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by MdC Suingue
[for complete playlist, click READ MORE below] Yet another Carnival affected by the pandemic. The official street celebrations in Brazil's capitals were postponed to April. Part of the more enthusiastic party animals decided to hit the streets with impromptu celebrations, but not in the usual scale as most of the 'blocos' decided to play safe due to the recent surge of Omicron in Brazil. That made me think about the voluntary 'non-carnivals'. Yes, we Brazilians love carnival but it is a relationship with ups and downs - like all relationships. Sometimes you don’t feel very ‘canivalesque’. That happens, it is normal and no, you are not sick. Sometimes, depending on your state of mind, it is the wise thing to do. Go to a retreat. Lock yourself at home. Travel to a distant country. Since my youth I confess that I skipped more than one Momo celebration. I say since my youth because when you were a Brazilian kid in my day it was not much of a choice. You would follow your parents in the celebrations and there were balls at clubs with matineés where they would drop you and fetch you like 5 hours later. Basically it was a big hall with an orchestra of 15, 20 musicians playing carnival classics and samba/marchinha renditions of radio hits of the season. This episode is inspired in those times. I did learn a lot about Brazilian music going round and round in costumes, singing and dancing in a circle without knowing exactly why. Note: I was a kid, so no alcohol, drugs or sex was involved in the ritual. Maybe love... I mean, love for sure! Not just because inside every kid there is a romantic soul evolving and you fall in love all the time, but also because love is a recurrent theme in Brazilian music and while you are there listening to those songs you think about them. You might not understand then the meaning of some lyrics, but you reflect about it. 
UNDER CONSTRUCTION [for complete playlist, click READ MORE below] Elza was an entity that travelled space and time to build up a carreer and a persona that is too complex to define in one 2 hour show or just a couple of lines. Her ups and downs, her struggle to exist and persist in the industry despite her background, gender and race and the many tales about her life (some told by herself) make her a legend. Here we selected a couple of obituaries so you can know more about her while you enjoy our extended episode: By Robin Denselow @TheGuardian "Elza Soares, who has died aged 91, was one of the finest, best-loved singers in Brazil, a glamorous, spirited performer who triumphed over personal tragedy and never forgot her hungry childhood in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. She was an exponent of the many different forms of samba, Brazil’s most enduring and ever-evolving style, and constantly on the lookout for new experiments and fusions. And she was a bravely outspoken campaigner for women’s rights, and against racism. As a black musician she experienced racism in the industry first-hand – despite her remarkable talent, record companies were slow to sign her... 
by MdC Suingue
[for complete playlist, click READ MORE below] You know the drill in modern times: 'quando o bicho tá pegando', be safe, keep cool and have fun as you can. This NYE just past an unannounced 1am curfew was imposed because of the Omicron surge. I don't know if you ever spent NYE in Brazil, but it is a huge party! The idea of ending a collective celebration at half past midnight is simply ludicrous. We chose to spend the night just the two of us. Mind you,... 
for complete playlist, click READ MORE below
The year is coming to an end and the Caipirinha Appreciation Society is 'morphing' again. In 2021 we didn't release as many shows as we normally would, due to lack of time to dedicate to our labor of love. That said, the few episodes we did produce working from home made us realize how much we missed putting together more elaborate shows, with greater planning and better timing. We might have managed that somehow in the remote days we recorded our first shows together as a duo, (sharing a microphone meant for outdoor recording!). But now we can officially announce that... 
by MdC Suingue
for complete playlist, click READ MORE below With the pandemic giving us a break and not killing any of the CAS's artists in recent days we had a chance to update you guys to new music coming in our way. Nearly all the tracks are new for our listeners and we give a special attention to some artists: Tiné, singer of Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda and Academia da Berlinda released his new solo album, Românticos do Rosarinho, inspired in the boleros his family used to listen to at home when he was a kid. Obviously he didn't just emulate the style, but... 
by MdC Suingue
for complete playlist, click READ MORE below Well, Nelson Sargento was not a young sambista, he was 94 years old, but it is still hard to accept that so many wonderful talents are still being lost to Covid19. The world of samba has been deprived of many of its artists because of this terrible tragedy that still has Brazil in its grip. Nelson had a long and productive career but his talent was rewarded with a solo album very late in his life. Its a recurrent story with many bambas, not counting the ones that are simply ignored by the industry... We noticed now that in this long and productive career Nelson had moments where he takes part in groups or scenes that we've described in previous episodes of the Caipirinha Appreciation Society. So in this blog post we are proposing an immersion in the history of Rio's samba world... |
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