Maracatu : Various Rhythms

A short run down of various Maracatu rhythms: 01:26- Marcacao, Male, Arrasto, Parada and Martelo. 02:37 - Caixa

This Friday: Roar vs Perth

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, certainly the Roar is happy, they haven't lost a game for 19 games in a row and are well ahead at the top of the table! So, will they increase this record to 20 this Friday? We'll be there to see.

The following people will be playing:

Remko - Repinique
Jason - Caixa
Denis - Caixa
Siobhann - 1st surdo
Leesa - 3rd surdo
Gail - 3rd surdo
Miki - Shaker
Byron - 2nd surdo
Paul D - 3rd surdo

I look forward to seeing all of you again. The game starts at 7.30pm, we'll need to be there 6.45pm please. We'll also play at the South plaza 7.05pm - 7.20pm.

There is a chance it will rain during part of the match - we will just seek shelter and not play during that time.

Cheers
Remko

Details for tonight - Roar vs Gold Coast

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Thanks to all those playing tonight on this busy time of the year:

Jason - Repinique
Mike - 1st Surdo
Maria - 3rd surdo
Brian - 2nd surdo
Sarah - shaker

A small crew only but I'm sure you guys can 'hold the fort'.

The game starts at 6.15pm, we won't play before the game so please gather at the car park at 5.50pm. Jason has all the instruments and will take the lead today.

I will contact the Roar today to discuss wet weather procedure.

Thanks again!
Remko

PS: please remember to return your access pass to Jason at the end of the game!

Hey Sambistas,

Details of a Brazilian music, dance & food session next Thursday night (if you need another xmas party to go to)

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Hi Brazilian Music Enthusiasts,

This month's QUE SAUDADE session comes with Salvador twist.

Que Saudade is a night devoted to finding a home for true Brazilian sounds: samba-gafieira-samba rock & forro music and dance, in Bris-vague-as, complete with full band, dance help & comidas de boteco (tasty Brazilian bar bites-cooked on the spot) in a fresh, informal way....attempting to give a taste of what it might like to be hitting a downtown brazilian bar or 'night-time hangout'.

For the xmas edition there'll be a special samba reggae/bahia music feature just after midnight!

Details attached and below:

Thursday 23rd December

'o verdadeiro espirito brasileiro'
QUE SAUDADE! xmas edition
Dance floor sounds from the colourful streets of Brazil.

samba . gafieira . samba rock . pagode . forro music & dancing all night long!

feat
MALAGUETA (Live samba, pagode & forro group)
Djs Pepe Sol & Paprika spinning authentic brazilian beats (samba, gafieira, samba rock, forro, baião, brazilian soul)

***special axe/samba reggae/bahia music feature! feat Gianne 'SAMBAKI' Abbott, helping us with our axe moves!

9pm-3am. Brazilian beer, Cocktails & Comidas de Boteco (Brazilian bar snacks)

Intro Dance class with Groove Brazil dance studio 9pm-10pm
entry:$5 before 10pm - $10 after

**listen to Dj's Pepe Sol & Paprika's live mix here (www.soundcloud.com/pepesol) of sounds that you might expect to hear on the night - (listen and enjoy!)

Casablanca Cellar bar
cnr Petrie trc & Caxton st Paddington

www.myspace.com/malagueta10
www.groovebrazil.com.au

Late notice gig - tonight!!!

OK, Erin twisted my arm (and leg - ouch!) to do this gig tonight at extremely short notice.

• Where: Groove Brazil Christmas party, East Brisbane State School, Corner Wellington Rd/Stanley Street.
• Be there: no later than 10pm. Take some time to find a car park! Official car park entrance on Wellington Road, next to the phone booth (do they still exist?!)
• What to wear: NOTHING. Or, something pink & green & white.

Entrance for samba school member + 1 guest per person is free. Further guests $25.

Players:

Remko - Repinique

Denis - Car-sha

Gail - 2nd surdo

Angus - 3rd surdo (don't rush!)

Siobhann -1st surdo

Leesa - 1st surdo

Paul Caplat - caixa

Erin - caixa

Warren - tamborim or 3rd surdo if he wants to impress prefers to play with his new girlfriend

Miki - Shaker

Lynne - Shaker

Brian - Second surdo (actually he claims he's off sick but we don't believe him!)

Some happy video for a happy time of the year

Last rehearsal of the year

This Thursday is the last rehearsal of the year. I would like to celebrate the year with all of you hopefully at 6pm upstairs in the Polish Club bar for a bite to eat. Following that, we'll have a bit of fun as always. If people want to bring any nibblies for during the night, be my guest!

Really looking forward to seeing all of you once more before the Xmas period!

Cheers
Remko

Xmas holidays!!!

Hi all, Xmas is only one month away and I thought I help you with your plans by announcing the samba school rehearsal dates early!

• Last rehearsal of 2010 will be Thursday 9 December. As always I'll try to make the last rehearsal of the year a bit special!
• First rehearsal of 2011 will be Thursday 13 January

Now, there will still be a few Roar gigs during this time:

• 26 December 6.15pm Roar vs Gold Coast (traditional local Boxing Day derby!)
• 7 January 7.30pm Roar vs Perth (again!)

Please let me know asap if you'd like to play any of these gigs!

CANCELLED - this Thursday's class (25/11/10)

Even though our gig on Wednesday has been cancelled, I have decided to cancel Thursday's class anyway as I feel that there won't be a lot of people going anyway given changes in diaries this week. Sorry about that, and see you next week!

CANCELLED - Roar vs Perth performance

All, Roar has decided to cancel our performance this Wednesday for the Roar vs Perth game, as they fear it will clash with another (one off) activity they have planned.

If anyone still want to go to the game (without drums) please contact me.

I am undecided whether we'll have a class on Thursday or not - probably not as I think people have already got their mind set that we won't have a class then!

Mangueira

Thanks Remko for making us play Mangueira - it's a motivating caixa pattern and when we master it I'm sure the outcome will be AWESOME.

I found two interesting samba blogs showing patterns and associated fingering for caixa - I noticed that the accents are not exactly the same for Mangueira, and now I don't remember which one you made us play !

(r right, l left, z buzz, caps accents)

I remembered this

RlRR lRRl RlRR lzzl

Now I see this

RRlR lRRl RlRR lzzl

or this

RRlR lRRl RRlR lzzl

http://sambagypsy.blogspot.com/2008/11/mangueiras-new-sticking.html

http://riostories.blogspot.com/2007/03/monoblocos-2007-caixa-patterns.html

(this one has lots of samba patterns, pretty cool)

(Yes, non caixa players, you can play this : zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

What rain?

I don't know what it is with you lot, but every time there is even a hint of rain in the air, half of you don't turn up to rehearsal!

Can I just assure everyone that the Polish Club has a pretty good roof, and car parking is provided within 10 second walking distance from the entrance. There is nice coffee, even hot chocolate if you really want to.

And, as they say in Brazil, we're not made of sugar!

So, I'm looking forward to seeing you all tonight!

This Saturday - Roar vs North QLD Fury

This Saturday night, the Roar (now comfortably top of the ladder) plays North Queensland Fury (trailing at the very uncomfortable bottom end of the ladder)! So it's going to be an interesting  game with hopefully quite a few goals to celebrate!


Update - we'll also play in a corporate box as part of Roar's charity for breast cancer day. Therefore we need to be there a bit earlier - 7.15pm. Please don't be late as we'll have to play 7.35pm already!

Of course we need to be there to provide some loud support, so please let me know if you can play this Saturday! The game starts at 8.15pm, we'd need to be there 7.15pm. Parking provided as always.

We'll also play at the South plaza again! Please let me know if you'd like to play!


Players:


Remko - Repinique
Brian - 2nd Surdo
Paul Dennis 3rd surdo
Patty - Shaker
Angus - 3rd Surdo
Elwin - 1st Surdo
Jason - Caixa
Gail - 3rd surdo

Maracatu

Further to Paul's post below, just a few notes.

When a few of us were in Rio in 2006, we did a Maracatu workshop and we also saw a Maracatu performance, which was very impressive. Since then, we have done some attempts to imitate some maracatu rhythms during some of our own samba school rehearsals. Whilst this was a lot of fun, this never really got off the ground, and certainly wasn't up to standard for public performance.

Paul Dennis joined the samba school a few weeks ago. He has previously been playing Maracatu when he lived in Berlin, and would love to continue playing now that he lives here in Brisbane. We agreed to try to incorporate Maracatu in the repertoire of the Samba School, and Paul has kindly agreed to help teach everyone.

So, regarding his request below, I fully support the purchase of a few alfaias, but before we go too far down that track, I like to get some feedback from the samba school. So please vote in the poll to the right of this page, and let us know if you like to incorporate Maracatu into the samba school.

If the majority supports this, I will advertise in advance which classes will be dedicated to Maracatu. I will also consider purchasing a couple of alfaias for the samba school.

Comments very welcome!

ALFAIA $455 with goat skin heads! v. nice

Hi everyone

I have been in contact with www.sambaworldpercussion.com they have five 20" alfaia's from Brazil. These are the large drums used in Maracatu, coco, afoxe and other rhythms from Pernambuco. At the moment they are $359 and I am definatley going to buy one. I'm also getting two 20" goat skin heads. These will cost $48 each. So the total price is $455.

If anyone else wants to buy alfaia this is a good opportunity. They are very good quality, the price is good, they are extremely rare in Australia and the more we buy we can get them cheaper still. Is anyone else interested?

Cheers Paul

High Energy Maracatu

A Nação do Maracatu Estrela Brilhante from Recife performing at the Television Tower in Brasília 2005. Shekere 03:39 .

Brazilian BBQ at the Joynt. Sunday the 14th.

If anyone is interested there's a Brazilian BBQ at the Joynt this Sunday.
Forro, pagode and samba for those inclined also.

http://events.myspace.com/Event/7564112/Saideira-Brazilian-BBQ--the-Joynt

Roar vs Adelaide - this Saturday

This Saturday night, the Roar (now number 2 on the ladder) plays Adelaide (number one)! So it's going to be a big game where they battle it out for the top of the table.

Of course we need to be there to provide some loud support, so please let me know if you can play this Saturday! The game starts at 8.15pm, we'd need to be there 7.15pm. Parking provided as always.

Players:
Remko - Repinique
Paul D - 3rd Surdo
Gail - 3rd Surdo
Denis - Caixa
Siobhann - 1st Surdo
Leisa - 1st Surdo
Miki - Ganza
Patty - Agogo / Ganza
Brian - 2nd Surdo

Please be there 7.15pm. This time we'll play at the South plaza too!

A day in Noosa!!!

This gig has now been confirmed!

Here are some details, more to come:

Parking arranged for me + 3 other cars, so 4 cars in total. Patty is already in the area so she can have 1 car park if required, which leaves 2 parks for another 7 people carpooling in two cars.

Performance starts 1.45pm and will take about 30 minutes. I'd like to set up 1.15pm.

Before that, I'd love to shout everyone a very nice lunch at Sierra Cafe Bar, 10 Hastings Street, which unfortunately will need to be a little bit earlier than normal because of the above timetable, so from 11.30am. I have made a reservation. I'm also trying to get hold of a menu so we can order in advance to save a bit of time.

Please let me know if you want to volunteer to drive and take 2 or 3 passengers. I'll reimburse drivers for petrol, which I think should be covered by $60.

Performers:

Remko - repinique
Darren - first surdo
Brian - second surdo
Gail - third surdo
Warren - third surdo
Paul Hardwicke - third surdo
Erin - caixa
Jason - caixa
Miki - shaker
Henk - shaker
Patty - agogogogogo

Dress code: white pants, Mangueira shirt

More details to follow in this post.

A BIG thank you!

Wow, that was a big week. 3 Roar games in 8 days! And two of them without me too!

I just like to let everyone know how much I appreciate all of you taking part in these gigs, especially on the odd occasion when there's so many of them in such a small timeframe. The Roar has asked us to play every game, and I'm always concerned that some time we just don't have enough people, especially with weeks like the one just past.

So thank you all very very much!

Of course I'd like to especially thank Denis for the help with the instrument transport 3 games in a row!
And of course Jason as well for holding the fort for the first two games. It's great to be able to go on holiday and know everything will go well!

So again - thank you all very much!
Remko