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Recorded live on Feb 24, 2016, by Tyler Wood in Condado, Brazil. 
Mixed and mastered by Tyler Wood at Sauce Farm Studio, Catskill, NY

With deep gratitude to Diego Bis, Lula Marcondes, Frank Sosthenes, Nicinha Teles, and the community of Condado.

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Band Bio, Photos, and Social Media

Cavalo Marinho Estrela Brilhante, a musical and theatrical ensemble from Condado, upholds not only regional traditions, but those of the Teles family as well.

Cavalo Marinho is a cultural celebration of song, dance, and theatre, rooted in the traditions of the Zona da Mata region of Northeast Brazil, which is traditionally performed as a part of a cycle of Christmas festivities. It is registered in Brazil with the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute.

Originating with slaves of sugar cane plantations and passed along for generations through ensembles such as Cavalo Marinho Estrela Brilhante, the vibrant, interactive piece of popular theatre depicts scenes of workers and rural life. The play is composed of three essential elements: the musical component, traditionally made up of singers, dancers, and instruments such as the pandeiro (tambourine), the rabeca (fiddle), the reco-reco (scraper), and the ganza (shaker), an array of characters, including the Cavalo Marinho (a white master), Catirina (a black pregnant woman), her two lovers Mateus and Bastião, a soldier, and a shaman, and the audience, whose passionate responses play a key role in the performance. As a cultural tradition, Cavalo Marinho, with its comic sensibility and keen social criticism, embodies the diversity of Brazil’s past and present, culturally, racially, and socio-historically.

Antônio Manuel Rodrigues, born in 1932, played in Cavalo Marinho ensembles from the age of 12 as both a performer of many traditional characters and, for 25 years, as a rabeca (fiddle) player under the tutelage of Mestre Biu Alexandre. 

His daughter, Mestra Nice Teles, much like Antônio, was raised alongside Cavolo Marinho and other traditional art forms of the region, accompanying her parents to local festivities from the age of 10. Unlike Antônio, however, Nice didn’t participate, as women were excluded from performing in Cavalo Marinho. Despite that taboo, Nice began playing the ganza and studying Cavalo Marinho with her father.

In 2004, both breaking gender boundaries and fulfilling Antônio’s lifelong dream of creating his own ensemble, the father-daughter pair created Cavalo Marinho Estrela Brilhante. Today, the ensemble, led by Mestra Nice, continues to be a Teles family tradition, featuring her two sons, Ridervan and Totó. With her background as an arts educator and in her commitment to transmitting her region’s traditions to the next generations, Mestra Nice has also founded a parallel youth ensemble, Cavalo Marinho Estrelas do Amanhã.

On June 20, 2015, Mestre Antônio Teles passed away at the age of 83, but through his family, his region, their traditions, and Cavalo Marinho Estrela Brilhante, his legacy lives on.

Watch Interviews

We invited bandleader Nice Teles to share her story and the story of her ensemble. It was important to them that they author their own narrative. So, rather than us asking any questions, we invited Nice to sit down with her son and two protégés of her choosing to ask each other the questions they deemed important. Below you’ll find videos of those unedited conversations.