Saturday: The PSU Carnaval

This was the big Brazilian bash of the year for Portland, Oregon - the annual Portland State University Carnaval party. (yeah, I know, Carnaval was practically two months ago...) It was a frantic night for me, back-to-back in three bands at once: Baque Livre (maracatu), Axe Dide (mostly orixa), and of course the Lions (mostly samba).

I was still pretty stressed about trying to learn all the Axe Dide songs, not nearly enough time learning Axe Dide's breaks, not nearly enough time on pandeiro for the Axe Dide capoeira (which SHOULD be easy for me but IS NOT), trying to keep the new maracatu arrangement in my head, not enough practice time on alfaia, practicing my butt off for timbal for the Lions, and also switching to second surdo last week for the Lions. (Second surdo's easy in theory, but it's always a bit of a brain flip to jump to it suddenly after a long time on third or first surdo.) Lots of new stuff, not enough practice, and tons of stress.

For some mysterious reason I also got caught in the middle of a tiny territory battle over who got to play my second surdo when I switched to timbal partway through the Lions show. Two surdo wanna-bes tussling over it, asking me for my surdo in the wings right before the show, and none of the leaders making a decision. (I thought it would have been self-evident that only the new surdo player who'd actually been to the last 2 rehearsals should play surdo in the show. But apparently it wasn't self-evident)

But once the show got going... it went SO well. The maracatu was great; Elise sang perfectly (and wow, was she brave to be able to start a cappella like that at the beginning) and it all clicked and hung together beautifully. Axe Dide was absolutely on fire. I survived my pandeiro thing, not with the crispness I would have liked, but I got through it. I remembered the songs - even was the only singer to remember the response song for the last three orixa songs (which had been added at absolutely the last second in the wings, the lead singer whispering the response to us backstage).

Lions were hilarious fun. Aside from the near meltdown when the caixas unexpectedly took off in a samba-reggae entry. Total tempo fracture, half the caixas at 100bpm where our guitarist was, the other half mysteriously shooting off at 110bpm - chaos for about three measures. Well, it was all back on track in just a couple measures, thank god, but that was an interesting couple of measures. The thing I can't understand is: what guitarist were the 110bpm caixas listening to?

The highlights of the Lions show for me were, first, getting to play in the tremendously kickass lineup of timbals - all sorts of awesome ringers had joined in on timbal, and I've been working so hard on it recently. And, second, playing second surdo against Jeremy's godlike first surdo. Bim, bom, bim, bom, steady as the hammer of heaven. It's been a while since I had that solid a partner on surdo. I indulged myself in a moment of pride about me & Jeremy (and the experienced surdos on the other side too) all of us capable of all SORTS of other instruments but FAITHFULLY serving the band where we were needed most, TROOPERS that we were, goddam SAINT BERNARDS carrying our solid beats through the SNOWSTORMS of confusion, holding down the CORE so the rest of the band could indulge themselves in their frippery little tamborim whatevers. Yeah, your flippy little drumlets and your li'l third solos are cute and all, but who's the core? FIRST AND SECOND SURDOS! THAT'S WHO! Get down on your knees and THANK the LORD for the FIRST and SECOND SURDOS of the GODS!

Where was I? Well, turns out, second surdo is all right! I was having a good time! Plus I finally had stopped feeling upside-down on the callout - which means second surdo has gotten comfy again. (I haven't played second since... um.... almost five years ago.) All right, enough surdo bragging. Basically the entire band played fantastically. Jorge did an incredible repinique solo. We got to play "Vou Festejar" with the brilliant Alex of Bat Makumba - Lions hardly ever do songs but they really made an effort for this show, and it all worked. Still a fair bit of tempo rushing, but it worked in the end.

My last little kicky moment was being the 1 person (as far as I could hear) who figured out Jorge Alabe's fuzziest hand-wave sign. Jorge Alabe had come up from SF just for the show. I was so happy to see him again; it seems like I run into him in the oddest places now, in Seattle, in Portland, in the California woods, in the middle of a Portela rehearsal in Rio, on a bus at the Praca Maua. And now, whenever I spot him unexpectedly, it's bear hug time! Anyway, he led us through a bunch of stuff that half the band had never seen before, and it was fun to realize that I know his cues now, and that I know the vocabulary of Rio signs well enough that even when he throws something unexpected at us, I know what he means.

Then one more call, one more samba, one more dance.... danced like crazy later to Jeff Busch & Batuque... got to see Aileen & Lisette again. Such a fine evening. I haven't had this much intense musical fun since Rio. I went drifting home on such a high... the whole week was so intense and so deeply nourishing for me. BACK IN IT. Back in music.