Ciranda is an Ibero-Afro-Brazilian music genre and folkloric tradition that can encompass nursery rhymes, lullabies, proverbs, and circle dances. While widely known as an asset for early childhood education, this tradition is also performed by adults as a manifestation of urban folklore in some parts of Brazil.

The title song of this record was written as a tribute to both of my grandmothers Maria and Tereza. My lyrics can be interpreted as a letter from me to each of them, an elegiac chant or a prayer honoring my deceased grandmother Maria (1927-2005), or a phone/video call with my living grandmother Tereza (1930- ). Nostalgia and longing are the words that summarize the overall feeling expressed in this song, I use the words Saudade (longing), distância (distance), Contar Historias (Story Telling) in the sense of exploring their literal and metaphorical connotations in response to the intended contextual lyrical symbolism.
Naming this song Ciranda is by all means a reference to my grandmothers' upbringing singing and dancing cirandas in the countryside of Minas Gerais, their deep empirical knowledge about life, plants and spirituality, and the importance of their teachings on my own formation as a human being.

"Ciranda", the record, is the first album I release that exclusively carries my original work. The thirteen compositions here are old and new, "Savassi" and "Valsa Metropolitana" were written in 2007 when I first started learning how to play jazz back in Belo Horizonte, "Arôu!", "Acerola Madura", "What Did You Say" were written in 2016 while I was getting my masters in Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans, and "Brazilian Elegy" was written early 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. "Ciranda" is the culmination of the increasingly harmonic and compositional knowledge / techniques I acquired along the years playing improvised music. The album showcases samples of the music genres I have engaged with over twenty two years of my life playing music professionally. The genres covered here are: string quartet music; traditional jazz; samba jazz; bossa nova; neo soul; R&B; singer songwriter; and gypsy jazz.


Ciranda (Geovane Santos)

Sua bênça vózinha querida
Faz tempo que nóis não se vê
Penso em você todo dia
A saudade envolve todo o meu ser

Pena que estou tão distante
E não possa te ir visitar
Pra ouvir todas as tuas histórias
Dos dias de outrora que não vão voltar

A vida aqui tá tranquila
Faço tudo que vovó me ensinou
Comigo carrego o legado
Das lutas que a senhora lutou

Mantenho a cabeça erguida
O que sou devo a senhora e aos meus pais
Sua bênça vózinha querida
Um beijo e um abraço, com Deus e até mais

Maria, Tereza, Maria, Tereza, elas são as minhas vó
Maria Cândida Soares Paiva, ela é a minha vó
Tereza Ilídia dos Santos, ela é minha vó também