Mestre Acordeon

Ubirajara Guimarães Almeida, known as Mestre Acordeon, was born in 1943 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He trained at Mestre Bimba's capoeira school, graduating as a certified mestre. In the early 1960s, Almeida began teaching in Brazil and founded Grupo Folclórico da Bahia, which developed the stage work *Vem Camará: Histórias de Capoeira* in 1966. These performances were groundbreaking because they presented capoeira within a theatrical frame while preserving its game, song, percussion and social exchange as central elements. By most accounts, Almeida won three Brazilian national capoeira championships during the 1970s.

Around 1978, Mestre Acordeon moved to the United States and established a sustained teaching presence on the West Coast. His work became known through multiple channels: in 1984, he appeared on the cover of *Inside Kung-Fu* magazine, marking a significant moment in capoeira's visibility in America. The following year, Folkways Records released *Music of Brazil: Music of Capoeira*, documenting his singing, berimbau playing and ensemble leadership. This recording remains available through Smithsonian Folkways and stands as an institutional record of his musical artistry.

Almeida's teaching extended into universities and public cultural institutions. He served as a performing artist and visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison during the 1994–95 academic year. In 2008, Berkeley proclaimed October 18 "Mestre Acordeon Day" in recognition of his contributions to the community. At seventy years old in 2013, he undertook the Berkeley-to-Bahia B2B Joga Capoeira bicycle journey, a roughly 14,000-mile route designed to support and document capoeira community work. His organizational work has continued through the Capoeira Arts Foundation, which has documented his legacy and ongoing teaching and community programming.