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

Mangueira...

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

Sambas de 2009!

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.