Some insights into how you choose a Samba to be performed at Carnival?

Text by Kevin Williams

When you listen to an Escola de Samba (school of samba) play their Samba Enredo (song for Carnival) on CD, DVD or performed live at Sambodromo during Carnival in Rio, you hear a well-oiled machine rolling down the avenida accompanied by thunderous percussion, vibrantly colored costumes,elegant dancers all moving in unison to one common theme, and the syncopated rhythms of the Samba Enredo chosen by the Escola. You see the end product but, how do you get from an idea to this incredible artistic production passing through Sapaucai?

This very question took me to several evenings at the Quadro of the Escola de Samba in Pilares, Rio de Janeiro. Having read numerous articles, books, television reports and watched about a decades worth of performances from the Escolas de Samba from both Rio and Sao Paulo, you always feel like you have a great working knowledge about carnival, but Samba is like an onion – as you peel back each layer you find a greater deal of complexity.

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The legendary Malian blues guitarist and singer Boubacar “Kar Kar” Traoré at The Bell House (NY)

Date: September 27, 2011
Venue: Bell House (Brooklyn, NY)

Concert review by Chris Arnold

This past Tuesday Brooklyn was blessed with a very special visitor: the legendary Malian guitarist and singer Boubacar “Kar Kar” Traoré. With long-time friends percussionist Madieye Niang playing a simple upturned gourd and French harmonica player Vincent Bucher, Traoré laid down a mellow yet infectious groove for about 90 minutes at the Gowanus club The Bell House.

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Music festival report: The Brooklyn Independent Music Fest 2011

Date: September 16th to 18th, 2011
Venue: Littlefield (Brooklyn, NY)
Text by Jim Hoey
Video intererview and first two videos shots by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

The Brooklyn Independent Music Fest took place at Littlefields in Brooklyn, near Gowanus, and for 3 days over 60 bands took to the two small stages to showcase a hell of a lot of pop,blues, soul, rap, and old timey music. This matches the borough’s return to oyster bars, tile floor restaurants, brick oven pizza shops, and speakeasy-looking venues that sell absinthe. With this festival though, the old and the new vaguely mixed on the stages, followed each other, and generally, what the promoters were going for, was a complete celebration of all the different musical elements that find their way to Brooklyn.

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Music listings – 10/3 through 10/9

1. The Quiet City

Date: Monday, October 3, 2011
Time: 8pm – 11pm (3 sets)
Venue: The Counting Room (44 Berry St. @ N. 11th, Brooklyn, NY)
Ticket: free
Genre: Jazz

The Quiet City pays tribute to one of New York’s greatest Jazz heroes, the late Michael Brecker.  One of the most prolific and most recorded musicians of all time, Michael Brecker was far more than just one of Jazz music’s greatest innovators.  Recording as a sideman with such artists as Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa and Paul Simon amongst many, many more, Brecker’s performances have reached across all genres of music.  With a catalogue of recordings that reads like a list of music’s all-time greatest hits, there is no doubt that the music world suffered a huge loss when Brecker succumbed to his battle with Lukemia in 2007.  Brecker was 57 years old.  Every Monday beginning October 3rd, The Quiet City will explore the music he recorded both as a bandleader as well as a sideman.

2. Oran Etkin

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