live music, a group called Tropikola nowadays, playing salsa, merengues, cumbias, etc. (the group consists of Spanish-speaking Latin American immigrants to Salvador).  Monday night is the big night here.  Bizarre and popular.

Mural in front of Pimentinha

Tuesday Nights

What: Benção ("Blessing")
Where: Pelourinho, of course!
What Time: Begins shortly after sunset
Entrance: None
Notes: The general Tuesday night madness in Pelourinho.  The first and last Tuesdays of the month are generally the biggest nights (that's when people get paid), and things also heat up as Salvador does in general moving into the Brazilian spring and summer.

Don't Miss Gerônimo and Banda Mont Serrat!...

Part of the above, beginning at 7 p.m. or so and running to sometime between 10 and 11 p.m., is the live music on the steps leading up to the Igreja (Church) do Passo from the Ladeira do Carmo (the sloping street connecting Pelourinho to the neighborhood of Santo Antônio).  Gerônimo (writer of É d'Oxum --a beautiful ijexá-based composition which has become Salvador's unofficial theme song -- along with a lot of other great material which has been recorded by a host of Brazilian greats) sets up a stage these nights at the bottom of the steps for a free show of music featuring his band Mont Serrat (top flight; great horn section, excellent rhythm section, killer jazz guitar!) and various friends who sit in, the steps serving as an amphitheater.  It's a really nice scene, and it's really nice that Gerônimo goes out of his way to do this -- the sound equipment is his own -- particularly in light of the fact that the coin he receives for his considerable efforts consists of nothing beyond the good will he and his compatriots garner.

The show opens with a padê to Exu -- the orixá responsible for opening the pathway allowing the other orixás to descend -- and closes with an homage to Oxossi (the hunter). It is extremely popular!

Gerônimo and Banda Mont Serrat

Two interesting points about the steps: They were built over the church's ossuary, and they were the locale of an important scene (below) in the film O Pagador de Promessas ( The Payer - or Keeper - of Promises), which won the 1962 Palm d'Or at Cannes.

Protagonist Zé do Burro after carrying his cross up the stairway in front of the Igreja do Passo, endpoint of an odyssey from the Bahian hinterlands made in fulfillment of a promise sworn to Santa Bárbara (syncretized with Iansã) on a terreiro de candomblé. Clicking on the image will bring up an interesting segment of the film (the entire film is interesting!) taking place on this stairway on the day of the Festa de Santa Bárbara (to this day Pelourinho's biggest, taking place on the 4th of December).

And while you're there you might cast a glance a bit further up the hill to the yellow house at number 35.  A toddler by the name of Dorival Caymmi lived there before his family moved up to Itapoan.

...And Don't Miss Orkestra Rumpilezz Either!

What: Orkestra Rumpilezz
Where: Largo Teresa Batista in Pelourinho
What Time: Beginning at 8 p.m.
Entrance: Free
Notes: HOT! HOT! HOT! Leitiere Leites' candomblé/jazz (hence the name...a combination of the names of the three drums used in candomblé: rum, rum-pí, and lê, combined with jazz) is all percussion and wind instruments...with great out-there wind arrangements by Leitiere himself, and persussion arrangements by Gabi Guedes, of the Gantois house of candomblé. To the best of my knowledge, the orthographic similarity between "orkestra" and "arkestra" is not a coincidence.

Advisory: Partially responsible for global warming.

Maestro Leitieres Leite and his Magnificent "Orkestra"

Wednesday Nights

What: Samba Samba Samba!
Where: Beco de Gal (Gal's Alley) on Avenida Vasco da Gama
What Time: 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. (now from 10:00 p.m., see below*)
Entrance: 5 reais
Notes: Gal and her wonderful place are back!  Graças a Deus!  Real Bahian soul and groove!  Highly recommended!  More here.

Note! Gal's place is constantly being closed down now, ostensibly for noise pollution in spite of the fact that this has always been one of the few places in Salvador where the music has been kept at an extremely reasonable and painless volume.  To add insult to injury, since this "problem" first came up some eight months or so ago, the music has been unamplified!  And she's still getting closed down!  It's unfair and infuriating and doubtless has something to do with somebody in the city government who has it in for her.

The bottom line is that if Gal's place is up and running, it's great and beautiful in it's simplicity.  I'll try to keep up on the situation and keep things posted here.

Further note: Gal's party is now back on at another place not far from her "alley".  She's at Ed Dez (pronounced " EDGIE DAYS"), a show house generally utilized for another type of samba known as "quebradeira" (not a favorite of mine). 

This "new" place is big, charmless, and loud...exactly the opposite of what Gal's Beco was. Gal's looking for another place of her own again...

Sambão no Beco (Big Samba in the Alley)

What: Chorinho
Where: In the Cabaré dos Novos of the Teatro Vila Velha in the Passeio Público (close to Campo Grande)
What Time: From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Telephone: 3336-1384
Entrance: 4 reais
Notes: The Teatro Vila Velha is the unprepossessing-looking building set in a park-like area called the "Passeio Publico", behind the ex-governor's mansion.  And the Cabaré dos Novos is a cabaret-like performance area within the Teatro Complex, a space tending toward intimate, with tables and chairs and a bar in the rear selling beer, soft-drinks, and sandwiches, etc.  

Chorinho (little cry) is a musical style sounding somewhat like samba-based ragtime, which originated in Brazil around the same time that ragtime originated in the United States.  And although performances are from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. one may come and go at anytime during this period.

What: Terra Samba (Bahian pagode, a style of samba)
Where: Largo Tereza Batista, in Pelourinho
What Time: From 8 p.m.
Entrance: ?
Notes: These guys are capable sambistas and in my opinion the grooviness of their music is inversely proportional to how far they bow to the pressures of commercialization.  Some years ago they came out with a very groovy song -- Deus é Brasileiro (God is Brazilian) -- with lyrics as pointed as the rhythms were rockin'...
Alert! Terra Samba is on their after-Carnival hiatus until further notice!

Thursday Nights

What: Semba, afro-pop
Where: Lugálegal, at Rue Frei Vicente, No. 7 in Pelourinho
What Time: From 11 p.m.
Entrance: 5 reais
Telephone: 3321-1616

What: Street party with pagode (samba) provided by the Queinho Pita's Pagoleiros
Where: On the street in the Ferreira Santos section of Federação
What Time: From 6 p.m. till 10 p.m.
Entrance: Free
Notes: Ten years or so this grooving weekly street party stopped, and it has just recently been revived.  Very local by its nature.

Friday Nights

What: Chorinho (describing it simply, I'd simply say "chamber samba"...this is a style which originated in Brazil around the same time that ragtime originated in the U.S.
Where: Cantinho Carioca, on Rua Chile, close to Pelourinho, just up the street from the Praça da Sé bus stop...
What Time: From 6 p.m. till 10 p.m.
Cover: Free
Notes: This is excellent music in a working-class bar/restaurant (with extremely accessible prices) opening onto Rua Chile, the music played by percussionists Paulinho and Jiló and a couple of their friends.  It really is a very nice scene, and if you go you'll probably be the only non-local(s) there (other than perhaps myself and maybe a couple of other expats).

If you're in Pelourinho, just walk out from Praça da Sé, past the Elevador Lacerda, and up the street maybe another 100 meters...Cantinho Carioca is there on the right.

What: Bossa Nova
Where: Aconchego da Zuzu, in the neighborhood of Garcia (fim de linha), at Rua Quintino Bocaiúva, 18
What Time: 9:30 p.m.
Telephones: 3331-5074 and 3331-8149
Cover: 5 reais

What: DJs, playing blues, soul, samba, acid jazz...
Where: The Borracharia (tire-fixing place), on Rua Cons. Pedro Luiz at101 A, in Rio Vermelho
What Time: late
Telephone: 9142-0456
Cover: 15 reais for men, 10 for the fairer sex

What: Didá
Where: Largo Tereza Batista, in Pelourinho
What Time: From 8 p.m.
Entrance: 10 reais
Telephone: 3321-2042
Notes: Didá Banda Feminina is a sparkling all-girl troupe headed by ex-Olodum maestro Neguinho do Samba.

What: Samba to live music at Nego Fua's Bar Galícia.  Inside this bar there's a sign hanging on the wall, a photograph of which is reproduced below...

Tough (Nice) Guy and more...

For those of you who don't read Portuguese, the sign reads:

"The community of Maciel - Pelourinho reveres its hero, tough guy and big f***er, Black Fua, the "Rooster of Maciel".  Fua (right) is actually a very agreeable fellow!

Where: At the corner of Rua João de Deus and Rua J. Castro Rabelo, in Pelourinho
What Time: From 10 p.m. until 2 a.m.
Entrance: Free
Notes: This bar gets a local crowd and is highly animated, with excellent samba (provided by band Caxambu and its leader Gordinho).  It gets v-e-r-y packed later on, with people practically falling out the doors, and the ambience of the place always reminds me of (this is for Americans who weren't born yesterday) the painting that used to come up at the end of the Good Times TV show.  Don't be offended if I say that it ain't for your average tourist!

Neto

What: Samba, dancing at Neto Bala's...
Where: ...Viola Vadia, in Boca do Rio at Avenida Dom Eugenio Sales, 127
What Time: From 10 p.m.
Entrance:
Telephone: 3363-7421

What: Pagode
Where: Pit Stop, Rua Carlos Gomes, 25 at the Largo das Flores outside Largo Dois de Julho
What Time: 8 p.m.
Entrance: 5 reais
Notes: Very popular!

What: Seresta (arrocha)
Where: Filhos de Korin Efan headquarters on Ladeira do Passo, 26, in Carmo
What Time: From 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Entrance: 2 reais
Telephone: 3321-3210

Saturday Nights

What: Afro-Bahian Music and Drumming
Exactly What: Bloco afro Ilê Aiyé
Where: Ladeira do Curuzu, 197, in Liberdade
What Time: 10 p.m.
Telephones: 3256-1013 and 3388-4969
Entrance: 10 reais, 5 reais students

What: Afro-Bahian Music and Drumming
Exactly What: Bloco afro Muzenza
Where: Largo Tereza Batista, in Pelourinho
What Time: 9 p.m.
Entrance: 10 reais

What: Chorinho & MPB (Música Popular Brasileira)
Where: Aconchego da Zuzu, in the neighborhood of Garcia (fim de linha), at Rua Quintino Bocaiúva, 18
What Time: 9:30 p.m.
Telephones: 3331-5074 and 3331-8149
Cover: 5 reais

Sunday Afternoons

What: MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) and samba
Where: Aconchego da Zuzu, in the neighborhood of Garcia (fim de linha), at Rua Quintino Bocaiúva, 18
What Time: From 1 p.m.
Telephones: 3331-5074 and 3331-8149
Cover: 5 reais

Sunday Nights

What: Peu Meurray e os Pneumáticos
Where: O Galpão Cheio de Assunto, on Rua Djalma Dutra 40 (around the back), between the Dique de Tororó and Sete Portas...very close to Pelourinho.
What Time: From 6:30 p.m.
Entrance: 10 reais
Telephones: 3322-3056 / 9991-7740
Notes: Peu Meurray is a composer/percussionist of note who came up with a brilliant idea for disposed tires...he makes rolling drums out of them (I first ran across Peu's group during Carnival some years ago; man it was something to see!).

What: Afoxé-based dance music
Where: Filhos de Gandhy headquarters in Pelourinho on Rua Gregório de Mattos (more on the Filhos de Gandhy here...)
What Time: From 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Entrance: Free
Notes: Very cool and very cultural.  The Filhos de Gandhy headquarters has three floors...an entrance and administrative floor, a lower floor with table and access to food and drinks, and a still lower floor with a stage.  To see what the lower floor looks like on Sunday afternoons, go there, or go here...).

What: Olodum
Where: Pelourinho's Praça Pedro Arcanjo
What Time:
Entrance: 20 reais

What: Motumbá
Where:Área Verde (the "Green Area" behind the Othon Hotel, on Avenida Oceânica at number 2294, in Ondina
What Time:
Entrance: 20 reais
Notes: Motumbá is a big, relatively new musical group built around a singer (can't for the life of me remember his name right now), and the band's producer is pouring big bucks (okay, reais) into promoting them. The seeds of excellence are here, and despite the big promo posturing they sometimes peep through.

What: Samba (of the style "partido alto") with Grupo Everest (a mixture of youth and experience).
Where: Behind O Cravinho, on the Terreira de Jesus in Pelourinho
What Time: From 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., although things tend to get moving later rather than earlier.
Entrance: 2 reais

What: Malê de Balê, traditional Afro-Bahian drumming, plus pagode
Where: The Malê de Balê headquarters in Itapoan, at Parque Metropolitano do Abaeté (no number).
What Time: From 5 p.m.
Telephones: 3249-3451, 3285-6778
Entrance: 5 reais

What: Afoxé
Where: Filhos de Korin Efan headquarters on Ladeira do Passo, 26, in Carmo
What Time: From 6:30 p.m. to midnight
Entrance: Free
Telephone: 3321-3210
Notes: Korin Efan is an afoxé, and their headquarters is in the leftover hulk of a building in the Centro Histórico, where they've been for years.  The effect is of authentic old Bahia, which stands to reason because that's exactly what it is!  The music is candomblé-style, and in keeping with the theme the inside walls (the ceiling is open air) are lined with large painted images of the orixás.  The dancing as well is right out of a house of candomblé.  The percussion is excellent and the singing unstudied but moving, the only downside being the volume of the voice amplification -- more overwhelming than necessary.  This is, nevertheless, a fascinating stop for people whose taste runs to the cultural and exotic.  Beer and drinks are sold on the premises.  Axé!