CD Drop: Mestre Bigo in São Paulo

Francisco Tomé dos Santos Filho, Mestre Bigo (Francisco 45), a student of Mestre Pastinha, will release his CD in São Paulo at the space of Mestre Plínio of Grupo Angoleiro Sim Sinhô.

When: November 8, 3 pm
Where: R Turiassú 1172, Perdizes - São Paulo
$5

Here is a bit from an interview done by the magazine Praticando Capoeira, and posted on the Portal Capoeira website - both excellent resources doing important work to promote and preserve capoeira.

Francisco Tomé dos Santos Filho, Mestre Bigo, was born in 1946, in Salvador, Bahia. He began training capoeira in the mid-1950s after watching a capoeira presentation by Mestre Pastinha and Mestre Cobrinha Verde.

He trained at Mestre Pastinha’s school until 1975 (when he got married and moved to São Paulo), part of a community that included many great capoeiristas, such as: João Grande, João Pequeno, Natividade, Papo Amarelo, Jonas, Bola Sete, Gildo Alfinete, Genésio Meio Quilo, Roberto Satanás, among others.

After arriving in São Paulo he did not train capoeira for some time, but capoeira was in his blood, coursing through his veins. In 1989, Mestre Bigo founded Academia de Capoeira Angola Ilê Axé, onde realiza um trabalho até hoje.

Praticando Capoeira: What was Capoeira Angola like when you started to practice it?

It was a little different. Mestre Pastinha trained Angola corrida and Angola amarrada. Angola corrida was dangerous. We used to play hard with the people from Regional. They would raise their legs up high and the angoleiros would give them a rasteira. The angoleiro never raised his leg high, because he knew that if he did, he would go down.

Before, each game began with a ladainha, after came the improvisation, and later, the corrido. The capoeirista would play for a bit, and then the roda would stop and another ladainha would be sung. Capoeira took up a lot of our time. Today, there are more capoeiristas, and in light of this, there is less time to play in the roda.

In the interview, Mestre Bigo also recalls some of the advice Mestre Pastinha used to give his students. Here is some of it:

Don't enter a dark place.

If you think that someone may be armed, toss a lit cigarette on him; he will reach for his gun.

More of the interview here (in Portuguese).