Rio Maracatu redux

This week I've been hunting down my old blocos Bangalafumenga and Rio Maracatu, and trying to figure out the escolas' ensaio tecnico schedules and whether or not the street rehearsals are running yet. My great triumph was finally getting my cell phone reactivated! YEAH! Only took a week.

And I've been basking in the US election results, which have had front-page billing in the Rio newspapers for several days now ("Bush perdeu o controle do Camara e Senado - Rumsfeld e retirada"), and which has made me feel, for the first time, not completely ashamed when I have to tell people that I am American.

Back to music.
Turns out Banga's moving this week to nice new digs in Botafogo, which I'll put here for anyone interested. While I'm at it, here's my other stage blocos' class schedules too:

Bangalafumenga
Rua das Palmeiras 26, Botafogo
Monday is the beginner class, Tuesday intermediate, Wednesday advanced. All classes are 8-10pm.

Rio Maracatu
Fundicao Progresso, in the very, very furthest back room way back on the left. (ask at the front desk for directions)
The Fundicao is the multicolored building right by the Arcos da Lapa. Any cabbie will know where it is.
Classes are Tuesday 6-8pm, and Thursday two classes in a row, 4-6pm and 6-8pm, all levels (but most players are intermediate/advanced).

Monobloco
Sala Baden Powell, Av. Nossa Senhora de Copacabana 360, in Copacabana (behind the Copacabana Palace Hotel).
Go up the stairs and into the theater.
Mondays, beginners 6-8pm, intermediate 8-10pm.

I think there are also at least 2 other bloco classes running - Quizombo at the Circo Voador on Mondays, and Odilon Costa's bloco class at Maracatu Brasil on Fridays - but I haven't verified those yet. Plus the bloco do pandeiro is running classes at Maracatu Brasil, and I saw a banner today for an all-tamborim bloco in Lapa.

Banga wasn't playing this week due to their move. But Rio Maracatu's in full flow, with a parade planned for Friday night in Lapa, and a special workshop planned for Monday with a visiting mestre from Leao Coroado. So I went scampering over today for the evening Thursday class. They took me right back in with a casual "Oh, you're back. Here, play this alfaia." It's funny, some of the people here have no idea why I left, or where I'm from, or why I came in the first place, or what I went through to come back. They just see some random gringa show up for awhile, disappear for a while, and then show up again, and they don't give it a second thought. Fair enough!

Anyway, I played shekere in a nice Estrela Brilhante piece, and then alfaia for a REALLY fun coco. Rio Maracatu has the absolute heaviest alfaias in the entire world - I think they're made of solid neutronium - and it just about destroyed my shoulder, but it was GREAT to be playing a real bass drum again and get my mallet arm really working again, really swinging high, and the coco groove was super cool.

The Leao Coroado mestre was also there today, and he gave a fascinating demo of the stuff he'll be teaching Monday. Leao Coroado is a grand old maracatu group of Recife that plays an old, purist version of maracatu. It is more or less (on both alfaia & caixa):
X--X --X- -X-X -X-X
.... actually, come to think of it, it's quite samba-ish, which makes sense given that the old style of maracatu is supposedly one of the main roots of samba. But somehow the voicing of it makes it sound more like maracatu than samba.

Afterwards I dutifully went over to Leo, the registrar, to pay for the class and have our usual confusing conversation about class schedules and payments. But at the end he asked "Will you be here for Carnaval?" I said yes, and couldn't help smiling so broadly that I think he suddenly realized that it is a big deal for me to come back to Rio. He suddenly grinned back and said "Oh! Welcome back!" I said "THANK YOU!" and he added "Oh, and, come play with us tomorrow - we are doing a night street parade here in Lapa! Be here at 9pm! Well actually, 7pm, so that you can be sure to get a drum."

All right then!