By an extraordinary mix of schedules, I spent the better part of this weekend immersed in some genre of Brazilian music. One of my friends and fellow capoeiristas discovered that a Brazilian band was scheduled to play at one of my favorite dance venues this past Friday. Since that was the day grades closed for the next to the last marking period, I knew I’d be in the mood to blow off some steam.
She picked me up early so we could first eat Brazilian food at a nearby restaurant only to discover that they were closed until the next week. We regrouped at another friend’s house who was going to meet us at the restaurant and chose a different Brazilian restaurant that none of us had tried before. What an excellent call!
I shared a platter of grilled pork, chicken, steak and sausage that came with a bed of white rice, small pieces of cheese bread, hashbrowns, a too small ramekin of spicy red sauce and a pile of crushed bread crumbs (I guess). Of course, I washed all of that delicious food down with a caipirinha.
Well-fed, but not stuffed, we made our way to the venue just as the cumbia band had finished playing and the Brazilian band was setting up to play. Just as Brazil is a large, diverse country, so is its music scene. None of us had ever heard the band before, yet we expected to hear samba. Most of the music played sounded more like bossa nova. Nonetheless, I danced my money’s worth, including a few songs with a partner.
Neither of my friends were interested in listening to the second set played by the cumbia band, which suited me just fine since I had a relatively early morning on Saturday.
I made a special effort to attend the capoeira music class at noon on Saturday since I’d previously practiced playing two berimbau rhythms, the easiest of the two was “Angola.” The other one, “Sao Bento Pequeno,” is very similar, but I’ve not practiced playing it enough for the rhythm to be in my muscle memory. As a matter of fact, I had started playing Sao Bento Pequeno very slowly and sped up, thinking that I’d finally become comfortable with it. I burst out laughing when contramestre told me that I’d been playing Angola once I sped up.
Since Angola was obviously the “home base,” contramestre showed us a variation to make it a richer rhythm. Toward the end of the lesson, we practiced my current nemesis, sao bento pequeno. I’m going to get that rhythm one day!
As usual, I dashed from capoeira music class to tango lessons. On some molecular level, I think my health improves when I play and dance to music. Afterwards, I regrouped at home and then headed out again to listen to another Brazilian band that plays forro. To my ears, forro sounds like the most lively jig music that’s heavy on percussion
The usual suspects were there, including many people from last night. That’s one of the reasons I never mind going to venues by myself since, at this point, I know I’m going to bump into people I know. Even though the weather caused the band to play in an enclosed area rather than out in the open, we all crammed onto the tiny dancefloor and danced until we glistened with sweat.
Normally, I would have felt self conscious about going anywhere else besides straight home, but I intended to drop by a birthday party for the sister of another capoeirista. I thought it was going to be a teeny bopper party; so my plan was to make an appearance, wish her a happy birthday and then go home.
Apparently this young woman just looks like a teenager, but is legal age and knows many musicians since she’s a musician herself. As a matter of fact, nearly everyone at the party played some instrument and/or sang. When asked, I said that I played the “capoeira” instruments, which was as much as I’d admit to being a musician.
Yet, nearly two hours later when the other capoeiristas showed up, we put on an impromptu music roda, where I started off playing the agogo (double cow bell). Some other musicians who were not capoeiristas joined in. Who could resist playing along with a berimbau?
We carried on for nearly an hour singing different capoeira songs. After breaking out into the second sweat of the night, I finally felt that I could go home well satisfied.
Now that I’ve revitalized my soul, I can face the last week before standardized testing starts. I’m so glad I stocked up on energizing music.