A procura da batida perfeita

Way overdue on writing a post for this blog - and that's because, shades of my Balkan days: I'm in too many bands again. Four currently, 3 of which are playing in the same giant gig in two weeks' time and are all in a frenzy of preparation.

The bands are:
Lions of Batucada, always the finest samba in the US
Axe Dide, a magnificent candomble dance troupe. (I am brand new to this stuff)
Baque Livre, a maracatu group
Samba Gata, a new all-girls' samba group that I co-lead with 2 other leaders.

What's really changed is that I HAVE TIME AGAIN FOR MUSIC - because my university job has finally lightened up to a reasonable workload, this semester. Man alive, it wasn't even till partway through this semester that I finally caught up on the workload of last semester. I can't believe how luxurious the TIME feels. I have time to cook dinners, bake bread, plant flowers, go to movies, read books, ride my bike...(all of these literally for hte first time in six months). Talk to friends and housemates. Hang out after rehearsals. Even go skiing for four days in Utah.... even go on a day-long search for the eggs of the endangered spotted frog... dig out my riding boots and helmet.... but most luxurious, holy of holies, I HAVE TIME TO PRACTICE again.

I've felt so shitty about my playing over the past six months and I am so happy to be able to get to work on it again. I feel like I've got my life back. I'm working on caixa, repinique, timbal. I'll write more later about what I'm practicing, but the bottom line is: I'm in the hunt again. The hunt for the perfect beat: "A procura da batida perfeita." (In search of the perfect beat. There's a great Brazilian dance tune by that name, in fact...)