featuring Mestre Cabello and Jorge
Alabê
with the UC Davis Brazilian Capoeira Ensemble
directed by Juan Diego Díaz, with guests
Mestre Cabello is an experienced master of
Capoeira Angola and disciple of the great Mestre João Grande,
ethnomusicologist Emilia Biancardi and master drummer Jorge
Alabé. Originally from Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil, Mestre
Cabello has dedicated the last 20 of his 40 years in the art to
cultivating Capoeira Angola in Serra Grande, Brazil and around
the world. He casts an attentive and respectful look at the codes
and the rich repository of musicality, tuning, ritual and
movement left by the old masters from the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s
via audio recordings, texts, photos and drawings. Seen through
these lenses, the study of Afro-Brazilian culture is of vital
importance to the recognition, understanding and appreciation of
a complete capoeirista. Mestre Cabello approaches Capoeira Angola
as a sustainable and nourishing practice for our whole selves:
body, mind and spirit.
Brazilian percussionist Jorge
Alabê brings the rich musical culture of Brazil to
the U.S. as a performing artist and master teacher. His deep
history and skill developed as he grew up playing Afro-Brazilian
and samba rhythms in Rio de Janeiro, and took him around the
world as director of percussion with the legendary performing
company Oba Oba. He is an “Alabê” connected with the oldest
candomblé house established in Brazil, Casa Branca; the title of
“Alabê” means that he has obtained the highest level in drumming
and leading of rituals in the candomblé religion and signifies
deep experience and authority.
This lecture-demonstration examines how contemporary
practitioners adapt capoeira musical practices through the
creative engagement with historical recordings from the seminal
period of 1940s to 1960s, and through the incorporation of
musical features drawn from related Afro-Brazilian genres. It
focuses on the work of Mestre Cabello, a renowned master of
the traditionalist style of capoeira angola based in southern
Bahia, one of Brazil’s principal centers of capoeira practice.
The project is co-authored by two long-term practitioners:
Mestre Cabello himself and Colombian ethnomusicologist
Juan Diego Díaz. In addition to capoeira, both authors have
practiced and researched other forms of Afro-Brazilian music for
decades. Despite their differing degrees of experience, practice,
and authority within capoeira and academic communities, both
emphasize here their shared position as practitioner-researchers.
Our analysis centers on the musical practices developed by
Mestre Cabello for his capoeira group, Barracão de
Angola, in Serra Grande, Bahia. These practices are expressed
through in-person and virtual instruction, live performances, and
a studio album. We document the ensemble’s instrumentation by
examining normative instrumental
roles, berimbau tuning systems, singing modes,
vocal harmonies, rhythms, textures, and formal structures. We
then demonstrate how the mestre connects these
practices to historical recordings, related Afro-Brazilian
traditions, and the teachings of capoeira mestres with
whom he has interacted. In particular, we analyze his occasional
incorporation of the viola machete, a chordophone
typically associated with a folk form of samba from Bahia
called samba samba de viola. This practice, which
is absent from most contemporary capoeira groups, requires
substantial melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic adaptations that
reshape the standard capoeira ensemble. We argue that selective
innovations informed by historical capoeira recordings and
related Afro-Brazilian traditions enable practitioners to remain
connected to tradition while adapting the practice to
contemporary contexts and artistic needs.
