Study Abroad Blog | Blogging From Abroad

18 Jun

I had an incredible stroke of luck a couple months ago when I met a young composer, Diana Popoff, at a concert. She is the daughter of a well-known bassist, composer, and arranger, Yuri Popoff, and the niece of one Brazil’s greatest guitarists and composers, Toninho Horta. She has been very gracious in introducing me to other musicians as well as a whole style and sound that was pioneered by her uncle. The music comes from Minas Gerais, a state in the interior of Brazil. Many say that becuase Mineiros don’t have beaches like Rio de Janeiro, they instead turn to more introspective efforts. As such, the harmony in this region is deliciously rich and complex. A side note for jazz fans: the Pat Matheny “sound” is actually heavily influenced by this muisc; he traveled to Brazil and studied with Toninho Horta.

I had the pleasure to play a show with Diana with only her compositions. I think you’ll agree that her writing is very unique and sophisticated; it certainly wasn’t easy to play. Diana is playing piano and singing, her father is playing guitar, Rodrigo Ferreira is on bass (the same guy from the previous videos), and Kleberson Caetano on drums.

Click “Continue Reading” at the bottom to see the videos.

10 May

After over a month of computer and internet problems, I have returned and will try to make up for the time lost. This first post is of my first real gig here in Brasil, at a restaurant called TriBoz (tribes). The restaurant was started by the trumpet player in the clips, who is an Australian musicologist living in Rio (he switches between English and Portuguese when he’s announcing tunes). I found out about the place through the bass player, who is a fellow music student at the university. After sitting in a couple times, the trumpet player asked me to be part of this gig, and others in the future. The alto player is also a really interesting guy: he’s Brazilian but has lived for a while in Canada, the US, and France. So it’s a multi-cultural group.
The “theme” of the evening was the cool jazz style, typified by the “Kind of Blue” album by Miles Davis. I can’t honestly say that we stayed true to that style very much, but it was fun nonetheless. The lineup of the group is as follows:
Mike Ryan – trumpet
Marcelo Padre – alto sax
Yours Truly – tenor sax
Tomás Improta – piano
Rodrigo Ferreira – bass
Eduardo Magliano – drums
Please enjoy.

4 Mar

It’s a double feature this week!

I have found a wonderful restaurant called Modern Sound with professional live music several nights a week. I have been going quite often and am becoming a regular at the place. I hope to post more music from this venue in the future, which has a mixture of jazz, samba, bossa nova, and chorinho.

The first clip is of an amazing harmonica player who sat in with the group at the end of the evening. I’ve never been a huge fan of the harmonica, as it’s a very limited instrument, but not in the hands of this guy. This was the first time I have ever been really blown away by a harmonica player, and I didn’t even catch some of his finest moments on film, unfortunately. Still, you won’t be disappointed.

(A note about the videos: if you can’t see the full picture, try viewing them in full-screen.)

The rest of the clips are from part of their set that evening, so enjoy them all if you have time, or come back and listen to them one by one. The group’s name is Gente Fina e Outras Coisas, and you can find more music on their MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/gentefinaoutrascoisas.

The piano player in the rest of the clips is a great young European (Belgian, I think) player. I had originally assumed he was American (because he is obviously a jazz player). I’m starting to hear the differences between a Brazilian musician and a strictly jazz musician, now I just have to work on erasing the differences in my own playing.

Paz,
Colin

2 Mar

I did not know the meaning of crowded before this week. Having never lived in a large city before, I still have a hard time conceiving where all these people come from. My neighborhood has been generally very calm and quiet, but Carnaval rolled around and suddenly thousands of people appeared on my street. For several days, it seemed like everyone in the city was on the streets dancing and enjoying life.

The blocos that I talked about in the last post comprised a large part of my Carnaval activities, but these were all much bigger and more energized than the ones earlier in the month. I went to the Banda de Ipanema bloco, which is said to be the original Rio de Janeiro street parade. It originated in 1965 as a mostly impromptu march around the neighborhood that ended over 500 people strong. Now, thousands gather to watch and join in the event. It has become a haven for all of Rio’s most interesting characters; any ideas you have about what Carnaval is were probably typified there. I decided to wade in and march with the mass; the best way I can describe it is ‘suffocatingly close.’ I didn’t move by my own accord, rather I was carried along by the throng of revelers. It was certainly something to experience.

Now, the real highlight of my Carnaval was THE samba parade. The main event of this celebration, the parade is held in a giant open stadium called the Sambadromo. It’s a long street with bleachers and box seats lining it. Over two nights, twelve of the best samba schools in Rio compete to be named the Carnaval Champion. Each school has 80 minutes, thousands of participants, floats, costumes, musicians, and one song to tell a story and prove that they deserve to be named the best. The atmosphere is at times like a major sports match, because people care so much about their favorite school. In short, it was incredible.

Walking into the Sambodromo

The sign for this year’s Carnival Champion and flags in the stadium for the school

Each school had a rainha, or queen, who acted as the introduction to the drum section

Many, many floats, including this guy who was way up in the air

An aerial shot of just one section of a samba school

The wolf moved its head and growled

Just like the Macy’s Parade, right?

Paz,
Colin

19 Feb

For the second day in a row, I was surprised by a street parade passing directly below my window. The official Carnival events will take place this weekend, but the energy and excitement has been tangible in the city for the past month. These street parades are considered by some to be the true spirit of samba and Carnival, while others prefer the more professional and well-known sights of the parade in the Sambadromo.

Either way, the blocos are informal and very fun. The events start with a core of musicians who start playing and walking around the neighborhood. Dancers, musicians, and onlookers join in until the celebration takes up nearly an entire block of the road.

The thing that really entices me is the energy around the music. Everyone knows the words and dances and sings along enthusiastically; it’s a rush just to watch. The focus isn’t on musical precision or ability, but on the pure excitement and community created by the music.

I’ll be enjoying the full experience of Carnival this weekend, so I’ll be sure to update the dust clears. There are two main nights of the famous Carnival parades, but the festivities around the city last for over a week. It has been difficult to choose from the plethora of incredible events taking place.

Paz,
Colin

1 Feb

I’ve always been a fan of the music is a language metaphor, but now that I am actually learning a language, I understand and appreciate it even more. The skill sets for playing music and speaking a new language are incredibly similar: both require recognizing aural patterns, relating new ideas to present knowledge, knowing how and what to practice, and having the patience to keep trying.

Just like in music, listening is the key. I’m trying to imitate everything I hear and constantly surrounding myself in the culture. I’m studying Portuguese not only with other Americans but students all around the world, yet the default language for us all is English. I met a German who I still think is American. His English is perfect, and he says he was never paid attention in English classes at school but instead learned the language by watching American movies. Therefore, I’ve been watching Brazilian TV, especially soap operas. Not because I particularly enjoy them (they are just as cheesy here as in the US), but my host mother watches them often, so I’ll sit down and absorb as much as I can.

Perhaps even greater for me is the effect learning a language has had on my conception of music. I had a wonderful teacher who would always talk about saying something with music: he talked about phrases, pacing, repetition, using space, and creating tension. All of these things are part of the way we talk, and when I first heard these ideas I accepted them and moved on. But know I see just how well the metaphor works: you can’t tell a very good story if you only know all the correct tenses. Grammar is a wonderful tool that greatly enhances how we convey ideas, but at the very simplest level, a story with great content and poor punctuation will be more effective than a perfect sentence with a perfectly boring tale. Being able to connect with people on a simple, direct level is always more useful than being able to rattle of conjugations and gerunds, scales and arpeggios.

13 Jan

It hasn’t even been a week since I left Morgantown, but so much has happened already. Between going to DC to get my Visa, a ten-hour international flight, getting accustomed to a city with over ten million people, and starting intensive Portuguese classes, life has been moving fast. I am finally starting to settle into this new experience yet still can’t help cracking a smile every now and then when I stop to think just how wonderful this opportunity is.

I was very stressed when I finally got through the Rio de Janeiro airport, but as soon as I got out, took a look at this beautiful city, and caught the breeze of the coastal air, I was ecstatic. Being in Rio de Janeiro is simply wonderful.

I had some doubts last year when thinking about study abroad and where to go; I didn’t know if it would make sense to study jazz outside of the US, the birthplace of the genre. In hindsight, I could not imagine a better option for me. One of the first jazz albums I ever listened to was Getz/Gilberto (I highly recommend it), the album that typified the bossa nova craze, and the origin of the hit Girl from Ipanema. Now, I am in the very birthplace of this music, and I have even eaten in the Garota de Ipanema restaurant, in which Antonio Carlos Jobim wrote that very song, inspired by an enticing woman on the beaches of Ipanema (they are incredibly inspiring).

The city is incredibly beautiful, as I hope you see from my pictures. Please enjoy and there will be many more to come.

A beautiful waterfall at a park inside the city (Interesting note: Rio has the largest urban gardens in the world, which really contribute to the city’s charm).