Bebo Valdés, the great 85-year-old Cuban pianist who’s spent the last 40 years exiled in Stockholm, travels to Salvador de Bahía in Brazil, where Africa’s music and religions have been preserved in their purest forms.
Once there, he meets Mateus, a Bahian musician who acts as his guide, introducing Valdés to the life of Salvador’s Afro-Bahian residents, and taking him to Candeal, a favela district which, thanks to the thrust of Carlinhos Brown and the efforts of its inhabitants, has become a special kind of community.
There are no firearms nor drugs in Candeal. But there is a music conservatoire, and a healthy centre and a sound studio where musicians from all over the world come to record, drawn by the drums of Candeal. Using music to drive these initiatives, Candeal’s inhabitants have regained their self-esteem and the hope that reality can be transformed, that a better world is possible.
Bebo Valdés, el gran pianista cubano de 85 años, exiliado en Estocolmo hace 40 años, viaja hasta Salvador de Bahía (Brasil), donde las músicas y las religiones de África se han conservado de la forma más pura.
Allí se introduce en la vida de Candeal, una comunidad que, gracias a la iniciativa de Carlinhos Brown y al esfuerzo de sus moderadores, se ha convertido en una comunidad especial. Utilizando la música como motor para todo tipo de iniciativas, las gentes de Candeal han recuperado la esperanza de que la realidad puede ser transformada, de que un mundo mejor es posible.
