Salvador has yet to disappoint. It’s been another illuminating week filled with all kinds of cultural and musical discoveries. Here are some highlights.
Visit to Candeal
Before arriving in Salvador, one of the places we heard a lot about is a neighborhood called Candeal. Candeal rose to fame after its native son Carlinhos Brown created a bloco called Timbalada that was based there. Carlinhos is a famous percussionist who played with Gilberto Gil, Marisa Monte, Chico Buarque and others before starting Timbalada in ’91. Timbalada became one of the most popular bloco’s in Brazil and put Candeal on the map. In conjunction with the government, Carlinhos Brown used Timbalada’s fame to create a public renaissance in Candeal, including the building of proper public housing (previously, Candeal’s inhabitants lived in sub-par shacks, stacked on another, with out even proper sanitation). He also helped build music schools and recording studios, making Candeal one of Salvador’s musical meccas. Any way, for more info, visit Timbalada’s wikepedia page.
Our good friend Alex Shaw helped us get in touch with one of Timbalada’s drummers named Japa. This past Thursday we took a trip out to meet Japa and see Candeal. Japa is young, only a little bit older than us. He told us that all his life he grew up listening to Timbalada and hearing about Candeal and Carlinhos Brown, even though he grew up in the interior of Bahia, in an area with far less musical opportunities than Salvador offered. He told us that he always knew that one day he’d grow up to play with Timbalada. Sure enough, he eventually made the leap to Candeal and after studying and practicing for 3 years realized his dream and joined Timbalada. He’s been playing, touring, and recording with them for the past two years. It’s inspiring to hear his story about how his dreams came true.
Japa took us around Candeal and told us the neighborhood’s story. Being in Candeal is a strong reminder of how a musician can deeply transform their community through music. Once Carlinhos hit the big time he did not turn his back on his roots. Instead he used his success to lift his community in the same way we see Gustavo Dudamel and Ricardo Castro doing the same. Being in this neighborhood and hearing the story first hand from Japa was truly inspiring.
Interview with Ricardo Castro
Following our trip to Candeal, we were lucky to have the opportunity to sit down and interview Ricardo Castro. Ricardo Castro is a world-class concert pianist born and raised in Salvador. Ricardo left Bahia to study in Europe at the age of 18 and eventually rose to fame after winning a few international piano competitions. Apparently, he took a fateful trip to Venezuela many years ago and became an El-Sistema convert. In 2007 he founded NEOJIBA, the state youth orchestra. We’ve already spoken a bunch about our experiences with NEOJIBA. We’ve been hanging at their nucleos and getting to know their musicians. For us, this has been the closest we’ve come to seeing what El Sistema is like. Ricardo has closely modeled his orginization after Abreu’s model in VZ. Getting a chance to ask him questions was a fantastic opportunity.
Ricardo said many profound things to us but perhaps the most important thing he told us were the four basics that for him define an El Sistema program. Here they are:
- Excellence. Above all, an El Sistema program reflects musical and artistic excellence. ‘Nough said.
- Integrated Society-an El Sistema program should include all pockets of society, not catered to either those that can pay or those that can’t. At NEOJIBA, musicians from all pockets of the city, from all different racial backgrounds and religions, and from different economic backgrounds come together to make music and celebrate.
- El Sistema is a public service. As such it should be funded by the government because it is a social service. It is not merely a corporate initiative or a philanthropic endeavor but a social obligation, on par with other public services such as education and health care.
- An El Sistema program should be cultivating a sense of duty in it’s students to continue to serve their community throughout their lives, remaining on board as teaching artists, administrators, or advocates. If a student’s dream is to join the Berlin Phil and forget all about their community at home then someone hasn’t done their job correctly. As we’ve said earlier, the musicians here easily but 11 hours a day into their jobs at NEOJIBA and do so with a smile. Pretty. Freakin. Incredible.
After we get home we’ll post some of the interview so everyone can have a chance to hear Ricardo’s thoughts straight from the horse's mouth. For us, speaking to him was deeply inspiring as we think about the various directions we would like to take Drumming for Social Change. As musicians working in community development and education, Ricardo’s words hit deeply.
Special Needs Class at NEOJIBA
One of NEOJIBA’s most interesting offerings is a percussion class for students with special needs. As two percussionist researching how percussion and folkloric music can be used for social change, observing this class was a special opportunity to see the power of percussion in a new light. Both teachers, Washington Perreira and Pricila Santana perform with NEOJIBA’s top orchestra and have been part of the program since it’s start. During this class, they used percussion instruments to practice a variety of skills including memory, reading, comprehension, pulse, listening skills, and motor skills.
At the beginning of class, the students reviewed the names of the musical notes, using xylophones as a reference. The level of the students varies, and some knew all the note names while others struggled to read them off the whiteboard. After reviewing the names, the teachers mixed the order of the notes on the students' xylophones and challenged the students to put the keys back in their correct order. The second activity had the students using the xylophones to play a traditional capoeira melody. The students mimicked the teacher both on the xylophone and by singing, and practiced saying the word “berimbau” to the melody that the instrument berimbau traditionally plays. A couple of the students performed some actual capoeira while the other students played the melody and sang along. Capoeira is a world famous tradition born in Bahia. Here we got to see it put to use in order to offer the students a musical challenge. The last part of the class involved some samba jamming. Check it out here in this video:
Mario Pam’s Birthday
The last highlight we have to report home is the birthday celebration for our teacher Mario Pam. We were grateful that Mario decided to invite us to his home this past Saturday to celebrate his birthday. After celebrating Soiane’s birthday the past weekend and witnessing how much music was made at that event, we knew Mario’s party was not to be missed! Mario lives in the same neighborhood as us but due to our terrible sense of direction and inability to follow instructions in Portuguese we arrived about two hours late. Of course, being in South American means that 2 hours late is pretty much on time.
Surrounded by about 50 of Mario’s friends and family, we witnessed a beautiful celebration. The Brazilian version of Happy Birthday has the same melody as the English version but lasts about three times as long, complete with a lot of clapping. Of course, some of the guests added some drumming (what celebration here is complete without drums???).
The party was a meat lovers paradise, complete with tons of Brazilian barbecue. Brad was in heaven and Gabriel had to scrounge to find something meatless to eat. Towards the end of the party more of Ile Aiye’s musicians arrived and a jam session ensued. Check out this clip of some of the jam. Check out Mario’s son already playing some funky grooves at the ripe old age of 2:
We are mid way through our final week here in Salvador :(((( Stay tuned for more updates as the week unfolds.
