Rio Maracatu & Bip Bip

Just a little update today about Sunday:
Two days left. I was hanging on the beach with some friends when we heard a very distant

"BOOM........ BOOM, BOOM, BOOM......"

Maracatu. It had to be Rio Maracatu, and we tracked them down, and there they were, doing an unannounced parade along Ipanema beach. Smaller than usual, and with a tiny crowd - since a tiny crowd is all there is, these days, along Ipanema beach.... such a change from the Carnaval blocos! But it was MUSIC again, a PARADE again, DRUMS again. Such a balm to my soul!

They sounded great, as usual. (They had a cool thing going with the shekeres where the shekeres started with a very empty pattern and then progressively filled it in; and were using a lot of double-lefts; I forget what nacao this is... I know one of them is known for double-lefts...) And for some reason all the Rio Maracatu guys were wearing long flowered skirts today. They don't usually! Something to do with the international women's day, maybe? Well, anyway, what with all their beers and cigarettes and sunglasses and tattoos, the fluffy frilly skirts actually looked kind of cool.





Later that night I was walking home down Copacabana beach and stopped, for the first time this season, at the famous hole-in-the-Wall Bip Bip just in time to catch the last half hour of their weekly Sunday pagode singalong. It's such a tiny bar that there's only room in the bar for the musicians, and the entire crowd stands out in the street. It was SO sweet, so beautiful. Suddenly I loved pagode! They weren't medleying everything together into a musical blob; instead they paused between songs, gave each song its little moment in the spotlight as something special and unique. And, they were singing on key! How unusual.



Two great musical moments today. Drums! Parade! Music! Like I said, balm for the soul... 'cause I've been working so hard, not having any time to go out at all.... feeling very musically adrift since Carnaval ended. It was WONDERFUL to see Rio Maracatu again. And they all recognized me (I played with them last year), and waved and smiled.