SEU LUIZ PAIXÃO - FIDDLE LEGEND FROM BRAZIL

With Seu Luiz Paixão, Outro Brasil continues to unearth the authentic culture of the Nordeste, a mission it began with Mestre Ambrosio. The agency pays homage to one of its masters who has indisputably contributed to the work of Renata Rosa and Siba: Seu Luiz Paixão.

Seu Luiz Paixão worked as a sugarcane cutter since the age of 8. When still very young, his uncle taught him to play the rabeca, a small violin used for traditional street music. He would become one of the region’s most sought-after rabequeiros, generally playing in the cavalo-marinho (street theatre) and in forró dances. He was Siba and Renata Rosa’s rabeca teacher, playing with the latter for three years. At the age of 56 he has just recorded his first album, made up of compositions of cavalo-marinho and forró full of the atmosphere of the “zona da mata norte”: the fields, the dust and the sugarcane alcohol, but also the dance and joy that make even the hardest labours bearable.

It is in the zona da mata norte in inland Recife that the sugarcane industry is still based today. A veritable breeding ground for traditions and folklore equal to the hardships of its inhabitants’ lives, the zona da mata norte is a fascinating world in which Seu Luiz Paixão is one of the last masters living. Based in everyday life and a good dose of acting (brincadeira), Seu Luiz Paixão’s work has all the allure of authenticity and imperfection that are sure to charm us.