Rio Blog: March 14-23, 2008

Queridos~ I’ve been here for just over a week and am really excited to be back in Rio! I still have so much to learn about choro and how it’s played, but I am noticing a distinct change in my playing style, and my friends are too. Even Casio – who studied classical clarinet at Boston Conservatory but grew up here playing choro – says I’m not “going somewhere else” with the music any more, but am sounding more like a Carioca.

I have 8 choro memorized & 6 more close, which is harder than it sounds because choro are so chromatic that there are few fingering patterns to rely on. And the pressure of playing in a roda as a soloist – jumping in and out of the tune when it’s your turn, and having to play as loud as possible all the time – means that a tune has to be absolutely locked not to fly from your brain at the first jolt of the unexpected. Luckily most of the rodas I’m playing in are fine w/ lead sheets, so I can have the page there if I need it. I’m also working on chords and picking style, sitting in “the kitchen” (what Brasileiros call the rhythm section) whenever possible and trying to slip into that groove when it’s not my turn to solo or when I don’t know the tune. But enough musical musing – here’s what’s been going on:

I left Thursday, March 13, in a mad rush. Crazy to give last exams while finishing taxes, running errands on the way home. I finished packing & got to the airport by 4:30 (thanks, Betty!). All 3 departures were delayed, then we sat on the runway, then circled endlessly waiting to land, but the trip was otherwise uneventful.

So I arrive on Friday at noon, about an hour late, and it’s raining. My friend and bandmate Romulo meets me at the airport. I’m staying at his house until I can find a room in Urca, hopefully, as my expected place has fallen through. R goes off to work to finish a journal article due today (he’s the sax player in my group, gua no Feijao, and in his non-choro life is an engineering doctoral student). I play music, unpack. I’m meeting R & Mariana (R’s girlfriend) at a champagne bar later to catch up on the time I’ve been away. I get a woman cab driver – my first ever in Rio – and she’s playing blues on the radio. We have a great talk “no portugues” about blues & choro & Bonnie Raitt. We find the club & Mariana is there already & R arrives soon & we toast & talk. I’m still coughing from a lingering winter cold & so drink champagne through Fisherman’s Friend part of the time. Seems like a waste, but I’m in Rio so how long can a cough last here?

Saturday is the first EPM (choro school) & I’m so excited! However it’s still raining, so the intro lectures are indoors & split up for new and old students & there’ll be no Bandao because, w/ 600+ people, that definitely has to meet outdoors. I see Marcia & Samantha (friends, staff of EPM), Jorge & Carlos (former bandmates), others, give my new method book to Marcilio & PedroA (amazing bandolimistas) – both pleased, surprised, happy for me. Mill around a bit, chat & Ana (flutist) & Luiz (guitarist) are starting a roda back in the lecture hall. It’s fun & I am so ready! Later some of the teachers join in & it becomes quite awesome, but does get too loud for me to really be heard on melody, so I work on chords.

Sunday we’re up fairly early for the Sao Salvador roda. Luiz has brought “Falte-Me Voce” – a tune I love & no one plays at rodas, probably because of all the flats, so I happily accept his offer to play it first, as the crew is assembling. Meet Ester – an oboist from Boston living in Europe, also later Jesse – a Mike Marshall mandolin protogé from CA, both of whom R met at the Choro Festival in February near Sao Paulo. A few songs later Casio – friend & fabulous clarinetist – arrives. It’s always a fun roda, & even better sitting in a clump w/ L, E, C, R. And Raphael (AnF 7-string guitarist) arrives later. Afterwards R & I are off to Pablo’s in Magé to put down my tracks for the 6-song recording they’ve been making of AnF. Without much fuss we figure out what I should play where & I do that. Home at 1:00 AM – 16 hours after leaving for the roda. Cool day w/ more playing than a girl has a right to hope for. And Ester & Jesse & I played so well at roda we have been invited to play at Luiz’ roda (invitation-only) at a bar in Laranjaras on Tuesday. There’s a roda at Bip Bip on Monday – will I try to go for the 4-day streak? Cough is gone (even w/ this crazy schedule) – I do love Rio!

On Monday I still don’t have a room, although all my friends are looking for me, so I go to Catete to check out a recommended hotel, but it just won’t do. While in Catete I walk down to the Palace park & have a cafezinho & pao de queijo (little round pastries w/ cheese inside) at my favorite outdoor cafe. The rain has stopped & it’s tank-top-&-flip-flop weather. And this is their autumn… It’s beginning to get dark & since I’ve never taken the bus back to R’s house I decide I’d better get going. It turns out to be a bad decision as the metro trains are packed from rush hour. It gets so crowded halfway there that I push my way off and wait about half an hour before there’s a train with breathing room. It’s late when I get back to R’s and I decide against goimg out again to the roda. So I’m practicing in my room when there’s a knock on my door & it’s Rafael! So he & Romulo & I have a roda of our own – it’s so much fun to play w/ the boys in my band!

Tuesday R goes off to work & I do some choro study – I want to be ready for whatever is coming. In the afternoon I walk around the Rio Comprido neighborhood where R lives to get my bearings. There’s a cool funky square down the street a couple of blocks w/ lots of stores & stalls. I take a cab to Luiz’s roda in a bar in Laranjeiras (skipping my favorite Tuesday night hang-out at Trapiche Gamboa listening to the best roda in all of Rio, for the opportunity to play). R is there & their regular bandolimist & Jesse, but not Ester. Everyone’s amplified & the talking reaches quite a roar so part way through I become inaudible. At one point I actually stop in my solo & wail “noone can hear me”, but Jesse, sitting next to me, pipes up “I can hear you.” So I laugh & go on. Just as we’re finishing Casio shows up. He’d been at church & heard the music so came in. We talk as Luiz & Romulo finish up the beer. Walk w/ Casio – who is so funny, it’s like he’s a movie all by himself – to catch a cab back to R’s.

Wednesday is a beautiful sunny day and I head off to Copacabana to check out the SESC hotel (already full), grab some beach time (after all it IS spring break) & see Ronaldo do Bandolim play at Modern Sound. Ronaldo is in fine spirits – lovely to talk to him – although it’s kindof smoozy music at Modern Sound. On Thursday I’m practicing when R arrives home from his sax lesson w/ Taxi-Paulo! The man had just called me on the telephone earlier w/ some leads on places to stay. R was hailing a cab after his lesson when he saw TP waving across the street – funny coincidence. But the big news is an email from Sueli – she has found me a room in Urca!! I call & the room will be available March 31st. I suggest I go right over w/ a deposit. The room is cute – I’m typing in it now – w/ pink walls, a large desk under the window that looks out at Cristo over the rooftops. There’s a bed, an armchair, closet, some shelves & a cool primitivo painting over the bed of a Matisse-like girl w/ a bird on her shoulder whispering in her ear (a little bird told me…). Mirian, my future landlady, seems to be about my age & has a son Sergio who is 20 & lives there too. I give her a deposit and as we are talking the man renting the room now comes out to say he wants to fly home early & would it be OK w/ Miriam & me if I “buy” the rest of his month & move in tomorrow. Fine all around, so I go back to R’s & pack to move. I gave myself a week to find something & thanks once again to Sueli I did, & miraculously will be back living in Urca exactly a week after arriving.

Friday, TaxiPaulo arrives at R’s just after the promised 9:30 AM to pick me & my stuff up & take us to Urca. R & Mariana are out of town for a couple of days, so I leave a note telling R where I’ve gone. In Urca unpack & settle into my cool little room & get the password for the wireless internet in the house – what a treat to be able to send email from my own room instead of the funky internet cafe down the street! It will make my online teaching so much easier too. I’m going to an early concert by Joel in the north of the city – an expensive cab ride, but always fun w/ TaxiPaulo. Joel’s playing w/ some of the young hot-shots from EPM, who look suitably impressed & nervous to be backing him up. It’s a great set! Jesse & his wife are there & I sit w/ them.

As promised I introduce him to Joel, who is simultaneously glad to see me – pulling me up on stage after the concert for a hug & kiss – and pretending to be disgruntled that I have been here for a week & haven’t called him. Funny, sweet… I arrange for a lesson for Wednesday & we leave by bus/metro/bus. About an hour later I am walking up my street, around 9:30, when Sueli unexpectedly sticks her head out the window of a car driving down the hill & says “Let’s go!” So I hop into the passenger seat & I am off w/ her to the gig of her most-excellent all-woman samba band, Orchestra Lunar. Of course by time we return – around 3:30 AM – I am totally wiped out, but the band is so good & so loud, and I get to hang out & chat w/ Aurea Martins – their awesome & quite famous singer – at a new cool bar, and talk to Sueli at the breaks. It’s a perfect night out in Rio!

On Saturday there’s no EPM because of the Easter holiday, so there’s an Agua no Feijao practice scheduled for noon. I’m running late when R calls to say everyone is running late & he’s cooking lunch for 1:30 – a reprieve. When I get there Rafael & R & I eat his excellent pasta & then Pablo arrives w/ the mixes he has been doing of the CD tunes. We discuss & pretty much agree on some changes – the tunes are sounding really good! Then we play (Marcus, cavaquinho, and Michel, the new pandeiro player, are doing music for a play so they can’t make practice). I am so tired that I can hardly read the music – new stuff – but still it’s fun.

Afterwards, Pablo is going to drop me at the metro station on his way out of town, but as we are heading there he swerves to avoid something burning in the road & as we pass it, it explodes. It was a small bomb, probably dropped by the car in front of us. I shudder to think what would have happened if we had driven over it and it exploded under the car. We are both kindof shaken & miss the Estacio station & Pablo ends up driving me to the entrance of Urca where I get out & walk over the bridge & stop to get a sandwich & guarana (a Brazilian soda, kindof like cream soda or gingerale) to go. I’m surprised to see it’s 9:30 already. I eat & fall asleep quite soon thereafter, refusing to admit that my cough is trying to stage a return. Must sleep more!

I wake up Easter Sunday feeling cranky, like I should just skip roda & sleep. But then I shake some sense into myself and realize that it’s probably just lack of coffee in the house. So I get out the door & get coffee at the bar down the street, grab the bus-metro & walk up to Praca Sao Salvador about a half hour late. It’s the first time going to the roda by bus/metro (Romulo usually picks me up, but has other things to do this morning) & as a result it’s my first time arriving late. But everyone is glad to see me & the pandeiro player sitting next to Luiz indicates that I should take his seat, so there I am in my favorite place.

The roda is great & Casio shows up a few minutes later, & I get to play a lot of cool tunes including Santa Morena, E Do Que H, Doce de Coco, Desprezando… & my place turns out to be even better about an hour later when Jorginho do Pandeiro arrives and sits down 2 seats over. This man is the best of the best, and played in Epouca d’Oro w/ Jacob do Bandolim- my absolute choro hero who, alas, died young in 1969. I am delirious w/ excitement – why is he here playing w/ us? It’s like playing w/ history as well as one of the greats. His son Jorginho Filho (who also plays in E d’O now) arrives a few minutes later & soon is sitting next to me playing cavaquinho.

So there I am, in the middle of the “kitchen” w/ Luiz to my right & the Jorginho’s to my left. The roda is in its loud phase, so I play chords for awhile, getting a good lesson in picking by watching J Cavaquinho’s right hand. I also get to play solos on Cochichando, Noite Cariocas, Benzinho, and play an entire solo version of Santa Morena again – tunes are almost never played twice in one roda – because J Pandeiro has a famous part on the 2nd section that everyone wants him to play. Romulo arrives part way through this whole thing & graciously takes a couple of pictures of me w/ the big guys. Wow – what a thrill! Afterwards a lot of people come up to me to say “parabens” and the people sitting behind me express astonishment that I’m not Brasilian. Yes, I am pretty glad that I came. R & I drive to Sta. Teresa & toast Easter w/ gengibre cachacha at a very late lunch (early dinner?) at the Bar do Mineiro.

So everything in Rio is unfolding as it should. I’ll see Paulo Sa & Henrique soon, have a lesson w/ Joel, play at more rodas, go back to Trapiche, just slip back into my life here without missing a beat. How lucky I am to be able to live two lives right now– one in the US & one in Rio! Big thanks to everyone who understands and is OK w/ me missing half of each. More next week.

Ate ja
m

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