tudo beleza

I'm having so much fun with my new little group. I just started calling some friends up and inviting them to come over Saturdays to play. Damn, things come together fast when everybody is actually a drummer.... It's so cool to just be able to say "there's this really cool thing I always wanted to do" and show it to them and they just GET IT, instantly, right away, and they come right back at you with "But let's change this! And add a break! And, oh, that reminds me of this cool other thing that goes like this - " and off you go, everybody chiming in with their favorite ideas. Next thing you know you have a whole piece worked out - intro, breaks, a couple grooves.

Only 3 Saturdays and we already could basically play a gig. Plus it turns out, we already have 2 dancers - who knew - 2 of my dancer friends have already been getting gigs on their own and have been needing some drummers.

Today we tackled one of Timbalada's bitching afrosamba intros, a 6-measure timbal blitz that segues into a sweet afrosamba, flies one more triplet break and then settles into sort of a samba-reggae. The intro was a bit of a beast. It goes and skips the 1 just when you least expect it. So we all listened to the cd about ten thousand times and played it through another ten thousand, and hey, it sounded pretty good by the end. I was so proud of us!

Rehearsal ended, everyone was packing up, then somebody started a rumba and things got all out of control again. It looks like we can play some Cuban too. This is such a fine kind of thing to be a part of. I've always wanted to be in a tight little group that could really push me. Who knows what will come of it, but.... so far it's fun.

I've had a band name saved up for two years looking for a band: Beleza. It means "beauty" but it also is Rio street slang for "cool". Tudo beleza - cool, man.

This is silly, I'm only going to be here in this town for 2 more months and I'm already giving away my best band name. But even for just two months, it's worth it.