Biography
Born in the cosmopolitan city of Recife, to a family with strong bonds to its rural origins, Siba grew up between town and country, two worlds that are part of a single entity. From his first encounters with the traditions of the “Mata Norte” he began a long history of apprenticeship and collaboration, exercising through the years the fundamentals of rhythmic poetry to become one of the main masters of the new generation of cidanda and maracatu nowadays. At the same time, as a member of the seminal group “Mestre Ambrósio”, he developed an innovative and singular musical style, in which the dialogue of the traditional with the contemporary, the past with the present, the street with the stage are an unmistakable feature.
After living for seven years in São Paulo, Siba moved back to Pernambuco in 2002 to start the “Fuloresta”, a group formed by traditional musicians from Nazaré da Mata, a small town with 30 thousand inhabitants, about 65 km away from Recife. Their debut album, “Fuloresta do Samba”, was recorded with a mobile unit on the outskirts of Nazaré and released in 2003, followed by performances all over Brasil.
The group also toured Europe three times from 2004 to 2006, developing with time their unique ability of adapting the night-long pieces from the street parties to a more concise approach when taken to the stage. As Siba puts it: “We've never experienced our past or tradition as a cage. On the contrary, our tradition offers us a vast vocabulary, and we do our best to use all of it every day and specially all night long. It is impossible to replicate the way we involve the whole community in poetry and collective dancing during the whole night, although the hour- or 90-minute-long sets we play in festivals provide a very good opportunity to catch a glimpse of our actual musical impact”.
“Toda vez que eu dou um passo / O mundo sai do lugar” (Ambulante Discos) is the sophomore effort from Siba and the Fuloresta: straight-to-the-point lyrics and strong poetry, cirandas, cocos-de-roda and frevos mixed up with dubwise effects, electric guitar and pianos, and a beautiful brass section playing clever arrangements, along with very special guests Céu, Beto Villares, Marcelo Pretto, Fernando Catatau, Isaar França and ciranda poet Zé Galdino. An album with an unexpected cosmopolitan tone, reaching far beyond the boundaries between popular culture and pop music, oral poetry and literature, and the contrast betwixt tradition and modernity.
One of the most recognizable achivements of Siba's journey through supposedly distinct worlds is his recent partnership with the São Paulo graffitti duo “OsGemeos” (pairs), responsible for both the CD artwork and the live concert backdrops on the DVD (to be released in 2008). An off-the-wall match with surprising results that seems to reveal that in order to understand contemporary Brasil, an standardized approach shall not suffice.
Musicians :
Siba – lead vocal and percussion
Biu Roque – percussion and vocal
Mané Roque – percussion and vocal
Cosmo Antônio – percussion and vocal
Zeca – percussion
Roberto Manoel – Trumpets
Galego – Trombone
João Minuto- Tenor Sax
Bolinha - Tuba
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