What happened to Banga

I limited my Recifie trip to just 5 days specifically so I would not miss the last rehearsals of my blocos, Bangalafumenga and Monobloco. Especially Banga's Tuesday rehearsal. Though Monobloco has been great for my caixa playing, Banga is still my favorite group. Not just because I like their repertoire and musicality more (Banga now has a Grammy-winning songwriter, Imperio Serrano's best surdo players, and a growing contingent of pros who have left Monobloco in favor of Banga. Plus they just have a great repertoire!) But mostly because Banga has been so kind to me. Monobloco always feels a little tense; students there always seem a little bit nervous. But in Banga, even though it holds to just as high a standard as Monobloco, the players are happy. The leaders and my fellow surdo players always greet me with big smiles and hugs. It feels like a family.

I have been especially grateful to caixa leader Andre Moreno and his wife Ursula, who I have been renting studio space from for several months. They have been renovating a beautiful little studio in Botafogo, Casulo Artes Musicais, which has become my major hang-out spot. (26 Rua das Palmeiras, if you're looking for a nice little practice space) Andre always sets up the studio for me with a little assortment of the drums and baquetas that he knows I'll need, and Ursula always brings me glasses of water when I arrive at the studio after the long hot walk from my apartment. And I just started a series of private lessons with Andre that has been really wonderful. He's an amazing snare player. He also has a particularly beautiful samba ride that I've never seen anyone else play.

By the way, it is Andre who you can hear yelling "CALMA!" on my mp3 recording of the Banga esquenta. He is an excellent caixa leader, a softspoken guy, always calm and encouraging.

So anyway, I caught a flight early Tuesday morning from Recife back to Rio, just to catch Banga's last rehearsal. I'd been a little sad to find out that Banga had decided to do a parade in Sao Goncalo during my Recife weekend. This hadn't been on their schedule originally, so I missed the parade. Well, here's what happened at the parade. (translation from O Globo's online bloco blog) This is an eyewitness account by a bateria member.

"The Bloco of Bangalafumenga did a marvelous parade this Saturday in the streets of Sao Goncalo. Those on top of the sound car estimated the crowd at between 5 and 10,000 people. We even had the surprise visit from Vantuil, the singer for Unidos da Tijuca, who is from Sao Goncalo and spend much of his career in Porto da Pedra [Sao Goncalo's excellent escola de samba]. However, after about two hours of the parade, a barbaric incident occurred, started by more than 20 security guards who had been hired by the Espaco Cultural Porto da Pedra (where Bangalafumenga has been performing shows every week since November, for crowds averaging 3000 people).

[...] There were only about 200 meters left before the end of the parade, and the mestres were preparing the bateria and the musicians on the sound car to play "Sao Gonca", which was going to close the whole event with a bang, paying tribute to the Sao Goncalo community. Just then an incident occurred right in front of the bateria.

The security guards began beating a parader. I don't know exactly why. The mestre of the bateria [this would have been my friend Dudu - KH] immediately interrupted the samba. A woman, who we found out afterwards was 23 years old and had recently become a mother, tried to defend the man who was being attacked, and the security guards began attacking her as well.

Andre Moreno, mestre of the caixas [snare drums] of Bangalafumenga and one of the long-time members of the group, impulsively ran to the woman's defense. She was being attacked, in a shameful way, right in front of him. The same security guards who were attacking the young mother (who, afterwards, registered a complaint at the police station) turned against Moreno and began beating him.

Then an even more unbelievable thing happened: The bateria members who were in the front rows of the bateria all ran to protect Moreno, but all, ALL the security guards who were there, without exception, blocked the drummers in a very aggressive manner. At least two of them displayed their guns in a menacing manner. One even pointed his weapon in the face of one of the bateria members. Everyone began talking and screaming that Moreno was a member of the bateria, but the only response from the security men was of the type "Do you want a beating too? Do you want to die?"

At least three members of the bateria were attacked by security members during this attempt to reach Moreno. And what is worse: several security men were armed, and there was not a single policeman within view.

The Sao Goncalo fans of Banga who saw this scene, including several women, ran to defend Moreno and were similarly attacked. One girl in the bateria told me that she saw a well-known fan of ours, someone who is always present at our shows, being backed up against a wall and menaced in a threatening way by a security guard who was twice her size.

Another fan, a teenager, was dragged by force by the security guards inside a building where, we think, he was similarly beaten. The next moments were terrifying. Several women in the bateria, one of them pregnant, panicked and began to cry histerically, because Moreno had vanished.

Several members of the bateria (where Moreno is much beloved) became desperate,thinking that the security guards might have taken him to some place to "finish the job." But apparently, Moreno had tried to flee from the security men through the crowd, but was chased and beaten badly. One member of the bateria who finally succeeded in reaching him saw a security guard with Moreno in a choke hold, and when the bateria member finally reached him, Moreno was lying on the ground unconscious.

Ursula, Moreno's wife, who had tried to run after him to defend him, was thrown violently to the ground by a security guard.

In the end, Moreno broke his thumb and will not be able to play for 20 days, as well as having bruises all over his body, especially on the neck. At least half a dozen members of the bateria, including women, were attacked by security guards. Several fans were also attacked and threatened, including a 50-year-old mother of one fan. And Banga, which has always aimed at creating peace through music, has been traumatized by this event, as has the community of Sao Goncalo, which has a veritable legion of fans of Banga.

It's enough just to see their stories on Orkut [an online discussion forum very popular in Brazil], in the online communities of Bangalafumenga and Banga's shows in the Porto da Pedra hall. More than one fan has said that the arrival of Banga in Sao Goncalo was a landmark for the culture of that city. Sao Goncalo has been impoverished in cultural attractions, and now they fear that Banga will never return.

As for the cowardly "security", we know that most of them work regularly for Porto da Pedra's hall, but many of them were contracted especially [by Porto da Pedra staff] for this parade.

****** [end of blog transcription]

I didn't know any of this had happened. I just showed up at Banga rehearsal and noticed the atmosphere seemed a little weird, and then I saw Andre had a black eye and had a cast on his right arm. I almost went running up to ask him cheerfully what had happened, thinking it would be some American-type accident like "I fell off my bike", but then I remembered that I am in Rio, and that Rio-type accidents can be a different sort of thing. So I decided to wait till after rehearsal to talk to him.

At the mid-rehearsal break, Andre talked to the whole band. He had seemed fine throughout rehearsal, but his voice started to waver as he talked; he was obviously still shaken by the whole thing. And he seemed to feel that he was the one who needed to apologize! For having left the bateria and put himself in a dangerous situation that frightened everybody. He kept saying "I should never have left the bateria. I should have stayed with you all." He also said, "The thing that made me lose control was that I saw that they were beating up people who had Banga t-shirts on. Our fans. I saw that and I just lost my head." Over and over he promised to not leave the bateria if something like that happens again.

I talked to him a little bit afterwards - since I still had no idea what he'd been apologizing about or what had happened. He gave me a very quiet, halting summary of the whole thing (leaving out the part about how he'd been beaten unconscious by 15 security guards! He just said he'd gotten in a fight during the parade). He assured me his hand will be fine in a few weeks.

The next night I returned to Banga's Wednesday rehearsal, wanting to put in a little more time with them. This time they stopped rehearsal a half hour early to have an INTENSE group discussion about the whole thing. Apparently, they had also had a show on Sunday, the day after the parade, and at that show, the bateria members were so nervous that when one guy in the crowd started throwing beer cans at the group, one of the tamborim players lost his temper and did - something, I'm not sure what. Man, was this ever a challenge for my Portuguese, listening to this Banga discussion. People were REALLY upset and had ten thousand opinions and thoughts and comments, chattering rapidly and excitedly, sometimes shouting over each other, 5 or 6 people at once. My impression of the the whole discussion was along the lines of:

"I just really really want to apologize for - " (this was the tamborim kid)
"But the thing is, I don't know a SINGLE security guard, NOT ONE, who isn't a bandit - "
"We should stop the music whenever -"
"We should never stop the music. Unless for something really serious. Stopping makes things worse -"
"It's not your fault -"
"I feel like -"
" - gotta apologize -"
" - those crazy morons - "
" - throwing beer cans and not - "
" - you should have talked to us more -"
" - we can't EVER play any soccer songs, those'll always cause fights - "
" - and there I was tuning about 500 surdos all by myself and I couldn't also - "
" - needed to RUN like that, my god -"
" - we should have - "
" - we shouldn't have -"
" - those security guards, this is what is happening to Rio - "
" - calm down, CALM DOWN, people! Let him talk!"

Rodrigo Maranhao was getting visibly choked up over it, and he made a really sweet speech about how, with every bad thing that has ever happened to him in his life, no matter how bad, has always had some good thing that came out of it. ("Even if it is a little tiny good thing, there is always some good thing.") He insisted: we will find something good out of this, we will learn from it. His impassioned recommendation in the end was: if the bateria gets into trouble again "We have to close ranks." Everybody in the bateria has to close ranks and group together and stay together. "We are a family, we have to protect each other, we are a family," he kept saying.

There was lots of ranting about the security guards and about the level of violence in Rio today. "When the people who are supposed to protect you start attacking you, what can you do then?"

And everybody is virtually burning with determination now to have a FABULOUS parade on Carnaval Sunday.

Even though it was a very difficult discussion for me to follow, I was really glad I was there. I am not sure whether I'm glad or sorry that I missed the parade, but I'm glad I was there for the discussion. I could feel people's intense determination that Banga will continue to play, and continue to do parades, EXCELLENT parades, and that Banga will continue to be a family and will continue to grow and thrive. I told Rodrigo afterwards, clumsily, that thought I hadn't been able to understand the whole discussion, I was glad he had spoken up the way he did. As an afterthought I said "Banga really is my family here, you know. because I don't have anyone else here. Here in Brazil." He gave me an intense look - I don't think he has ever known why I am here, or that I am here alone - and kissed me on the top of my head. I gave him a hug goodbye, and Andre too, and Ursula, and Dudu. They all asked "Will you come to the parade on Sunday?" and I said "Claro", of course.

The parade will start at the Praca Sao Salvador, in Jardim Botanico, Carnaval Sunday, around 4pm. (I think this is the little plaza on Rua Pacheco Leao, on the north side of the Botanical Garden.) And it will be WONDERFUL.