The group Filpo Ribeiro e a Feira do Rolo was born from the musician Filpo Ribeiro’s need of continuing his research about the rabeca (fiddle) that he had initiated with the group Pé de Mulambo. With the end of the latter, he joined the musician and producer from São Paulo, Marcos Alma (with whom he had already produced the two CDs of Pé de Mulambo) to start the new project. The formation was completed with the arrival of the Paraibans Guegué Medeiros and Diogo Duarte.
Their music is essentially authorial, but includes covers of songs by consecrated artists as Jackson do Pandeiro, Dominguinhos, Zé Ramalho and Alceu Valença. The sonority explores peculiar instruments like the fiddle, the guitar of 10 dynamic strings, the trumpet and fuses these with the zabumba, triangle and bass. The compositions and arrangements are inspired by genres that marked the musical formation of Filpo Ribeiro, especially the northeastern rhythms such as forró, coco, samba de roda, and others linked to the culture of the southeast of Brazil as the fandango caiçara, reiada (folia de reis), pilgrimage of the divine and lundus of the north of Minas Gerais.
The first CD, titled Contos de beira de água, was released in 2017, with songs by Filpo, Marcos, Guegué as well as partners like the Paraibano Ricardo Ribeiro, the fandangiro caiçara Vlad (from Cananéia / SP) and the Recife singer-songwriter Nilton Júnior, from the group Coco de Toré Pandeiro do Mestre. The disc was contemplated by ProAc edict of the Secretary of Culture of the State of São Paulo, resulting, in addition to recording, in activities such as launch shows and workshops in various cities.
The versatility of musicians is one of the elements that opens up an interesting range of sound possibilities. In the shows and mainly in the CD, the musicians take turns in several instruments: Filpo sings and it plays the fiddle, marimbau, fife, and guitar; Marcos Alma who is a pianist, plays bass, rhodes, banjo-chip, guitar; Guegué plays zabumba, “percuteria” and drums; Diogo Duarte, trumpet player, plays triangle, fife, trumpet and still takes on some vocals throughout the show.
The group already has a constant presence in the São Paulo’s scenario of Forró, presenting itself in the interior and in the capital, in the main venues of the genre such as Canto da Ema (São Paulo), Remelexo (São Paulo), Casa São Jorge (Campinas), Brasuca (Campinas). They have also been circulating in the units of SESC SP and in events and festivals related to popular culture and the Junino cycle. In 2015 they were in the programme of the Virada Cultural of the city of São Paulo.