Samba is everything. You hear the beat and here we go...I call it happy music!
The Brazilian samba is magnificently flexible. It can be a parade song pounded and shouted by thousands of people in a carnival procession, or it can be an intimate ballad. It can be a love song, a proclamation of local pride, an exploration of nostalgia or a subtle protest. It can be a pop ditty, a jazz exploration and an Afro-Brazilian celebration; it's almost always dance music.
I've been dancing for about 15 years in Philadelphia with Brazil Productions, a fantastic samba group. Believe me, Philly needs Samba! The city is beautiful but full of rules. Samba offers no rules...we created a Brazilian Samba Nation!
Brazil is such an impressive place for many reasons — its cars run on ethanol, its strong currency has its traveling citizenry on a Midtown shopping spree, its chefs know their way around a steak, and there’s apparently even some sort of rain forest down there.
Philadelphia has started to channel Brazil primarily through its music and food:
Cuba Libre Samba Nights, Chima Steak House Samba Sips, Fogo de Chao Steaks, Picanha Grill Carnaval, Tierra Colombiana Samba Thursdays....
We got BRAZIL PRODUCTIONS , PHILASAMBA and MINAS BAND. What else we need?
It is obvious that Philly loves samba! Thank you Philly! We have been here for 30 years, dispersing our music through Philly's Restaurants, Clubs, Kimmel Center, Annenberg Center, Academy of Music, Corp Events, etc... which stretches deep into the night.
You don't have to miss it. No problem. Keep in touch and we will let you know where we will be samba shaking! There are enough recurring weekly music nights to fill your weekend, any time of year, with the sounds of samba and pagode and axé and bossa nova and forró and MPB and plenty of other kinds of Brazilian music you haven’t heard of.
And, Brazilian music is not just a nighttime thing either. We just performed on July 3rd and 4th at the Avenue of the Arts and The Ben Franklin Parkway during day time. We gave it all. Visit our web site and watch the videos.
http://www.brazilproductions.com/
http://www.minasmusic.com/
Come, shake and show off your mind-boggling samba moves!
Also there are plenty of places for you to have a wonderful caipirinha in Philly. That's is a subject for another post!
All our gatherings attract many from all over the world, people who have figured out that Brazilians know how to have fun!
There is also pagode, a slower offshoot of samba many Brazilians deride as brega, or tacky but you be the judge!
