it's been super hot here. it was kind of funny, because I just thought that maybe my blood thickened in portland because the heat here was so hard to take. I checked online tonight and 38C is friggin 100.4 F ! no wonder! It was 89.6 at 9:30 am today. I saw on someones facebook that the sun was out...good for you guys. I went to a favela (Vila Vintem) around here to rehearse for a samba school last night and there were three young guys standing there with huge guns...kind of weird, this happy samba music and those kids standing there with their guns and these deadly serious expressions. still, they reminded me of little kids playing gangster. It's supposed to be really dangerous to walk around in this particular favela, but I think that most people just thought it was a little bit amusing that I'd do it. Last night was a little slim as far as bateria, but boy, with 8 chocalhos, 5 strong tamborim players, 8 caixas and about 6 surdos, it was dynamic anyway. Those tamborins were so great, it felt like my chocalho was playing itself. we played around two hours straight, but I'm not sore in the least. I don't know what it is... I do know that the way samba enredos are set up, the chocalhos play to the point of kind of wishing it would stop, but only to that point, then we get a nice long break, then play in short spurts, then the long one again, and repeat repeat repeat the whole cycle. we practiced turning corners, which is a nice thing to know how to do if you're parading.
I went to hear mocidade's technical rehearsal at the quadra...things have changed a lot. Many of the strong players left a few years ago due to 'misunderstandings' with the directorate. These musicians are still 'mocidade', and may come back once there's a different mestre, some different directors and especially different president, but it's been a few years and many are already entrenched in other schools. I have feeling they will come back; it's a lot more convenient to play in your own neighborhood! I 'm going to go again saturday to check it out because some of the great players who are still with mocidade will be there.
I'm going to Unidos do Padre Miguel, (where ex-Mocidade ritmistas go to play) to rehearse on friday. It's kind of like a job; I'd wanted to go to Sapucai to see Imperio Serrano rehearse, but I have to learn breaks and sign in at Unidos....so that's where I'll be, I guess....I could have a worse life, huh? heheh
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment