Thursday, March 19, 2009

The forgotten percussionist?

In Brazil, many of the Baterias of the Escolas de Samba have 1 or 2 cymbal players at the very front of the Bateria!!!! I haven't come across this in the US yet, which is very sad. Can anyone teach me to play Samba cymbals?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Assiste Globo e mais na rede/Watch Globo and more on the Internet

Oi Galera!

Quero postar mais nesse blog, mas falto tempo... Eu estava muito ocupado com o meu emprego e tocando e dancando tambem! Começava muitos amizades muitos boms e falava muito Portugues nas semanas passadas. Então, quero lhes dar uma riqueza pra melhorar os seus habilidades com o Portugues tambem. Quem fala Portugues disfruta vida mais!



Hi everyone!

I want to post more on this blog, but I don't have time. I've been very busy with work and playing and dancing too! I made many very good new friends and spoke a lot of Portuguese in the last couple of weeks. So, I want to give you guys a resource to improve your Portuguese skills too. Those who speak Portuguese enjoy life more!



TV Globo on the internet

Vale muito! Vai agora e assiste!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Mangueira Radio

I constantly bitch at anyone who is unfortunate enough to even bring up a vaguely related topic about how I don't think enough people in many blocos ever become familiar with Samba, or ever even listen to Samba in the first place. I think people often show up to a bloco with little to no idea about samba, and then often aren't given any material to familiarize themselves with the musical style and conventions. And I realize that the music is not particularly easy to find, or cheap, but if you are gonna try to play another cultures music, there should probably be a pretty heavy amount of work going on getting used to the feel, conventions, and "rules". This falls into my don't do this stuff half assed rant category, and it is one of the reasons I'm putting up what I do on this blog... /end rant.

Here's a really cool Mangueira site, not the official site (which also has a media section but is rather spotty as far as actually working).

EstacãoPrimara.org Radio Jaquitibá

The site is in Portuguese... but bear with me, it's worth it (or as they say in Brazil "Vale a pena"). You are probably primarily interested in the "Radio Jequitibá" section, on which page you will find several streaming radio options! There are pretty pictures and good articles in Portuguese... Here's where it really gets good (second option down):

Jequitibá Vivo: Versões ao vivo dos sambas de enredo, samba de exaltação e sambas de quadra

This means "Jequitibá live: Live versions of Sambas de Enredo, Samba de Exaltação and Sambas from the Quadra"

The bestest part of all of this is that the official carnaval CDs are crap as far as hearing anything relating to the feel or technical aspects of an Escolas samba, whereas these live recordings are freaking gold. Mangueira, for those of you who don't know, has a really different style and feel than any other Escola, so it merits some study in order to do it right.

There's a lot of people pissed off at Mangueira over their recent parades not being good, or especially that Imperio got dropped to group A while Mangueira and Mocidades parades were not nearly as good... The school has been having a rough time lately and leadership problems (extremely common but still rather painful). We'll see what happens; they are an old and venerable school and I'm guessing they've weathered storms before. See Kathleen's blog "Samba Gypsy" or "Samba Kat" for more on the Imperio Serrano ordeal... the short version is that they got SCREWED!

The other really incredibly awesome radio station of there is the last on the list:

Jequitibá Folia: Marchinhas de Carnaval

Marchinhas are the most awesome thing in the world!!!!!!!! When you figure out the lyrics to most of the you'll die laughing too. Look for the new marchinha "Hino dos Solteiros", it's my new anthem, as I'm pretty well over my ex and the horrific mess that was that period of my life, and have thus decided to switch my theme song (everyone should have a theme song!) from Coração by Os Karaiva, to Hino dos Solteiros by Velhas Virgens. A small sampling, the chorus:



Vamos namorar, a vida é curtição
Casamento, nem pensar
Nana-nina-nina-não


Let's go date, life is for enjoyment
Marriage, not thinking about it
Nana-nina-nina-no




If you find the lyrics and translate the rest, it's probably less debauched than many marchinhas, but lots of really great (and sometimes even true) sentiments... I'm not bitter though, I swear!

I'll probably post an Ensalada dos Links pretty soon, I have a lot of "essential" online things that I find necessary to use in my Brazilian music web ramblings that I need to pass on. Also keep an eye out for news and ramblings regarding a bateria I plan to start pretty soon here in Olympia.

Gatinhas, a linha para me beijar começa aqui... Outros, até mais!

Jeremy