E Grande Rio!

I went to Grande Rio's ensaio tecnico (technical rehearsal) at the Sambodromo on Sunday. There are 4 new little movies up at homepage.mac.com/sambakat - click on "Rio Movies" at the top. I'll post some more if I get some time tomorrow....

My wonderful samba-crazy friend Olivia always seems to turn up at any escola event, and sure enough she turned out to be parading in Grande Rio's Ala 3 - and she miraculously had an extra t-shirt (the official t-shirts are the only way you can get past security). So I paraded with her! We were well in front of the bateria, so I was able to finish the whole parade, then backtrack up the parade route to find the bateria in the second recuo (a spot on the side of the route where the bateria pulls out of the main parade flow for a while, and stays put, still playing, while the paraders go past). Got a magnificent half-hour recording of the bateria there. One of the bateria directors even started directing players to turn and play right into my recorder, so I have some nice recordings of individual parts. I stayed with the quad bells for a while, fascinated to hear them play many of the exact same long bell patterns that the Lions use (in Portland, Oregon, USA). Grande Rio is one of the very few escolas that uses bells. Bells seem to be standard in US baterias, but they're actually kind of rare in Rio.

The bateria guys seemed to love having a camera focused on them (check out the Cuica & Bells video! they were totally mugging for the camera) I also have a long section of the tamborims that I will post later.

Another movie shows the four third-surdo guys, plus a few caixa & bell friends of theirs, who seemed unable to stop playing when the parade ended. I almost felt like I know these guys by now since I spent a whole evening earlier at their quadra recording the third surdos. They were in a little clump counting off some little samba entradas over and over, including a "E Grande Rio!" shout ("it's Grande Rio!"). So cool.

My most puzzling movie shows the entire bateria stopping, turning to the left, and serenely giving the finger to something, or someone. (Watch the left hands of the two surdo players in the "Flip And Run" movie.) This was led by their mestre, Odilon, who right next to me, emphatically flipping off something. (no, not me! something behind me, I swear!) I have NO idea what that was all about and can only theorize that it was directed at either the judges' booth, or at the time clock that cost them the championship last year - they went 1 minute over the allotted 120 minutes, and got a penalty for it that cost them the championship. Whatever it was about, right after the flipping-off, Odilon had the whole bateria practice RUNNING, still playing. Baterias sometimes sort of speed-walk if the parade is going too long and they are in danger of a time penalty, but I have never seen a bateria actually run before. You better bet they're not going to get a time penalty this year!

All in all... Grande Rio completely blew me away. They always do anyway, and they went all out for this rehearsal. They had a huge fleet of buses that they put in the positions in the parade where the floats will be. They had several small floats already built and in place - two giant scarecrows in front of me, mysterious rolling trees wreathed in fabric yellow-and-orange flames, and a strange assortment of rolling oil cans. All three porta-bandeiras (flag-bearers) brought the full-size 2006 gowns to practice their dance. I watched one porta-bandeira for 20 minutes before the rehearsal while she went through the elaborate process of tying enormous layers of feathers onto her huge hoop skirt. It was a complex process and she was royally pissed off about it by the end, wrestling with the ornery backpiece, stomping, swearing, and throwing feathers around! Wished I could have helped, but it seemed wiser to stay a safe distance away.

It was a grand spectacle all around. And the bateria was SO tight. Not all baterias are this tight. Odilon, the mestre, is famous throughout Rio for his ferocious drive ("garra", claws), his musical creativity, and his no-nonsense attitude. He regularly cruises through the bateria asking players to play solo, and immediately tosses out anyone who isn't playing up to snuff. You really have to play perfect, all the time, to play in Grande Rio.

I had to miss most of Beija-Flor's rehearsal, unfortunately, but if all goes as planned I will catch them Thursday at their home quadra, along with Jorge Alabe & Curtis Pierre.

And check out this link, to the newspaper O Dia:
http://odia.terra.com.br/especial/rio/carnaval2006/fotos.asp#
...click on Grande Rio to see the photos from the rehearsal. See the picture of the ala members in green t-shirts singing their hearts out? The one in the black skirt is my friend Olivia! How cool is that! (I was just outside the photo.) You can actually sort of see us both in the photo of the giant scarecrows - but we are just dots behind the scarecrows - I'm a dot over to the left with a white skirt & black bag around my waist, and Olivia is the dot next to me in the black skirt. Two dots having a very good time.