Week of October 15th

(Mike)
This week's music played/playing: Sunday- Brazilian (Nelson Ayres), Monday- Classical (Sibelius, Rossinni, Faust), Tuesday- Jazz (recording), Wednesday- (day off writing for Cincy Brass's Halloween special- aka, GO!), Thursday- Ska Band recording session, and Friday (tomorrow)- Jazz in Sao Paulo...

Road trip to Sorocaba- saw Lisabi, a band we know from a Republica (code for: giant house where 10-15 people live jointly) in Campinas, housing a bunch of Americans from Wisconsin. Whenever we hang out with them, it’s a killer fun time and there’s always something new in the mix. This time, it was a show where we danced and Lisabi was the most popular band that night! While we were there, we got to hang out with out close friends, Alexandre and Juliana, who we hadn’t seen since the Streetlight Show in August, except once we hung out with Jules for a night in mid- September.

(Moe)
Alright, this week was full of pleasant surprises. Easily the highlight of the week, I saw a toucan on the bus ride home. brazil is the kind of place where you hear birds chirping, and you look out your window and see that they are bright green. I have become a lot more appreciative of nature since I came here, mostly because there are a lot of woodland creatures and such here, that we don’t have at home. For instance, capybaras, those things are everywhere. They’re like, beavers. Yeah, beaver, but without the waffled tail. Also, vultures moved into the neighborhood this week. I was amazed, but Mike sees vultures all the time where he lives. It turns out that they are huge (they could easily carry away a cat or small dog). I see them all the time now when I walk, circling the skies overhead.
Also, I saw another Forró show last night. One group was a trio Pé de Mulambo, they were really good considering it was only a zabumba, a triangle, and a really big rustic violin. The zabumba player was awesome, particularly his xote stylings (kind of a reggae/hip-hop/backbeat sort of feel). Initially I thought it was hip-hop, but was nonetheless enthralled. The other group is called Quinteto Dona Zaíra. I happened to have my horn on me, and I jammed with them. We played some jazz, and some Brazilian music. If you looked up cultural diffusion in the dictionary, there would probably be a picture of us in that tiny room above the stage that night.