All Saints' Bay

Recorded primarily in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in 2009, this CD is the culmination of Gord Sheard's love for the music of that city and it's surrounding area, a fascination that began a little over two decades ago. A professional musician and long-time fan of Brazilian music and culture, Gordon's curiosity was piqued around 1990 when he first started hearing the new, unique and dynamic forms of popular music that had emerged in Bahia in the 1980s. When he later returned to university to do graduate studies in ethnomusicology, he made these musics the focus of his studies, making several field trips to Salvador starting in 2000. During these stays, he met many of the city's preeminent musicians. After obtaining his PhD, a plan took shape in his mind to return and record with some of these people. All Saints' Bay is the realization of this dream, and comprises his compositions - some set in established Brazilian and Bahian rhythms, others accompanied by grooves resulting from this specific transcultural collaboration - stamped with the unique instrumental voices of this Bahian musical dream team.