Lazzo Matumbi celebrates 45 years of solo career with the recording of his first audiovisual album, 'Matumbi sings Bahia' Matheus Leite / Disclosure ? SHOW REVIEW Title: Matumbi sings Bahia Artist: Lazzo Matumbi Date and place: July 24, 2026 at Conha Acústica at Teatro Castro Alves (Salvador, Bahia) Rate: ? ? ? ? ? ? SALVADOR (BA) – “You are the king”, greeted Rachel Reis when she sang “Bahia meu” (Paulo Diniz and Odibar, 1972) with Lazzo Matumbi in front of the audience that filled Conha Acústica at the reopened Teatro Castro Alves on the night of Friday, July 24, to watch, raptly, the recording of the singer and composer's first audiovisual album Salvador in 45 years of recording career, “Matumbi canta a Bahia”. Yes, Lázaro Jerônimo Ferreira was at home – the city of São Salvador da Bahia de todos os santos, where he was born 69 years ago, precisely on March 24, 1957 – and lived a king's night at the premiere of a great and beautiful show orchestrated under the artistic direction of Manno Góes (also author of the script) and musical direction by maestro Ubiratan Marques, once again skilled in the harmonious combination of winds and percussions. Dancers, intoxicating lights and projections surrounded the artist in a majestic aura in a show that synthesized the supreme work and Matumbi's artistic career. Vocalist of the Afro group Ilê Aiyê from 1978 to 1980, a period in which he became known as Lazinho do Ilê and as Lazinho Diamante Negro, the singer became Lazzo Matumbi in 1981, the year in which he began a solo career with the release of a single with the songs “Salve a Jamaica (Homenagem a Bob Marley)” and “Guarajuba”, both written by Lazzo himself. Since then, Lazzo Matumbi has become an activist voice in Bahia, important in the popularization of samba-reggae and reggae. The activism of this black king guided the show “Matumbi canta a Bahia” and generated emotional moments in which there seemed to be only one feeling in the audience and in the voice. It was chilling when Lazzo opened his voice and declared that “My ebony skin is / My naked soul”, singing the first verses of the reggae “Alegria da Cidade” (1988), the artist's partnership with Jorge Portugal (1956 – 2020). Later, the initially a cappella song of “14 de Maio” (2021), another reggae by Matumbi with Jorge Portugal, electrified Concha Acústica by highlighting the lyrics that narrate the situation of black people in a world that remained hostile one day after the abolition of slavery. “The world looked at me, but no one wanted to see me / On May 14th, no one gave me any attention / I had to be good at ball to survive / No lessons, there was no place at school / They thought they could make me lose / But my soul resists, my body is for fighting”, emphasized Lazzo when giving voice to the verses of “May 14th”, a song later repeated in a reggae cadence. Lazzo Matumbi sings 'Bahia with me' (Paulo Diniz and Odibar, 1972) with Rachel Reis in the recording of the audiovisual album 'Matumbi sings Bahia' Matheus Leite / Divulgação Transforming the Concha on the stage celebrating the victories of this ongoing struggle, Lazzo Matumbi went beyond his own repertoire to sing songs by other composers from Bahia. From Caetano Veloso, an MPB icon designed in the 1960s, Lazzo surprised by singing “Sim / Não”, a song from the album “Outras Palavras”, released by Caetano 45 years ago, in the same year of 1981 in which Lazzo began his solo career. A number earlier, Lazzo pulled the thread of history to revive one of the great sambas from the work of another composer born (like Caetano) in the city of Santo Amaro da Purificação (BA), Assis Valente (1911 – 1958), whose deep voice the singer gave to the samba “Brasil Pandeiro”, released in 1941 by the vocal group Anjos do Inferno, but generally heard more in the recording made by the group Novos Baianos on the historic album “Acabou chorae” (1972) recommended by another illustrious Bahian, João Gilberto (1931 – 2019). Opening with the song “Minha Paz” (Lazzo Matumbi, Beto Marques and Carlos Escorpião, 2020), the script fell naturally into the waters of samba by Dorival Caymmi (1914 – 2008), a composer who explored the musical seas of Bahia. From Caymmi, Lazzo Matumbi sang “São Salvador” (1960) with the intervention of BNegão, a rapper who has been delving into the work of the Bahian composer. The memory of Caymmi's samba was in tune with the story of Lazzo Matumbi, the only son of Minervina Paixão Ferreira, raised to the sound of the drums of the samba circles of the Federation, a neighborhood in the central region of Salvador (BA), a city that is the home of samba and capital of samba-reggae, the genre of “Blackness of the Night” (Paulinho do Reco and Cuiuba, 1989), a black pearl that salutes the royalty of the Ilê Aiyê, an Afro group that was the vehicle for spreading Lazzo Matumbi's resilient voice. Succeeded by the memory of “Luandê” (1983), a partnership between Ederaldo Gentil (1914 – 2012) and José Carlos Capinan re-recorded by Lazzo on the album “Filho da terra” (1985), “Negrume da noite” was another bright spot in the show “Matumbi canta a Bahia” alongside the ijexá “É d'Oxum” (Gerônimo Santana and Vevé Calazans, 1985), sung by Lazzo Matumbi in serene tones, with emphasis on the seductive melody of the song released by the group MPB4 on the soundtrack of the miniseries “Tenda dos miracles” (1985). In the script created by artistic director Manno Goés, the song “É d'Oxum” was allocated alongside “Cordeiro de Nanã” (Mateus Aleluia and Dadinho, 1977), a hit by the group Tincoãs sung by the big band vocalists and the public choir. Praising the orixás, the beauty of Ilê Aiyê, the sacred aura of the Tincoãs and the resistance of the black people was a political act exercised by Lazzo Matumbi with nobility throughout the audiovisual recording of the show “Matumbi canta a Bahia”. A rising name in the Bahian hip hip universe, rapper Ravi Lobo emphasized the activism of the show by sharing with Lazzo the singing of “Herança do quilombo”, a song by Ravi, recorded by the artist in a feat with Matumbi on the album “Shakespeare do gueto II” (2025). Lazzo Matumbi welcomes rapper BNegão to sing samba by Dorival Caymmi (1914 – 2008) in the show recorded live on Friday, July 24th