Baiãode Dois

Piano and zabumba, and no one else. The pairing is unusual, and both musicians come from the same place: Salomão Soares and Guegué Medeiros are from Paraíba, and the repertoire here is the music they grew up inside.

The idea was born at home. Salomão and Guegué were neighbors in the same building in São Paulo (Guegué is the brother of Helinho Medeiros, the teacher Salomão studied piano with at 15) and were always getting together to play piano and zabumba, with no album in mind. Until one day, climbing the stairs, Salomão had the idea and knocked on his neighbor’s door: “Shall we record an album of piano and zabumba, just playing forró?”

The zabumba doesn’t accompany the piano: it is a conversation the whole way through, with both instruments as protagonists.

The album pays tribute to forró with classics by Dominguinhos, Luiz Gonzaga and Sivuca, and draws Edu Lobo, Pinto do Acordeon, Chico Buarque and Egberto Gismonti into the same seasoning. A celebration that, in Guegué’s words, “encouraged us to conceive innovative arrangements and explore improvisation”.

Recorded live, with nothing added on top, in March 2023 at Estúdio Gargolândia, in Alambari, São Paulo.

“We had the privilege of growing up immersed in the musical richness of the June dances and the celebrations on the farms of our beloved Northeast.”

Salomão Soares