"Uncharted"

Fare thee well, Australians

Fare thee well, Australians,
we must say goodbye to you now

As some of you may have heard, Dionne and Marcel are finally buggering off and leaving this country for good (well, for worse, actually) on Tuesday 18 December.

To make this even remotely bearable to us, please come and say goodbye on Saturday 15 December here in Orleigh Park from 4 pm. In the grand Australian tradition (amended to stingy Dutch values) this will be a BYOE party
(Bring Your Own Everything - drinks, eats, chairs, toys, furry pets, acceptable partners and/or offspring) as our own stuff should be all packed up, and besides, we are Dutch & cheap. There are even some electric barbecues, if we can fight off the resident Aussies.

There may also be a surprise raffle, as we are yet to find someone to buy our car. Participation will be mandatory and somewhat pricey. (Please contact us if you want to prevent this by buying the car before the 15^th)

We really hope you can make it Saturday the 15th!

Dionne & Marcel

Sashes of the world unite

Tomorrow (Wednesday), a very few very dedicated sambistas are doing a small but high profile gig at lunchtime for QLD Roar. They wanted a very small group (for a small room) so I didn't advertise this on the Blog.

We'd like to look our best, and likely need some more pink&green stuff and in particular sashes. Could I ask everyone who reads this message in time and has a sash at home to bring it to rehearsal tonight? You'll get it back tomorrow. Thanks!

HOUSE/CITIZENSHIP WARMING PARTY

Hi All,

Finally we are gonna have a house warming party (I guess we've had one every year for the past 7 years...) and we'll celebrate our Aussie citizenship as well.

So...

When: from 6pm on the 16th of December (remember it's because of Marcel and Remko)

Where: 7 Oakmont Grove, Karana Downs (see picture, still working on the renovation)

What to bring: a drink or some food you like (or one you want to get rid of, I guess)

The only thing guaranteed is some "Steak au Poivre" as part of Remko's exorcism (we need to get zeu French Freug out of his body although losing the "moustache" is a good sign already).

Hope to see you all there!

Cheers

Cedric and Stephanie and the kids and the cats and the possum and the parrots and the brown snakes.

Revisiting the Objectives

Here are some of the objectives from the planning day as explained below.

Organisational Functions

Structure of Primavera

• School
• Club
• Organisation
• Performance Group/s
• Mentor program
• Artisitc Direction

Bookings

• Maintaining contacts, finding new contacts, and finding venues
• Booking Diary for gigs and rehearsals

Business Structure

• Accounts
• Admin

Resource Management

• Instruments, loaning and buying
• People / human resources

Work Towards a Goal

Planning a special gig which was not a gig, but was an initiative to try new creative mixes of material (this was supposed to be planned for this Christmas - and that is exactly what happened through Uncharted! This one has been met initially.)

Projects

WEBSITE:

• new design and layout, which reflects our vision, is database driven, downloadable photos which can be regularly updated - Acheived! However the photo dump idea is now under discussion for a link on the brisamba website and may be implemented soon.
• maintenance/updating the website - Remko did a great job with the new website, and now the challenge is keeping it up to date. There are some nice recent pics which could be added maybe for example. We should get some from rehearsals at Uncharted and add to the ad on brisamba site.
• booking diary - Achieved, there is one on the new brisamba website.
• online feedback survey/response form on website - This was put in place only insofar as delivering the blog surveys among our members about various unimportant issues.

INDUCTION PROCESS

• Membership drives - recurring activities which are aimed at recruiting targeted areas or demographics as members, e.g. African group from Logan, Uni students, West Enders, New Farm Park'ers, Orleigh Park'ers, etc.
• User name, IDs, blog membership, etc. - Members to be offered these quickly when they show interest
• Intro to our group - how we work, members are given a choice of instruments, etc.
• Conceptual intro to Brazilian music - cultural details and history
• Instrument based tutorials - proper introduction to instruments and some basic skills by Remko or section member
• Incorporate awareness of which sections need reinforcement - recruit for specific sections
• Mentoring - members will mentor new people and welcome into their section, encouraging them to jump in and showing patterns slowly, etc.

COSTUMES

• personalised? everyone's different by same colour swatch to work from could work to coordinate
• design
• finance
• regular reviews
• maintenance
• must look impressive, or spectacular
• good to have a couple of versions for formal, and casual.
• T-shirt plus fancy uniform (members could buy their own T-shirt)

BANNER/FLAG

• Need a person to carry the flag or banner too. Could be handing out business cards as well..

MARKETING

• New flyers
• Discussion about updating business cards
• Dispersing flyers around targeted communities, or wide as possible, including the Powerhouse, as half the band was recruited through there!
• Registering with the Councils
• Create an info pack/DVD for marketing to potential employers, etc.
• Festival watch - all to be involved in engaging gigs where possible

RECRUITMENT DRIVES

• Recruit dancers
• Play in New Farm Park, Orleigh, etc. to recruit and play for fun, generate interest, etc. Have someone on hand to pass out flyers and cards
• Regular recruitment drives, based on numbers and growth possibilities (if we don't have enough of certain instruments, we may have to recruit for specific sections)

SHOWMANSHIP

• Smile, Have Fun! Remember when you are rehearsing and when you are performing
• Coordinated choreography, within whole band, within sections and individual choreography as well maybe
• Fusion of styles for fun
• Use of other instrumentalists, eg bass player, flautist, singers
• Spare earplugs for audience and members
• Need dancers!
• Playfulness in performance, act out your part

MANUAL / CD / DVD

• Procedures: good for visual people to learn from
• Incorporate group's artistic direction
• Set lists for use in performance, practising the order in rehearsals
• Visual musical notation for each instrument
• Name all songs we play for easy reference in conversation or on blog/members only website

HOST AN 'END OF YEAR' SHOW

• Gives people something to work towards
• The spark of new material
• Networking, meet other artists
• Fundraising - costumes, instruments, etc.
• Look at getting a regular gig about quarterly or so, and work with other artists and groups to put together similar show to Uncharted, but more like a list of various segments, with lots of guest artists.

__________________________________________________

TASK LIST

1. set list and rehearsal (Not Achieved, but have implemented a set list through Uncharted - new way for us to work)
2. money collection at rehearsal (Achieved! Patty has kindly stepped up to the plate much of the time, and this can rotate if necessary)
3. website and photo updates (Not Achieved - some photos on blog, discussion about more links over Xmas period...
4. answering emails (Achieved - I think this was Remko going mad at us for not responding to his emails about gigs, etc. - I think we are communicating more regularly through the blog, by email and by phone)
5. flyer drops - regular (Not Achieved!)
6. choreography (Also Not Achieved! or not explored properly yet anyway)

:) Please respond with your thoughts about either the agreed aims and objectives from last year, or about the ideas for new things which I posted before this one.

IDEAS AND REVISITING OBJECTIVES

Hi all! I decided I would draft a little "brain dump" of ideas for our samba school/performance group. These are a combination of my own ideas and those of several others in the band. If I have forgotten any suggested, I apologise. I will also revisit some of the results of the strategic planning we undertook last year. Some of the objectives discussed have been met and others not, so I would suggest now is a good time to focus on the ideas still floating. Cheers!

IDEAS:
Instrument Variations

• Playing the triangle for one or two songs (eg. Magalena)
• Use of singing (eg. Magalena)
• Vocal percussion
• Vocal cuica at various poignant moments
• Tri-tone Samba whistles
• Creative attachment ideas for Tamborims, Agogo and Pandeiro, so that players can wear a second instrument hooked onto the belt tab of our overalls, for example. Use one of those G-clasps and hook onto a short tied lace looped through a metal ring on the taborim or pandeiro..?
• Erin and Remko to do a Duet de Repinique: e.g. take turns doing a paradinha (calls) each, Remko first, and then Erin leading the band into one of the calls from the Junior Bloco link I posted a while ago. This could continue on into the swing samba groove we have been playing more of lately, with the overlapping triplets played by Erin and Remko
• Have extra surdos on hand for some members to jump onto surdo for a powerful effect and maybe explore the melody of the surdos more. We can always have beaters in pockets or whatever
• Snare section does a solo break where Tamborim players turn around, caixas step forward, and play syncopated patterns on the tamborims, and maybe on their drums here and there too. Tamborim players might turn, bend to one knee and hold up tamborim above head
• Attach cowbells and jamblocks to snare drums for caixa section, to have more timbale flavour every now and then. Use for drumline sounds too

Song Variations

• Jungle: the surdo part could be followed by: left arm up, then right arm up to click the wood of right beater onto wood of the left, and repeat.
• Timbalada (Jungle version #2?): could feature sections led by Tam Tam (Paul has one doesn't he?)

Other Ideas

• Improve showmanship: smiling, looking like you are enjoying, hamming it up for an audience, playing a character, having fun and being mischievious. Exude energy and movement, confidence and participation.
• Put together some coordinated dance moves and section formations for certain songs. Work on getting quality of sound and movements in time.
• Invite dancers and students who are into samba to come along and dance with us at rehearsals whenever they like, so we can network, learn the style of playing to get the best out of samba dancers, work on joint initiatives in future
• Recruit some of the African group into the band!! They'd be into it I think. This might really help with the singing part too!

Fusion Sounds

• African 6/8 patterns (as song or as intro)
• 6/8 timing blending back into 4/4 or 2/4
• African dance segment in response to the change of genre
• Drumline styled energetic performance pieces with lots of formalised grandeur and erect postures, movement and dynamics with syncopated rhythms, impressive sticking and a few mischievious tricks (I'm looking at you, Denis..)
• Experiment with non-batucada instruments mixed with samba, eg. keyboard, flute, bass guitar, saxophone, viola/violin, congas, etc.
• Experiment with fusion of different genres e.g. Brazilian and Flamenco? Andean flutes...
• Mix in some more Afrocuban sounds, through tamborims playing son and rumba clave (2/3 or 3/2), and repinique playing similar timbale style, with bells if possible. Could make use of rim knocking here for effect (e.g. like the 'boom boom' in the soccer match for Unchartered but with beater wood hitting onto the rims of the surdos, and snares. Tamborim to do syncopated solo patterns over the top of it, with effective use of pause-

Tamara's wedding ( Pt II )

has anyone ever noticed...

That not only is "G.R.E.S. Unidos da Primavera" Brisbane's first and only Samba School, but we are also very likely the only samba school who, according to our blog header, performed for huge audiences at events like the Gold Goast Indy!

We rule, I say!
(well, as of next week you guys rule, and I no longer rule with you. Anyone getting tears in their eyes yet?)

Uncharted: Brisamba Call sheet

Below are the times for the Uncharted production at the Judith Wright Centre.

Saturday 1 December 12.00 - 5.00pm Full rehearsal with whole cast

Tuesday 4 December 5.30 - 9.30pm Technical rehearsal with whole cast

Wednesday 5 December 5.30 - 10.00pm Dress rehearsal

Thursday 6 December 5.30 - 9.30pm Preview (performance)

Friday 7 December 6.00 - 9.30pm Opening Night

Saturday 8 December 12.30 - 3.30pm & 5.30 - 9.30pm Closing Night and Bump Out

Plucky little devil called Cedric offers hope for his species' future

Although I personally feel it's somewhat disrespectful to a fellow Aussie, it is nevertheless good news for the wildlife population...

A RAY of hope has appeared for the beleaguered Tasmanian devil, with the discovery that one of the marsupials has produced an immune response to the ghastly facial tumour disease.

Scientists who injected treated tumour cell lines into a young male devil called Cedric found, for the first time, that the animal produced a detectable antibody.

read more here

2008 Eurovision contest

Will and Erin were working on a Abba's inspired samba rhythm for the 2008 Eurovision

Rehearsals for the rest of the year

With the circus rehearsals and performances taking up quite a bit of time, I just realised there's only two normal rehearsals left for the rest of the year: this week, on the 29th, and 20 December, which will be the last rehearsal before summer break.

Rehearsals on 6, 13 and 27 December will be canceled.

I am around in January, so we could start again on say 10 January. What do you think?

Instruments

I've found someone who has a few samba instruments for sale. No surdos at this stage, but he's got a few snares, some big loud shakers, and also some repiniques. Please let me know if you're interested.

On another note: did someone take one of the big shakers home on Thursday? I'm missing one.

Costumes for Uncharted - details asap please

ATTENTION 'UNCHARTED' PERFORMERS!

Please see the message below from 'Uncharted' team.

"Hi this is Tiffany designing for Uncharted with vulcana... I need to get everyones height , shirt and trouser measurements please so i can get your overalls picked up...yay!I'll also be sending you an email but if we could get thesemeasurements asap that would be excellent.. cheers tiffany"

If you haven't already replied to Tiffany, please forward the following measurements to claire.petersen@brisamba.com and I will pass them on.

Height -
Shirt -
Trouser -

Cheers,

Claire

Olodum tickets booked!

For those who wanted to go to Olodum, I've just booked 16 tickets, rows E and F, seats 21-28! So book the date in your calendar, I can't wait! Tickets are $128 each, I've paid for them for now so please reimburse me when you're ready.

Update: some of you have asked me for bank details. If you'd like to pay this way, please drop me an email and I'll reply with details. Also, when you have paid, please drop me an email as well so I can keep track of it. Cheers!

Tonight - be on time please

We've got a fairly busy program tonight, with Vulcana attending our rehearsal again. As some will have to leave early tonight, I'd like to start as early as possible, so please be on time. Thanks!

Pride 2008

Just received the following email:

Hi Remko

Wanted to let you know that it has been decided to change the Rally and March next year so we will not be requiring the services of the band for 2008. Going for a disco atmosphere. I would like to thank you for being a part of our festival for the past 4 years. It has been great working with you and hearing the band. I will never forget the first year with the sound of the drums filling the city.

Thanks again and all the best for the future

Scott

PS If you ever need a reference, please don’t hesitate to pass on my details

I guess they found out that Marcel is leaving for Holland...

Tamara's Wedding

Jambezi

Hey,
For anyone interested in hearing more of the marimba band that played at Tamara and Michael's wedding. You can find (and hear) them here...
http://www.myspace.com/jambezimusic

Denis Jr

Hi all

I stumbled upon this fim of Denis as a youngster, up to his old tricks as usual..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjMZJq2VwNI&feature=related

Some call it A.D.D. while others hypothesize that the devil hath overtaken, but I think more likely it's the sangria....