BRAZIL!!! (update)
pcmr
5,591 Posts
Oje meninhosI have just gotten here in Brazil and I am lving it beyond beliefI am truly blessed, working in a cultural NGO for African culural promotionwith my senegalese brethren Ibrahima GayeI work in an office during the day and a Bar at night... 
Concerts, tours and cultural events as well as radio in favelas are on the menucant wait to go digging as well (belo horizonte is the city of the clube da esquinha movement nascimento an 'em)shit is amazing so I made a blog documenting my travelshttp://toninhonobrasil.wordpress.comThere will be a blog archiving the organisms great radio programs (info on african artists/culture and music) up soonso ill keep yall in checkfurthermore i will be working in schools presenting the african heritage to young afro-brazilians 
SS interest break!I am working with a sick graphic designer, the pres is a sick DJ, FOOD IS 
furthermorea african music thread will be popping both here and where 
so take care guys and talk to you soon 
Concerts, tours and cultural events as well as radio in favelas are on the menucant wait to go digging as well (belo horizonte is the city of the clube da esquinha movement nascimento an 'em)shit is amazing so I made a blog documenting my travelshttp://toninhonobrasil.wordpress.comThere will be a blog archiving the organisms great radio programs (info on african artists/culture and music) up soonso ill keep yall in checkfurthermore i will be working in schools presenting the african heritage to young afro-brazilians SS interest break!I am working with a sick graphic designer, the pres is a sick DJ, FOOD IS furthermorea african music thread will be popping both here and where so take care guys and talk to you soon
Comments
Have a caipi and an acai for me. I've been back a month now and am already plotting my (fourth) return. If you head down to Rio or Sampa to dig holler and I'll give you some numbers.
What's up?
So, you are in BH?
I don't know the city and can't recommend anything there.
But I know comida mineira (Minas' food) is very nice; beware of cacha??a, though.
Whenever you come to Sao Paulo drop me a line.
Enjoy your stay!
Peace
later in the year
thanks for the contacts
Edson e seguro que vamos a encontrar nos no SAOpao
belleza!
Dude, your Portuguese sucks!
I know it'll be cool to me you here.
Peace
Hi Pa**o!
Plaese to post more pictures.
Stuff just keep on getting better
So after a big day of work i was directly off to the festival again to help out with the kicthen and bar
Caru my co-worker was nice enough to help me around the city (getting to know it better and better)...wonderful person this Caru..we met some of the street dwellers she does social work with and it was an incredible experience to day the least...i will be accompanying her next friday...
Yeah so we were preparing Mafe...a typical senegalese dish (peanut sauce based)
I love cooking over big ass flames as such
Seconds away from the bar were things were getting busy...
Leo the man responsible for the CasaAfrica bar/concert hall has a couple of invented drinks that i am sure to bring back home...including Africando a 3 colored drink that looks like the senegalese flag
After learning how to make caiperinhas and mojitos i went to see a fellow senegales percussionist perform...
Full percussion band killing it...
With his son being the hardest...
Really good people and music...african rythms like samba have a crazy rejuvenating and non-stopping effect on minha pessoa
At midnightI got a happy birthday from my peeps and a couple of hard drinks as well (eating olives at the end of a gigantic shooter of cacha??a actually works
Anyway we eneded the night over at casa africa with great beats, some herb and some guitar
Here is an example of the breezy sounds at the end of the night
As luck (destiny) would have it..the next day was a national holiday and my birthday..and...
It was the end of Ramadan for Ibrahima and he decided to inaugurate his house as well as celebrate my birthday by throwing a Churascao (BBQ!) at his house in NovaLima (a city outside of Belo..think Laval..but... you know...nice)
Daniel lifted us after we stocked up on some cevejas and we were off...i love the outside of Belo because it has incredible pitoresque nature...apparently apart from possesing the largest concentration of bars per citizen/km2 (think nice lounges/local spots..but more friendly/communal and more cheap!) MinasGerais also has the most waterfalls and Daniel has promised to take me camping
Lord have mercy! this BBQ party was popping...all the co-workers and friends were there
as well as the meat...
and the beers!
a wonderful sunny day..spent with good food and friends..life is good
But wait there is more...
We went out to a bar called Op??ao....I had heard good things....local place...crazy grimy decor...condensed basement type place...but more importantly
Verdadeira Samba (aka that Real Schitt!)
and man did it not dissapoint
Classics coming out of the sick combo
We stayed the whole night dancing!
Belleza!
there was this girl dancing her Ass off...literaly...
But I got up and walked around the city to the very nice municipal park where my man Ibra was waiting to take me to his Capoeira classes
He practises Capoeira Angola (the more spiritual,less-flashy and in my opinao essentially more beautiful artform)
It was a wondeful experience (it did not take pics out of respect) Mestre Jo??o the master has a long tradition and his students are both respectful and friendly
Its a very small local but the berimbau sounds and percussion fill the room accompanying the chants, furthermore you can practice on the ouside veranda filled with plants and sounds...
I was blessed to get a privileged access to this community...that do great work with afro-dancing and youths in Belo...
It was hard on the knees, but i needed some exercise and this 3 hour session opened my mind and soul...
Needless to say i was drained thats when Ibra brought me to the central market where we had a giant bowl of A??ai
I went back home watched Training Day in portuguese and some brazilian soaps while brushing up on my portuguese activity book...(do your homework young man)
Another great day and my night was filled with grand projects for the future of casa africa (more on that later)
Big afro-brasilian music tour (strutters will be needed!)
Well as I am writing now I am in the office listening to some sweet sounds via my
Brazil Mix
and am going to Ibra for an afternoon cookout
Ate logo gente
Beijos
Toninho
I'm really glad you're enjoying your brazilian experience!
Voc?? ?? uma pessoa privilegiada!
Se cuida.
me sento exactamente asi agora Edson...muito obrigado
ate pronto
we have a Noite do Griot concert on nov 7
see you there
quarta-fera 21h
sala joao ceschiatti
palacio das artes
see you there
and check out the casa africa bar every thursday-sat
www.casaafrica.com.br
i cant fully answer that question but i know the prejudice is more social and internal (move on up related) than general so foreing visitors should be fine..
you will go unoticed even...if you speak portuguese
that being said racism is a huge thing still in brazil
I heard some negaitvely
anyways let me kow if you will be coming through
Probably the most exhausting thing I have ever tried.
BRAZIL MIX
Last time I left you I was writing from the office on a hot ass day
Well i worked for a long moment then took the bus to go to yet another BBQ at Ibra??s; we had to finish all that cerveja you know
I got off at the wrong stop meaning i had to walk a Km on the highway but i took a couple of pics of the scenery so you guys understand what i meant about the nature right outside of Belo
Kuter the Angolan painter was there as well as the usual crew
We stayed extra late to watch the Brazil-Colombia match..great food and beer..not so great match 0-0
I had to grill on through the night
And we sung along the guitar on the busride back...
Boa noite
It is both extremely cool and extremely long...but i cant wait
The FAN (Festival de Arte Negra) is starting soon and Casa Africa is playing a big role
The 5 day festival (19nov) is a quite important here in Belo (20 000 pers) and the city of Belo have contracted Casa Africa to take care of almost everything
They will be hosting cultural workshops (dance,music,art), organizing daily concerts, hosting african cultural workshops for Belo school children (I luv da kidz!) and maintaining a HUGE bar and restaurant (20000 peeps..yeah!)..celebrating senegal independence day, etc...
Anyways they put me in charge of the ExpressoAfrica Radio part
THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP SO FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so this is what I have to do
1- Prepare 5 different 5 hour african music sets to be played throughout the festival
2- Edit their 20 radio programs to cut out commercials and extract the most relevant info in order to assemble daily 2 hour radio programs both musical and educational...basically remix and boil down 20 hours of radio into 10
3- Prepare Bio/Info sheets on artists from this year??s featured African countries (above the equator...only those....
4- During all this I will be basically assembling/organizing the GIGANTIC Casa Africa musical library...since the CentroCultural will be moving soon to a bigger and better place
Thus, as you guys know this is exactly my cup of tea and I have already started working hard as fug on contacts with record labels, getting my African vinyl dealing friends to lace me with some MP3s and just filtering up all this music! I got less than a month...vamos!
So after a long day of work at the office I left for the CasaAfrica bar
They just received this ill collection of comics
But it was all about the CDs
I organized them into sections/countries and will be going everynight to listen and choose...
Those who know me know that I always listen/organize/mix at least 2 hours per day well now its more useful than ever
and in such a great space
Well thats it so i will be keeping you up to date and posting up some music over the course of the week...
for now enjoy a mix I always enjoy late at night....
Its mainly dark brazilian psychrock, very good for the late hours of the night
JorgeBen, Seu Jorge, Evinha, MarcosValle and a crazy piano track at the end
But most tracks are from Arthur Verocai
Unknown but supremely talented brazilian producer...his album changed my life as far as late nights are concerned.
So listen...
As I am writing this its 8am (got up real early today)
Got to go to work...
Ciao gente!!!
One love to all
This week was hectic in a good way...we are getting ready for the FAN here at Casa Africa as well as preparing our end of year Afro-Brazil festival and preparing the move to a bigger and better space to consolidate/create the ''real'' Centro Cultural Casa Africa
My pics are not as good as I would like, but I have cool videos so well...yeah!
I basically spent the whole week working in the office by day 8am-8pm editing audio
And working in Casa Africa by night compiling the music library
I got some good work done the radio programs are set to go and 10 hours of mixes have been made (coming your way soon..)
On tuesday I did my thing at Casa Africa but then my man Leo invited me to watch the game (Brasil-Ecuador)..Minas style
as ive said earlier minas gerais has a million local bars..we went to a chill and cheap spot and he showed me some customs such as ..cacha??a with torresmo
you drink a shot and bite this pork grind style meat thingy (much more meaty and deliciousness, than are old traditional pork grind...think fried pork chop!)
A great night, brazil won big time and we celebrated...
Brazil 5-0.....ridiculous Robinho moves...um pra la, dos pra ca
Back at the office the next day I see a package adressed to me with a familiar size...
Could it be?
MoogMan sent this along with 2 DVDs full of african albums... Nossa Senhora! i was ready to mix...such good timing...
Stunnashades in full effect as well
Meanwhile Ibra was all dressed up
He had an important meeting with the city of belo horizonte counsellor and he brought me along..super interesting developments (my next post will be more in fo on casa africas accomplishments/future plans)
We are talking to him to get funding for our new centre and he has a lot he wants to ask from us but we are up for the task...
At night we went out to the food fair where i tried out some more local delicacies...
Finally it was friday, i had a fejoada (typical meal for that day of the week) and worked as always...
However my friend/co-worker Karu (who is one of the kindest souls i have met) took me to her social work groups weekly night shift
Seriously an incredible experience...i was out walking around the city, conversing with Belo's homeless community as while distributing hot milk and bread...
It has been heavily raining as of late in Belo (rain season) so it was an especially needy time, as Karu told me ''just watch''..destiny at work... it stopped raining when we got out the car and hit the streets at 9pm than at 11:30 distributing our last bread in the hospital parking lot...the rain started again..
I got to casa africa late at night to witness my first real bar night there...
I got the opportunity to spin some tunes and it was just great
Ive been seriously getting more and more involved with Casa Africa and have a big meeting with Ibra tommorow at his house to organize the rest of my mandate
big thangs!
I leave you guys with another mix to enjoy on a sunday afternoon...breezy bossa nova...
ciao gente!
ENJOY!
And you'll do it fine and easily!
Again, beware of the cacha??a. That sh!t kills!!
Peace
dope.
Your flick of a??a?? made me smile... thats one of the things I miss most (next to Ter??a da Ben??a if you're a Bahiano.) You cant leave Brasil without kicking it on a Tuesday night in Salvador... Truussssst me.
Glad you are working with such a dope program though... I'm downloading all your mixes right now so I can reminisce...
Obrigado & boa sorte!
bossa drumming is always what i check for in the songs...nice keep it up man
that elis regina track which is a samba/bossa hybrid has gor great drums for example
I love the fruit man..everyday starts off with that...
Yeah I really want to go to Bahia..but get to know it for real..so i might have to reserve some time for that..any contacts?..
Ill actually be spending about for moths here too...
Hey if you got that Bahia Blues i got a song thats perfect for you