Som Forte

Eu amo muito o Salgueiro!

2009-05-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

I freaking love Salgueiro!!!! Wow!!! Cool convençoes! And the Cavaquinho is blowing my mind apart! Someone please send me to Brazil!

Danca de Quadrado e uma locuraaaaaaa!

2009-04-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

I love Brazil!!!!

Here's the original:

And here's one from a TV show with all the people dressed up as the various people who do the actions they tell people to do in the song...

If you are learning Portuguese, it gets funnier everytime as you recognize more words... watch it again once every couple months!

Mocidade with passistas on Mais Voce

2009-04-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

Another fun video... at the end the Bateria does a thing that I've done before, but I can't remember where. At camp? Maybe it was the advanced-advanced bateria. Good times for all. I still can hardly believe that Mestre Jonas is going the be at camp this year, increivel!

I found this looking for clips with "samba street wear" for Diana from Vamola. We were talking about how passistas are not ALWAYS running around in fantasias and how they normally dress in the quadra. Not saying this clip is a great example of that, but a few kinda fit the not fantasia mold... Watch out for the capo da fusca on the one in the white one piece thing, it kind jumps in your face outta no where :)...

Here's some repinique maddness

2009-04-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

That last video sent me on a repinique kick... here's some more madness... I'm off to continue burning partido alto into my brain.

Just a fun video...

2009-04-06T16:26:00.001-07:00

Here's a fun little video from the quadra of Viradouro. I really love the repinique, what a wicked little drum...

The forgotten percussionist?

2009-03-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

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?

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

2009-03-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

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!

Mangueira Radio

2009-03-06T03:58:00.000-08:00

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

Carnaval

2009-02-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

Oi Galera! The big desfiles of 2009 Carnaval have been decided, and the Blocos are still rolling through the streets. Salgueiro won the Grupo Especial! I'm really, really happy because I really like Salgueiro, and I loved their Enredo and Samba this year. They had a really impressive parade, with an ala of guys playing Maculelê and an ala playing atabaques on rolling stands. I think I read somewhere that they may have been from Timbalada? Their bateria were dressed as Ogãs. From Wikipedia:

"Ogan é o nome genérico para diversas funções masculinas dentro de uma casa de Candomblé. É o sacerdote escolhido pelo orixá para estar lúcido durante todos os trabalhos. Ele não entra em transe, mas mesmo assim não deixa de ter a intuição espiritual.

Os atabaques do candomblé só podem ser tocados pelo Alagbê (nação Ketu), Xicarangoma (nações Angola e Congo) e Runtó (nação Jeje) que é o responsável pelo Rum (o atabaque maior), e pelos ogans nos atabaques menores sob o seu comando, é o Alagbê que começa o toque e é através do seu desempenho no Rum que o Orixá vai executar sua coreografia, de caça, de guerra, sempre acompanhando o floreio do Rum. O Rum é que comanda o Rumpi e o Lê."

My translation:

The Ogan is the generic name for [the person who does] diverse masculine functions inside a Candomble house. He is the priest selected by the orixa to be lucid during all of his labors. He doesn't enter into transes, but still must have spititual intuition.

The atabaques (drums) of candomble can only be played by Alagbe (the Ketu nation), Xicarangoma (the Angola and Congo Nations) and Runto (Jeje Nation) who are responsible to the Rum (The biggest drum), and to the Ogans on the smaller atabaques under his command, it is the Alagbe that starts the playing and it is through his performance on the Rum that the Orixa execute their coregoraphy of hunting, of war, always accompianing the flourishes of the Rum. The Rum commands the Rumpi and the Le (other candomble drums).

Here's the link to the original article:

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogan

This also explains why Jorge Alabe has the Alabe after his name... I am assuming that is is analagous to Alagbe, but in a slightly different dialect, as Ogã and Ogan differ as well. Boca Rum's name too...

Beija Flor captured second place after two years as the Champion. They put on a good parade (that I've only caught snippets of so far) with a theme about bathing through the ages. One of my favorite moments were consecutive bath ala, with people wearing tubs around their middle, and the people in the shower ala... pretty awesome!

They apparently wet down the pista (ground) of the Avenida pretty good, and Unidos da Tijuca, who paraded after them, had to deal with the slippery ground. Their 1st Porta Bandeira actually slipped in front of the judges and was helped up by the president of LIESA, the organizing organization of the Grupo Especial. Very, very embarassing, and unfortunate, as they count for an entire 40 points for their escola, which is basically 10% of the entire score. It's a high pressure job! It's not unusuall for the pista to be wet as it often rains during Carnaval, but it's a bummer that only Unidos da Tijuca suffered because of their predecessors parade... it seems a little unfair.

Grande Rio has a really cool parade, but with a few mishaps. Their theme was France, more or less (the themes are very complicated and have long names, but France is the jist of it), and they even brought in a bunch of showgirls from the Moulin Rouge to dance on one of their Carros Alegoricas (Floats). Very cool! Except that the float they were on almost crushed someone, and apparently at some point some of the dancers had to jump off and help push...

Mocidade had a VERY mediocre parade, and they ended up 11th out of 12, and almost got bumped down to the Grupo de Accesso, the next lowest group. It sucks that they did so poorly, but I never got too excited about their Enredo or Samba, so it was hard to be too upset. I would have been if they went down though.

Speaking of getting bumped down, Imperio Serrano came in last, and are going back down. They just came back up, and are in the unenviable position of having just pogo'd from Especial to Accesso back to Especial in the last three years. The level of funding and work that it takes to mount a successful Grupo Especial parade is a magnitude greater than Grupo A, so it is hard to get reramped up to get the job done. I thought they had a really nice parade though, and they ressurected a Samba from the 70's that was a really good song. Their Commisão de Frente had four Segways made up to look like seahorses that we doing a correagraphed routine around the people on foot... it was really cool! Imperrio Serrano has one of the best baterias, according to Kathleen Hunt and others I've talked too, and they are unique in that they use a LOT of quad bells, and often have really extensive 3rd surdo patterns that they all play together. I really like them and wish them more success in the coming years!

União de Ilha won the Grupo A and will be coming (back? after a few years down I think) to the Grupo Especial next year. I know basically nothing about them...

In really cool/exciting news, The Grupo B escola that Pauline (from the Lions) paraded with won Grupo B!!! And of course will be moving up to Grupo A next year. They are Unidos do Mocidade, and splintered off from Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel a few years ago when some sort of conflict occured in the Leadership. Not uncommon, but unfortunate none the less. Good luck to them in Grupo A!

In Seattle there was a really fun Samba get together at Tribal Cafe organized by Dick Carlton. There were conflicting times on the flyer, so I showed up at 5 to hang out and talk to whoever was there. When the first time on the flyer rolled around at 6, there was still no one there, and I started to get a little worried (I'm going to have a hard time in Brazil...). I ended up watching a novela, Caminho das Indias, on Globo. At 7, the 2nd advertised time, there was still no one there, and I was feeling a little bummed out. Finally a few people started showing up, and around 8 we had pretty much the full contingent. It was taking Dick forever to get all his gear out and up, so Brandi and I went over to the pub next door and had a beer and sat around and talked and stayed out of their hair.

We went back over and they had started, and I ended up playing tamborim though a few Samba Enredos, making up desenhos em cima das letras as we went. I hadn't played tamborim for a couple months, and it really burned for a while. I jumped in caixa after that for the rest of the night.

We ended up attracting a pretty big crowd of random passerbys, and by 10, when we were supposed to shut down (the police even came by!), the crowd kept demanding oncores. Thoughout the night, people kept asking what the name of the band was, and even asked if they could hire the band for an event several times, and it was really funny to tell them that we were a random group of people thrown together right then. We had a really great group though, with Brandi, Dick, Ben, Vincent, Paulo on Cavalquino, a guy on Guitar who I didn't know, and another Brazilian guy on a conga who I didn't know. Pacifico jumped in for it bit too, playing tamborim.

It was great, one of the best times I've had in a long time. I desprately hope to do it again sometime. My dream bateria is one that ONLY plays samba, and does samba enredo and generally acts like an Escola, and that was close, but only for one night!

After we got kicked off the porch (we were outside in front of the cafe and had to go inside at 10) we watched São Paulo Carnaval and some folks played some Bossa Nova. I had to leave back to Olympia at 11 to get to work at 1am, but the party was still going strong when I left.

I found a site that streams TV Globo the day after the second day of the Rio parades, and they had clips of almost all of the Rio Grupo Especial archived and downloadable, so I have the vast majority of the Rio parades in 3-8 minutes clips. I think Salgueiro's parade got cut short though :(... I'll post some more vidoes here soon, I have a TON of good ones off youtube and a lot of sites and videos to recommend and link to... check back soon or subscribe to an RSS feed for updates!

here's the site for those of you who want to watch Globo:

http://pt-br.justin.tv/tamonaglobo1

Time to go practice, or something!

*Correction 2/28/09: The escola that paraded after Beija Flor was Unidos da Tijuca, not Grande Rio.

Tristeza nao tem fim, felicidade sim...

2009-02-20T03:21:00.000-08:00

Viradouro playing their '98 enredo "Orfeu, o negro do carnaval" at an ensaio technico this year... One of my favorite Samba Enredos.

Mangueira...

2009-02-18T18:39:00.001-08:00

In the infamous words of Liz Lemon... "I want to go there"

Sambas de 2009!

2008-10-29T01:03:00.001-07:00

All the 2009 Sambas are out!

Actually, some of them have been out for quite a while now, but that's kinda beside the point...

I really love Samba Enredo, there's something about it that really grabs me. It's just fits with the kind of person I am when it comes to music: bigger, louder, more produced/arranged/whatever. I really love Mangueira's Samba this time around (last year it was Mocidade and Salgueiro for me).

I keep going back and forth in how I feel about Mangueira; they were the first Escola that I learned about, when I first got into this nearly a year ago now, reading Alma Giuermoprieto's book Samba. As I learned and read more, it seems to me that they are a little closed off (they didn't even allow women into the bateria until last year) and last year they had some problems with their leadership and traficantes and all that. And for some reason I feel very drawn towards Mocidade and Imperio Serrano and Beija-Flor and Grande Rio and Salgueiro to a slightly lesser degree, and not so much to Mangueira anymore. Regardless, Mangueira's 2009 Samba is great, and I love it!

You can download it at the link below, and if you spend some time going through the blog (they are all right on the first page or two of the blog), you can find all the Samba Enredos all the Grupo Especial escolas with the exception of Mocidade, Porta de Pedra, and Imperio Serrano.

Mangueira 2009 - Enredo: "A Mangueira traz os Brasis do Brasil mostrando a formação do povo brasileiro"

Partially as a translating exercise for myself, here's the offical Jeremy Sambista 2009 translations (with my translations in bold of Mangueira's 2009 Samba de Enredo "A Mangueira traz os Brasis do Brasil mostrando a formação do povo brasileiro":

Deus me fez assim, filho desse chão
Sou povo, sou raça... Miscigenação
Mangueira viaja nos Brasis dessa nação
O branco aqui chegou
No paraíso se encantou
Ao ver tanta beleza no lugar
Quanta riqueza pra explorar
Índio valente guerreiro
Não se deixou escravizar, lutou...
Em um laço de união surgiu
O negro, mesmo entregue a própria sorte
Trabalhou com braço forte
Na construção do meu Brasil

"God made me just like this, son of this land
I'm of the people people, I'm of the race... Miscegenation [I'm a mixed people, a mixed race]
Mangueira travels through the Brazils of our nation
The European arrived here
In this heaven they became enchanted
To see every beauty of this place
How much wealth to explore....
The brave indian warrior
Didn't allow himself to be enslaved, he fought...
In bonds he arrived
The African delivered his own luck
He worked with strong arms
In the building of my Brazil"

É sangue, é suor, Religião
Mistura de raças num só coração
Um elo de amor à minha bandeira
Canta a Estação Primeira

"It's blood, it's sweat, religion
A mixture of races in one heart
A link of love to my flag
Sing Estação Primeira [the full name of Mangueira is "Estação Primeira da Mangueira" which means "First (train) Station of Mangueira, Estação Primeira basically the same as saying Mangueira in this case]"

Cada lágrima que já rolou
Fertilizou a esperança
Da nossa gente valeu a pena
De Norte a Sul desse país
Tantos Brasis, sagrade celeiro
Crioulo, caboclo, retrado mestiço
De fato, sou brasileiro
Sertanejo, caipira, matuto... Sonhador
Abraço o meu irmão
Pra reviver a nossa história
Deixar guardado na memória... O seu valor

"Every tear that fell
Fertilized the hope
of our people, that it was worth the cost
from the North to the South of this country
So many Brazils, [sagrade] store/barn (? not so sure what this means)
Blacks, Indians, portrayed as mestizos (as mixed race)
In fact, I'm Brazilian
Sertanejo [person from the sertão, scrubland in NE Brazil], hick, country bumpkin...
Dreamer
I embrace my brother
To relive our history
To keep in memory... His bravery"

Sou a cara do povo, Mangueira
Eterna paixão
A voz do samba é Verde-e-Rosa
"E nem cabe explicação"

"I'm the sweetheart (hmmm, not so easy to translate, more like dear), Mangueira
Forever passionate
The voice of samba is Green and Pink [the colors of Mangueira, escolas are often refered to by their colors]
"And it doesn't need explination" [(Not 100% sure about this either, I think it's colloquial) I think this means "that goes without saying"]"

I hope everyone has a chance to listen to this Samba, I think it's a great song and theme.