hit the ground running in Recife

I can´t believe I´ve only been in Recife/Olinda two days. So much has already happened.

After my strange exhausted Thursday travel day, I jerked awake to the sound of a HUGE frevo brass band. The sun was streaming in my window, hot and bright. The band was UNBELIEVABLY loud. (and good! This one had a really tight brass section. Harmonies and everything!) I looked at my clock - it said 6:00. Could I possibly have slept through an entire day - could it be 6pm? There couldn´t be a huge 120-decibel frevo band on the street at 6am, could there? Turned out, there could be. Frevo alarm clock, 6am. The whole pousada woke up. The whole TOWN woke up.

I sleepily crawled to breakfast a bit later, stepped into the dining room and heard somebody saying "Deh, eh deh, eh deh eh, DEH eh DEH!" Somebody was chanting the lefts (E, for esquerda, left) and rights (D, direita), for a maracatu drumming pattern. I thought "There´s going to be somebody that I know at that table," turned around, and sure enough it was an entire pack of Bay Area maracatu drummers who I´d met last summer at California Brazil Camp. Score! Presto, a great bunch of people to hang out with, and plus, they know everything that´s going on! I tagged along with them all day to: an excellent maracatu lesson in the park with Nininho; a bus trip into Recife; a tour of every single instrument shop in the city(looknig for alfaia cases!) and the only store that has 16" alfaias, plus skins and hoops; a visit to the best cd store for traditional music; a frevo performance; a 3-hour rehearsal with Jorge Martins´group; another frevo performance; a shared taxi home.

Played maracatu all day - abe and alfaia. Good to find out that the alfaia is still completely comfortable, and all my maracatu reflexes are still there, even though I haven´t played much since Halloween.

There is TONS going on in Recife. There are giant stages set up all over the city and about a zillion maracatu rehearsals & parades. Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of frevo (to the day) and there was a huge frevo show. The last giant multi-nacao show is tonight! Tomorrow the parades start.

For future reference for other maracatu travellers: it looks like the big shows and public maracatu rehearsals start about six weeks before Carnaval. First each nacao (maracatu group) has just its own rehearsals, and then, in the three weeks before Carnaval, they start teaming up and putting on huge shows together, 3-6 nacoes per show. The amazing percussionist Nana Vasconcelos is hosting these giant rehearsals this year. Also, all the big-name Rio acts come to town the week before Carnaval - Gilberto Gil, Monobloco, Bossacucanova, they´re all here. The place is just buzzing.

Playing with Jorge´s group was such a rush. I have to go buy a bunch of alfaias. I have to get a maracatu group started in whatever city I end up in. Just have to.