Off and Running

(Written May 6, first day in Salvador)
What a day! And what an embarrassment of riches I’ve already encountered with regard to studying music culture here in Salvador. I think I would be up all night writing if I tried to record everything, so I’ll just hit the highlights.

I had been here only three hours when Fabricio showed up. We picked up where we left off; I was excited to show him pictures from my Brazil trip with the ITL class up the Amazon, and also anxious to show him a sample of GarageBand. I explained that I would like to live in Pirajá so I could teach kids out there how to use GarageBand and see what they come up with. At the same time, Fabricio was trying to show me his latest favorites on his cell phone. They included a rap artist from Salvador named MV something, plus another hip hop song, plus a samba song from the past Carnaval season, plus a random music video from the movie Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson (!!!) This combination of rap (an imported genre), samba (traditional Brazilian culture) and Christian-themed music is really odd to me, and seems to be a theme among the tastes of many of my Brazilian friends from Pirajá, at least based on what I’ve seen in their Orkut profiles. Even the nuns have interesting musical tastes. During lunch and dinner, I noticed they were playing a CD of classical music remixes—I suppose you could call it easy listening covers—of classical tunes. I recognized Fauré’s Cantique and Mahler’s Fifth, second movement. Sergio and Ana really like rock and roll and American classic rock.

I mentioned that I wanted Luciano to come teach capoeira for our group this summer, and Fabricio seemed a little offended. He said he has his own group (founded by Mestre Dende, like the palm oil). He went on to tell me that there were many musical groups he could set me up with in Pirajá, of all different styles and levels of ability. As I said, an embarrassment of riches.

Then, at supper, I met the woman from Chapada Diamantina, who is a teacher of music and dance attending (or teaching at?) an institute here in Salvador for six months. I wasn’t clear on this, but I think she will stay at the end of her work and become a staff member at the institute. This would be good for me because she is a specialist in traditional styles of music and dance, including indigenous peoples such as the Puré. She rattled off several styles I’ve never heard of, and would love to see her demonstrate or perhaps tease out an invitation to join her at the institute sometime.

There's definitely going to be no shortage of possibilities while I'm here.