Manhattan Samba

We're approaching Brazilian Independence Day, which in New York City is always celebrated on Labor Day weekend.   It was on that Sunday, seven years ago, that I first saw and heard Manhattan Samba, my samba school, who were performing in front of the Brazilian consulate, as they have every year during the event's 27-year history.  I'd been an amateur musician for most of my life, but had long since become bored with the music I'd been playing, and never considered picking up an instrument again until that day.  Seven years later, I'm still pleased to belong to the informal organization that introduced me to Brazilian rhythms. 

Manhattan Samba on Brazil Day, 2006

In the grand manner of Rio samba schools -- though on a much smaller scale -- Manhattan Samba is a band, a learning environment, and a social club all in one.  Founder and director Ivo Araújo is known for bringing in people with virtually no musical experience and having them learning how to play traditional samba to be able to perform with the band within a short time.  On the other hand, Ivo and Manhattan Samba (the two cannot be separated) have also collaborated with many established, professional musicians such as Paul Winter, Wyclef Jean, Gogol Bordello, Jimmy Cliff, and Carlinhos Brown, and the band has been the inspiration for many other Brazilian music projects and baterias in New York City.  Ivo has a knack for integrating samba rhythms seamlessly into the music of his collaborators; at the same time, the band's own shows throb with energy and passion in a way that no other samba show in New York City does.

Ivo started Manhattan Samba in 1990 with pianist, composer, and big American band leader Amy Duncan at a time when there was very little live Brazilian carnaval music in New York.  "Manhattan Samba was the first big group, together with Empire Loisaida, long gone," he says.  He'd already been in the U.S. for ten years, playing as a percussionist for American jazz bands and directing his own Brazilian music projects; Ivo's first Casa Grande e Senzala band after Kilombo dos Palmares once opened for Tito Puente.    At first, he didn't think many New Yorkers would be interested in learning batucada.  But after seeing him perform live, Amy urged him to gather students.  "She encouraged me to play and teach."  Their first batucada show at S.O.B.'s was an instant success.  Ivo showed up to play with 35 people -- most bands playing there at the time had no more than six -- and "for the first time I blasted S.O.B.'s."  The group was so loud that a subway train conductor came up from the nearby #1 train station to investigate.  "What kind of band was that?" he said.  For fifteen years after that, until around 2005, the band closed the weekly Saturday night samba show at the club, with a late-night act that the Village Voice called "the best way to wind up a Saturday night club crawl". 

Now in 2012, Manhattan Samba (known in Portuguese as the "União da Ilha de Manhattan") remains the longest running Rio traditional-style carnaval band in New York, with a long list of successful live projects and an even longer list of current and former band members who were inspired to begin their own Brazilian music projects.  Members have gone on to teach samba in high schools, start their own bands, create documentary films, and get advanced degrees in music.  Every year, the band's signature red and white can be seen in some of the great parades of New York City, including the Halloween Parade and the Gay Pride Parade, and the band still sometimes makes appearances at S.O.B.'s, thrilling audiences with late-night batucada that always brings the house down.

Brazilian music fans sometimes wonder why the school wears red and white, when the colors of the Brazilian flag are green, yellow, blue and white.  It's because of Ivo's connection with União da Ilha do Governador, the samba school in Rio with which Ivo has the closest connection.  Their colors are red, white and blue.  "It shows respect for Uniao, which is my original samba school, together with Portela."  Portela's influence is seen in the image of the eagle holding a drum; the eagle was once part of that group's symbolism.

Manhattan Samba are scheduled to play at the Lavagem da Rua (Cleansing of 46th Street) on Saturday Sept 1st, the New York Brazil Day festival Sunday Sept 2nd, and the Brazil Day Fest in Newark NJ.  Here they are in Manhattan on Brazilian Day 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGsBR4SGlpQ

Manhattan Samba is available for samba shows with women dancers in full costume. Ivo is also accepting new students to teach, and considers an ability to follow directions much more important than any prior musical experience.  Weekly practice is $20 and, weather permitting, is held on the street, just like in Brazil.  You can contact him via the website, manhattansamba.org or manhattansamba.com, by writing to him at manhattansamba@gmail.com 

 or by calling 917 723 3814.

Rogerio Souza Brazilian Guitar Intensive in New York City

Hey Guitarists!  This year's location of the Rogerio Souza Brazilian Guitar Intensive will be "Space on White" Space no. 4 at 3:15pm Saturday SEPTEMBER 15 2012.  We have the room until 6pm and it is a fairly large space.  Space on White is located at 81 White Street between Bdway and Lafayette Streets NYC.  I've set up a place on the first page of my website where you can pay via paypal for the Guitar Intensive online http://www.billynewman.com/home.shtml.  The price is 75.00 for the 2 1/2 hour class.

Rogerio is an expert in Choro and Samba and all the shadings of what is Musica Carioca. He plays both 6 and 7 string guitar and is a composer and arranger(Ivan Lins, Ney Mattogrosso etc..). Recently he has been teaching throughout South America and has been performing frequently with his brother Ronaldo do Bandolim, "No em Pinga d'Agua", plus has done various solo concerts. From my own experience I can tell you that Rogerio is an amazing arranger for the guitar of Choro and Samba. He has numerous arrangements of Pixinguinha and Jacob do Bandolim and Ernesto Nazareth amongst others. His recent CDs include " Homenagem aCarlinhos Leite", "tributo a Baden Powell" and "Rogerio Souza". I strongly urge you not to miss the opportunity to see his demonstration of arranging for the guitar, guitar comping for Samba and Choro, contrapuntal bass lines for guitar (baixaria) and a general discussion of the Aesthetics of Brazilian guitar.

Reserve your spot! - there will be no more than twenty participants with guitars.  Because of the extra room size, I will have room for auditors if you do not wish to participate as a player.  Write me if you have questions or concerns.

 

Subjects to be covered:

• Baden Powell's Approaches to Guitar: A look at his special techniques
• Samba - Right Hand Techniques- Partido Alto 
• Baixaria - how to form accompanying bass lines that are used in Samba and Choro
• The subgenres of Choro: Maxixe, Tango Brasileiro, Polka, Lundu, Valsa - How to play
• Repertoire of the Brazilian Guitarist 
• Guitar Arrangement

 Rogerio comes off a year of intensive teaching, traveling and playing internationally. Let's not miss the opportunity to spend some time with him while he is here so briefly in NYC.

 

Inquiries to:  billy@billynewman.com

 

2nd Annual Brasilfest: The Billy Newman Sextet

Even if I didn't know Billy Newman -- either as his student, his friend, or a fan -- I'd want to know just how he does it.  The sheer audacity of taking on the logistical problems posed by a live combination of a nylon-string guitar -- a C instrument, and inherently one of the quietest instruments around -- with a loud section of horns tuned in E-flat and B-flat, would be enough, just by itself, to warrant my curiosity.  It's an ambitious venture, and not a combination I often see live.  As for recordings of Brazilian music, my only frame of reference is Charlie Byrd's "Brazilian Byrd" records from the 1960s. 

But the Billy Newman Sextet pulls it off, and beautifully too.  The new CD, released last year, features all original compositions arranged for guitar, bass, and horns.  There's a lot of riffing on the contrast between the warm nylon-string guitar sound and the bright, crisp saxophone-trumpet combination.  And the range of moods is striking:  "Ana Requiem" -- a tune he wrote for his late friend Ana Fonteles -- is meditative and sad, while "The 'I' Woman Love" is rhythmically complex and playful.  "Intervallic Choro" and "Groove Choro" are cool compositions in the choro form.

Billy Newman is conversant with many Brazilian genres (Choro, Samba, Valsa, Baiao), and has been playing Brazilian music for over 10 years.  His music looks at the relationship between Brazilian instrumental music and American jazz.  He's written a book on Brazilian music, and he actively teaches and performs in the New York area. His sextet will be at the Cornelia Street Cafe on Thursday, August 16 at 8:30 at 10:00.  Reservations are recommended by calling 212-989-9319.

Benji Kaplan at Cornelia Street Cafe

When I first met Benji Kaplan, about five years ago, he was busking on the Q train platform in the New York City subway system.  He struck me as someone very gifted, a young guitarist who started playing professionally at an early age, with a deep appreciation for the Brazilian sound, and a clear sense of the gifts he contributes to it as an American.  I subsequently met him again at California Brazil Camp, where such incredible teachers as Guinga, Moyseis Marques, and Jorge Alabé teach master classes.  There, listening to his music away from the roar of train tracks, I finally understood -- not just intellectually but with my heart -- that you really don't have to be Brazilian to play like one.  Guinga dubbed Benji a genius, the best American player of Brazilian music.


Benji Kaplan with the great Brazilian composer and guitarist Guinga, at California Brazil Camp 2009

It's three years later. Benji has disappeared from subway platforms, and the only way to hear him live now is either to be lucky enough to blunder into a restaurant like Caliu on the odd Monday night, or to pay to hear him play at a venue for serious music lovers such as the Cornelia Street Cafe.  The Second Annual Brasilfest, a three-day festival of Brazilian music, starts there on Wednesday, and Benji is concluding the first night with a set of original pieces, many from his new album, Meditações No Violão (Meditations on Guitar).  It's his first of what will hopefully be many appearances at the West Village venue.

I thought about reviewing the album, but there's very little I could say that hasn't already been said here.  It's a perfect combination of technique and heart.  Benji also shows a real familiarity with styles such as choro, baiao, and even Portuguese fado.  These styles deserve to enter the American mainstream just the way bossa nova and samba did decades ago, and Benji, as well as Rob Curto and festival curator Billy Newman (Thursday), are doing their small part to make it happen.  It's exciting to witness.


Benji Kaplan will be playing with Leco Reis (bass), Luiz Ebert (drums), and Seth Trachy (sax) at the Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street in the West Village, at 10pm on Wednesday the 15th.  As with any intimate venue, reservations are recommended, and can be made by calling 212-989-9319.

An Interview with Stacy Kovacs, Director of BatalaNYC

New York City's newest addition to the growing playing field of Brazilian percussion ensembles is a chapter of Batala, an international samba-reggae organization.  They've been in Europe and Brazil for 15 years, but had virtually no presence within the United States until about five years ago, when a Batala group was formed in Washington, D.C.  The New York group started earlier this year, and is growing quickly; there's also been activity in Houston, and there's talk of a Batala affiliate in the San Fransico Bay Area.

Membership in Batala NYC is restricted to women, which makes it different from every other Brazilian percussion ensemble here, and from most other Batala groups around the world.  For years there was talk within the local New York samba community about starting a women's percussion ensemble, but for many reasons nothing ever got started until the genesis of Batala New York.  Now, after only four months, they're playing shows, developing talent within their ranks, and establishing a small but growing following.  Growing pains -- inevitable for any large music project -- include a shortage of some drums and difficulty finding soundproof rehearsal space.  They've been kicked out of parks and some indoor rehearsal studios, but these are the same problems faced by many large, established samba bands that have been around for years.

Their director, Stacy Kovacs, was not especially well-known within the Brazilian music scene before taking on this project.  She's neither a professional musician nor Brazilian but, like me and many others, found her passion once she heard Brazilian music, and she played for years at various times with three of the largest local baterias here:  Manhattan Samba, Samba New York, and Maracatu New York.  (She earns her living as a physician assistant at a Brooklyn hospital.)  But Stacy's mission and dedication go way beyond specifically Brazilian music.  She wants to empower women through music, percussion, and dance -- and her band's ranks are filling rapidly with women who want to be a part of that vision.

I met up with Batala NYC this past Sunday and watched them rehearse at the Actors' Fund theater in the Schermerhorn Building in Brooklyn, and spent a few minutes talking with Stacy and her vision for this new project.

BMB: You're an American?

Kovacs:  Yes, born in Orchard Park, NY, a suburb of Buffalo.

BMB: How'd you get mixed up in Brazilian music?

Kovacs:  I started playing drums -- percussion -- when I was 8.  I had the fortune of having parents who were willing to have me play such a loud instrument.  Most of my friends were playing flutes or clarinets...I continued (drumming) through high school, then went to college, and ended up playing trombone.  I went to a Big Ten school -- Michigan State University -- and all those guys were on the drum line.  I didn't think I was good enough to make the drum line, so I stuck with trombone, moved to New York after some grad school, and was playing trombone in some marching bands, but really wanted to get back into drumming...The American drum corps was always part of me...And I found Philip Galinsky and Samba New York via Craig's List.  He had a beginner's class; I started playing in his bateria, and just got back into drumming, and got addicted to Brazilian rhythms.

BMB:  Why a women's-only drumming group?

Kovacs:  Just for the record, Batala is a co-ed organization.  New York is women only.

For American people in public school, my experience is that most girls are tunneled into the flute/ trombone / clarinet category.  The boys play the trumpets and drums, and the loud instruments.  I feel it's almost a gender role...girls don't play drums.  A lot of the women who've joined have said they always wanted to play drums but were never given the opportunity, and others have never had the opportunity to play any instrument, period.  A second reason is that, traditionally in a lot of cultures, women were not allowed to touch drums.  In West African cultures, and even in Brazil, drums were reserved for men, and the women were supposed to dance.  Even up until the mid 1970s or 1980s, to my knowledge, women were not allowed to play drums...A third reason is because, frankly, New York City doesn't have an all-women's anything, except I think a chorus.  So you take all these women, put them on powerful-sounding drums -- playing these powerful rhythms that are based on West African rhythms -- make them play really well, and dance at the same time, it's ... quite amazing to watch the whole thing.  The dancing and the drumming and the fact that it's all women adds a feminine element to something that is so traditionally male.  Most males don't dance...if you watch a bateria, they'll move a little, but they don't actually dance.

Another reason is that I've played in quite a few drumming groups in NYC.  Most of them are dominated by men, and when I try to get my female friends to come play, most of them are like, "Well, I don't know... so many guys..."  But when I asked them, "If it was all women, would you go?" most of them would say, "heck, yeah!" So as much as I love men, they do tend to change the dynamic.

BMB:  One thing I noticed was that no one was playing when they weren't supposed to play.

Kovacs:  As in noodling?

BMB:  As in noodling.

Kovacs:  That is definintely something that's different than when you play with dudes.  They tend to noodle when the director is talking...There was some noodling (earlier).  I put a stop to it. (laughing)

BMB:  How does the organization work?

Kovacs:  Batala was started in 1997 in Paris, France, by a Brazilian gentleman from Salvador named Giba Conçalves.  He's from Liberdade, one of the poorer neighborhoods there; he was a dancer and played with Ilê Aiyê and other Afro-blocos.  He ended up in Paris playing in a band there, and then stayed to attend college ...I believe he was studying bass guitar at the time.  This is the story I'm told:  He was basically bored on Sunday afternoons, which, where he comes from, is the time when everyone comes out and plays, hangs out and gets together.  So he got some friends together and started this thing on Sunday afternoons, which grew to 60 people in less than a year.  That was in 1997...(Since then) it's spread through Europe, it's now in five locations in France, 6 or 7 in the UK, there's one in the Netherlands, Austria ... Greece now has one, Spain has two. 

Around that same time, Giba's good friend Alberto Pitta, a musician and artist connected to a (Salvador) neighborhood called Pirajá ... formed Cortejo Afro in response to the Salvador carnaval having mostly axé music, rather than traditional African drumming...  Giba is the musical director of Cortejo Afro as well as Batala, and Pitta runs pretty much everything else to do with Cortejo Afro.  Cortejo Afro is an arts education project, part of Instituto Oya, based in Pirajá...it's an after-school program for kids, it has job training for people who don't finish high school, babysitting, health care...it's also the drumming and musical bloco...

The link there is that, because Giba is musical director of both (organizations), any member of Batala is invited to play in Carnaval with Cortejo Afro, which is pretty much the only Afro-Brazilian group that allows non-Brazilian white people to play in Salvador Carnaval.

BMB:  That's fabulous...especially for Bahia Carnaval, it's kind of unheard of.

Kovacs:  There are a lot of women as well, because even though most Batala (groups) are co-ed, most are dominated by women.

BMB:  So for women in New York, it's free to join, but there's a materials fee?

Kovacs:  There's no ongoing fee.  There's a $100 starter kit, which comes with two belts, two sticks, two CDs, and a t-shirt that's hand-screen printed in Salvador by the people in Pirajá.  The rest of the money goes towards rehearsal space, fees, but...I don't get paid, no one in this organization gets paid.

BMB:  So this probably benefits a lot of people in the Pirajá neighborhood?

Kovacs:  Oh, yeah.  Batala every year for Carnaval pumps the equivalent of 15,000 euros into the economy there.  This past year, there were 47 of us in the Batala house, the year before there were 70...It's called Batala Hostel, and any member of Batala can stay there at any time.  Giba bought the house in a neighborhood called Saúde, near Pelorinho.  His family lives there, but there are about 15-16 rooms, and 8-9 are completely empty and reserved for travelers.  When we travel there for Carnaval, we stay there. It's very cheap, and his sisters actually cook for us.  It's pretty amazing.

BMB:  What about other cities in the U.S.?  How many American cities are we talking about?

Kovacs:  Right now the only two that exist, as in playing shows and rehearsing, are New York and Washington.  Washington just celebrated their fifth year anniversary. There is a group in Houston -- a woman from Washington moved to Houston and has been trying to start one there.  There's also a gentleman in Berkeley, CA who is trying to start one.  He'll be coming up here for Brazil weekend to meet Giba and all that.

BMB:  That's a huge scene in San Francisco.

Kovacs:  Yes, he actually has his own group already, and wanted to do workshops with Giba, and somehow Giba convinced him to turn his group into Batala.

You basically get permission from Giba to start one of these bands.  I got the idea last year on Brazil weekend...I was (supposed to be) marching with another group, which happened to be late.  I was the only one there, with my drum.  So me and Laura Torell and a few others who were there with their instruments just latched onto Batala and played with them.  I knew about the group in Washington, and knew it was part of a larger, global project, but I was thinking "Why does New York not have this?  We're New York City, for Christ sake!"  So after that weekend I emailed Washington first, and they put me in touch with a gentleman named Paolo who is musical director of Batala in Brasilia, and Giba's right-hand man.  I was given a choice either to pay for Giba to come up to New York, have him bring the drums and everything we need, or go to Carnaval and meet Giba there, and experience life with Batala in the house, and march at carnaval.  So it was a pretty obvious choice.  I went down there.

BMB:  So you started the band at the end of March?

Kovacs:  Yes.  Carnaval was in early February, we came back with 35 drums.  We had a meet-and-greet party on March 9, and our first rehearsal on the last Saturday of March.  We had about 18 women that day, and probably about 15 of them are still around.  Our list of people who've come to play and are interested is about 38 or 39.

BMB:  I heard there is also a wait-list at this point.

Kovacs:  There is and there isn't.  There's a waiting list for certain drums.  Most people want to play the dobra because it's the dancing drum, up front.  Everyone sees them and, once you play one, you don't want to play anything else.  But we have about eight surdos available right now, and what I'm starting to realize is that...just because people want to play the dobra doesn't mean they can.  So, I want them to start on surdo, learn the arrangements, the hand signals, so that they can transition to dobra later, because we just don't have any more.  We have nine, and we're getting more soon, but they do come from Salvador and have to be brought by someone -- they're not shipped.

I did buy two from Washington, because I needed two more, and I went to the Encontro in Paris at the beginning of July for the 15-year anniversary and brought ten more drums back.  Basically Paris, Brasilia, and the house in Pirajá is where the drums are stored.

BMB:  If this group is a smashing success over the next two years, what will it look like?

Kovacs:  I want 150 women out there.  Right now, Washington has 90, but they'll get 50 or 60 people at a show.  They do do smaller shows.  My vision is 150 -- this is New York City, the bigger the better.  I think it can be done.  Our issue right now is rehearsal space -- we've been kicked out of some parks, as I said.  We've been kicked out of some dance studios that had neighboring buildings that are residential, where our sound went right through the walls.  But I envision us being really big, playing a lot of events, not necessarily Brazilian.  I know this is Brazilian music, but it's also a group of women doing something they love, and we can touch people of any culture.  Music transcends every culture and language.  As much as we do play Brazilian music, I don't want to limit us to that.  We can really reach anybody who is open to music and dancing.

It was interesting:  I did a workshop with a gentleman who spoke only Portuguese, and I was there with 30 other people, and didn't understand a word he was saying -- but I did, because it was music.

BMB:  The universal language.

Kovacs:  Pretty much, yeah.  It was quite incredible -- I actually understood everything he was saying, even though I had no clue what he was saying.

BMB:  Funny how that works! (laughter)

Kovacs:  So, ultimately I want us to be as huge as we can be. I would love to do as many parades as possible, events, shows, parties, weddings.  We're open to anything that can accomodate our volume, because we do get loud and turn heads.  We actually did an event for the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District -- their first annual street fair --  and when we were finished, a woman came up to us and said "I was in my building 15 stories up and three blocks away, and I just had to come and see what was going on."  So, we're pretty loud.

BMB:  Where can we expect to find you playing in the next several months?

Kovacs:  We have a show in Astoria Park on August 19, part of New York City Summer Walks, a bunch of street or park festivals where they shut down the area and have music, food, and vendors.  Then we have Brazil weekend, which is Labor Day weekend here.  Giba is actually coming for that, and will do some workshops with us, along with about 8 people from Paris Batala, 9 or 10 from Brasilia, and about 15 from Washington.  They're all coming for the Lavagem da Rua parade on Saturday...Then we'll play a show at some point on Sunday.  In September we're trying to get into the Atlantic Antic, and have a show in Brooklyn Heights -- another New York City Summer Walks event.  We also got asked to play at the World Maker Fair, which is in Queens, in Flushing Meadow Park, the last weekend of September, on Saturday...We were rehearsing outside for a while under the Manhattan Bridge overpass, in DUMBO, and a gentleman emailed me two weeks ago and said he was driving by, and heard us and saw us, and he's the person who books groups for the World Maker Fair, and he really loved us and wants us to play!

BMB:  So being loud has its advantages as well as its disadvantages!

Kovacs:  It does.  We've gotten some members that way too.  One woman was riding her bike over the bridge, heard us, and thought we were the Brooklyn Steppers, then realized:  "Wait -- that's all women.  What's going on?"  She came up, and I invited her to play.  That's how it works, that's Giba's vision.  You get out into the community, anyone can do it, as long as they show up. 

2nd Annual Brasilfest at Cornelia Street Cafe

The Cornelia Street Cafe is hosting a three-day series of Brazilian music August 15-17.  Billy Newman, a fabulous musician, composer, friend, and teacher with whom I've sometimes studied, will be curating the event.  The series promises a delightful array of local New York talent, both well-known and lesser known, with many musicians playing their original compositions of samba, choro, baiao, and other styles.  There will be Brazilian music by accordionist and world musician Rob Curto, guitarist and up-and-coming master composer Benji Kaplan, samba-jazz pianist Helio Alves, and Guilherme Monteiro and Jorge Continentinho, two members of Forró in the Dark -- a band widely credited with beginning the current forró mania in New York.  And people are already talking about the show to be put on by Billy Newman's combo, the Billy Newman Sextet, on the 16th.

The Cornelia Street Cafe is a West Village mainstay, an award-winning restaurant with a performance space in a separate room downstairs, so that those who want to listen quietly to music and those who want to just eat and talk both get what they need.  The space is an intimate, cozy environment -- I dare say one of the last in New York City -- and it's one of my favorite places to hear Brazilian music.  I'll be writing more about some of the musicians who'll be performing there as the dates of their shows approach.  For now, here's Billy Newman playing one of his original compositions, "Groove Choro", with his choro ensemble in a performance at Cornelia two years ago.