Tuesday in Portland

Maracatu rehearsal tonight - our first rehearsal with the dancers. A subset of Lions and ex-Lions usually assembles this little maracatu group once a year for the PSU Carnaval - and periodically there are murmurings of keeping it going. I'd love to because damn, maracatu is fun! It has an unusual feature of having the melody and the elaborate variations done by the BASS DRUMS, of all things, not by a higher pitched instruments. The alfaias. It gives it a tremendous earthy power. Plus it's got cool songs...

We ran into a snag, though - our singer has pulled out at the very last minute. A fine local singer from Hood River, Elise, agreed to step in at the last second, but we literally had never rehearsed together and at this rehearsal we just could not get ourselves synchronized. To complicate matters the band was marching around in circles and we'd somehow neglected to practice walking before, and both the alfaia players and caixas were having issues ("Do I step every beat or step every other? Or not walk in time at all?") and Elise was clear on the other side of the gigantic room, far enough away that sound delay was happening too, so, things were a bit ragged.

I suddenly had the brilliant and rather obvious idea that the band should start ON STAGE, NOT marching. While the DANCERS marched in, we'd already be on stage playing. Pitched this idea to Derek and he darted over to Beto with the idea, and it's a go. I think that'll help a lot.