Among the various meetings proposed by the Salvador Summer Festival, in its 2024 edition (which took place on Saturday and Sunday, in the city’s Exhibition Park), one was more successful than the others, on the first day: that of Carlinhos Brown and BaianaSystem , two chapters in the history of Salvador’s carnival pop music.
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Unlike other artists, who reserved three or four songs for the meetings, they prepared an entire show, “Patuscada Paredão”, in which they combined bands, repertoires and the best they had to offer: Brown’s percussive and festive creativity and the socially indignant digital sound pressure from Baiana.
The show began with an apotheosis of drumming around “O Guarani”, one of the many songs mentioned on the night, among the joint repertoire. Brown commanded the first part of the night at a simmer and when Russo Passapusso, Baiana’s MC, entered with his verses, he set the audience on fire and made the first wheels open among the public.
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The participation of guitarist Roseval Envangelista, who Brown called “the Bahian Hendrix”, in a jazz-fusion-Bahian improvisation, “Pop raladão”, made clear the intention of the group to trace a history of Bahian music, with reverence and a envy-inducing — especially in the case of Carlinhos Brown, 61 years old. Drums and beats, Bahian guitar and other guitars came together in a spectacle of rhythms, flavors, ancestry and spirituality.
The interaction between the artists was natural and total. Baiana’s “Sulamericano” goes into Brown’s “Cumbiamoura”, which he embeds into Baiana’s “Lucro” (“look, Brown, Timbalada’s cousins!” shouts Russo), and everything leads to a ” Magalenha”, by the timbaleiro major. The debut of BrownBaiana’s bata-bola left me wanting more.
Saturday had obvious highlights, such as that of Ivete Sangalo, who took her 30-year career show to her Salvador of many carnivals — now renewed by a hit with Ludmilla, “Macetando”. Bell Marques, another reference to the revelry exported by the city, revived his bubblegum hits with voice, excitement and the assistance, in some songs, of Claudia Leitte — respectful to the master, but aware of her own stardom. The meeting of Baco Exu do Blues and Psirico started at dawn, exercising the new possibilities of Salvador’s music in times of general hybridity.
Among the outsiders, the class marked the RJ-SP meeting of Iza (with an increasingly improved show, of singing, dancing, instrumental and style) and Liniker, who started with a shy “Isn’t she lovely”, by Stevie Wonder and blossomed into an engaging “Baby 95”.
Straight from Rio, Cabelinho and guest TZ da Coronel opened Saturday with the trap party. It was bombs, shots, beatings, autotune and romanticism as the afternoon fell, in a very varied show within the style, led with charisma by Cabelinho. And there was also the dance of the international attraction, the American singer CeeLo Green, who faced sound problems but rocked the early hours of the morning in a parade of other people’s hits, with a DJ, in which there was even a quote from “Amigo”, by Roberto Carlos.
At 25 years old (the last two under the artistic direction of Zé Ricardo), FVS faces the challenge of becoming the biggest festival in the Northeast and, in the future, in Brazil, says Zé. With a structure very similar to that of current major festivals — Ferris wheel, brand activation, celebrity lounge — it benefits from the tourist attractions of a pre-Carnival Salvador, rich in events a few days away from the Iemanjá festival.