Street Samba

[Son of Shub-Niggurath]

Hey in case anyone is interested, here's a video of my band performing in Eureka, California. We play kind of a fusion between samba and west african percussion. Not sure if this really belongs here or not, as we're not exactly drum corp, but we do march with our drums.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etfb2UoWLQQ

The audio isn't the greatest, though you can hear my Pork Pie Lil Squealer really well. This was filmed by a friend of one of our dancers, which is why there is so much focus on the ladies, but you guys probably won't mind. lol

Here's another one I posted last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U9kbTGsGCE

For this one, we had a somewhat different lineup complete with a horn section.

Would love to hear some feedback.

[Mr. Hadouken]

That seems like fun, I wish there was something like that in my town.

[Son of Shub-Niggurath]

It is a lot fun. There are actually two other bands in our town that play a similar style, though they are not quite as experimental or fusion-oriented as we are. Great musicians, though.

[Mr. Hadouken]

How did it come to be? just abunch of people sitting around saying lets do this? or was it like started from a college percussion class?

[devildrums555]

Way cool, man! So were you the snare (caixo? lol) player? You guys were really groovy and tight, and I liked your performance a lot.

[Son of Shub-Niggurath]

Way cool, man! So were you the snare (caixo? lol) player? You guys were really groovy and tight, and I liked your performance a lot.

Thank you, that's good to hear. Yeah, I'm the caixa/snare player.

I met the leader at a college percussion class that focused on world percussion, and that's where we learned how to play samba. Around the same time that we were finishing up school, we managed to find a rehearsal studio and he started teaching samba percussion classes there of his own. I'd sort of lost track of him and started going to the classes. While there, he mentioned that he wanted to use his classes to find people who would want to form a percussion ensemble with him to play original samba music. I kept showing up and expressing interest in starting a band with him, so I got tapped along with some other class attendees to be in the lineup.

After a few months we met up with a local samba dance ensemble and we decided to work together to put on shows. For a few months we also had a horn section but we couldn't really ever find a solid group of players who could make every rehearsal and every show.

One of the things that I like about our band is that we're not limited to playing samba. We're working toward incorporating all kinds of rhythms from various different styles around the world. The clip of us in the street starts with a West African rhythm from Guinea, and we then transition into a more traditional samba groove before going into a regeton-inspired beat. We're even working on incorporating elements of Japanese daiko drumming as well as soka and calypso rhythms from the caribbean.

[Mr. Hadouken]

Thank you, that's good to hear. Yeah, I'm the caixa/snare player.

I met the leader at a college percussion class that focused on world percussion, and that's where we learned how to play samba. Around the same time that we were finishing up school, we managed to find a rehearsal studio and he started teaching samba percussion classes there of his own. I'd sort of lost track of him and started going to the classes. While there, he mentioned that he wanted to use his classes to find people who would want to form a percussion ensemble with him to play original samba music. I kept showing up and expressing interest in starting a band with him, so I got tapped along with some other class attendees to be in the lineup.

After a few months we met up with a local samba dance ensemble and we decided to work together to put on shows. For a few months we also had a horn section but we couldn't really ever find a solid group of players who could make every rehearsal and every show. I'd love to do this! Just have somebody set up events you can play at.

One of the things that I like about our band is that we're not limited to playing samba. We're working toward incorporating all kinds of rhythms from various different styles around the world. The clip of us in the street starts with a West African rhythm from Guinea, and we then transition into a more traditional samba groove before going into a regeton-inspired beat. We're even working on incorporating elements of Japanese daiko drumming as well as soka and calypso rhythms from the caribbean.

You should start charging $25 (make it non-profitable, funding for more/new drums, and you wouldn't have to worry about taxes) for each member and add more members at least up to 50 people. 25 dancers 25 drummers. This could really start to catch on around the states.

[Son of Shub-Niggurath]

We kind of do that already with a related group called Samba D'Alegria, which is a community samba band that has been around for about 20 years. Each year, the group puts on performances for fairs and other community events. Anybody who wants can be a member as long as they pay a small fee and attend all the rehearsals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTEdat2OI-s

here's a video with some info on the group. Some of the ladies interviewed dance for my band. At the end of the video, you can see some footage of a drumming class taught by sambAmore's leader. I'm actually in the class even though you can't see me in the video.

Here's some more videos if you can't get enough. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHxaEEsOe0I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUnb2cdLoqI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfSuJCQDPRM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy_PB4jV4bk&feature=related

The last one gives you a good idea of the numbers that we had last year. Right now we're working on another parade for September. Hopefully we'll get some good footage up online.

[Son of Shub-Niggurath]

Well, we just did the parade, and as promised here's a video:

I'm the snare drummer wearing the white shirt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn2Xplk-m3k

There are more on YouTube, but they mostly focus on the dancers. We had two dance ensembles this year, led by two different women, doing two different choreographies! The total # of performers was around 100 people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK6KR97o49M&feature=related

This last one has a short interview at the beginning with one of the volunteers. I like how he refers to the drummers from sambaAmore as "Jesse's drumming class."