Hello, Hello! Congratulations to the Greatest Maestro! Today, February 22, 1916, Waldemar Rodrigues da Paixão was born on the island of Maré, Bahia. The legendary “man” of Corta Braço! (Before any act, put on your headphones???? for an honest musical appreciation). Get ready to travel to the past, in the most beautiful and engaging recording of capoeira, in its true environment, its territory, the street vagrancy, an authentic popular manifestation of Freedom, in the mastery of Seu Waldemar, the Master! When I had access to this recording, it was the beginning of a cycle in my journey, in July, 1991, Liége, Belgium. I lived alone in that city, it was summer, but the sun did not want to contemplate the long-awaited season, everything was clouded in gray, it seemed like a winter with little light. It had been a little over a month since knee surgery, and very recently I had received the news that my father had passed away. I had to stay there to explore a career in capoeira, as it was necessary to survive and continue my mission, as Seu Bento told me before leaving. When I was introduced to this work by Seu Waldemar, even though I was living in a decade where capoeira was an academic and sporting model, with group formations and rules with little flexibility, this recording was a great help to me in the sense of accessing a deeper musicality, awakening my musical ear and the ritualistic awareness of popular expression. In Belgium there was an institution called Médiathéque, a space where we could access phonographic records, audiovisuals, vinyls, and VHS that were available to take home and record. Where, of course, you had to pay a fee. Amidst so many recordings, I came across a vinyl cover with two bastions demonstrating, one of those famous black and white images from the 40s or 50s. When I turned the cover over, another image appeared with capoeiristas ready, in ritualistic formation, none other than: On the berimbau in the center, “Banzêro” as he called it, Seu Waldemar, on the left on “Gunga” Zacarias Boa Morte, and on the right on the viola Seu Traíra, on the tambourine Seu Rafaé the Cobrinha Verde, still crouched with his large gourd berimbau in his hand, Bugalho an excellent player and squatting at the foot of the ritual, Cabelo Bom and Ivanir. As for me... I recorded the vinyl and when I returned to Brazil in November of that same year I shared it with some comrades, perhaps it was the first time that this recording had returned to its country of origin, Brazil. The recording was captured by the American anthropologist Simone Dreyfus, and was edited and published by the Musée de L'Homme in 1956. The recording is so rich that it allows our imagination to flow. It is not just a capoeira game circle. You can see the people arriving, the speeches, the intrigues, the preparation, the scene, the threats, and above all, the dedication of the people to the street demonstration. As one of its regular attendees put it, “they were popular heroes,” Seu Mario Cravo told me the year before last. When the ritual begins, the berimbaus play, and you can see that the noises are becoming silent. When Seu Waldemar sings, “Torpedeiro encuuraçado,” the silence begins to gain ground, a respect for the ancestral bows, perhaps access to another plane, to the deepest dive of those who were there, concentrated on the affective melodies and twisted bodies of muscle memory. A kind of “mantra” seduces everyone into the same state. The musical nuances and dynamics are impressive, a true drum section, a band, a group, all together, a collective on the same plane, with an ancestral purpose. You can see that Seu Waldemar sings the same litany twice and the changes in melody and tempo that he uses in each litany are noticeably noticeable. As he once told me in 1987: “I like to embellish the song, it is my pleasure, my cry”. When he first sings the corrido “Paranauê”, (with a good headset???? ) you will notice one of the tambourines turning more frequently, but with the phrases at the exact moment, dialoguing with the context, not just random solos as we often see today, thirsting for the spotlight of the modern world. In the second litany, when they move from praise to corrido, Seu Waldemar sings “Pisada de Lampião” majestically, with a lower berimbau, the “banzêro” sings to the Estandarte, Waldemar’s anthem, everything is activated in the ritual, the Viola with a slightly more open timbre, but with its low tuning, the men were really good at the ritual. Anyway! I confess that I could very well continue here trying to narrate this recording, which for me is the most beautiful and authentic so far, but I think it is very important that this narrative be collective, which is why I share it with you. If we listen carefully and deeply, we will get out of the immediate erasure and begin a new relationship with our body, music and ancestry. At the end of the video/audio there is a very special and unprecedented surprise, Seu Waldemar p