I have to do a very short post tonight as I was too busy at the race track in Interlagos and then went back into town and had a superb evening with a Brazilian musician, which I will write about tomorrow. But all of which meant that I have returned late and have no time to do the full post I intended. Suffice it to say that on my first full evening in Sao Paulo I walked through the streets of Pinheiros and Vila Madalena and went from one music place to another, and heard a HUGE variety of music.
From the solo guitar player singers in empty restaurants doing Brazilian music to the country duets in slightly crazier restaurant bars to the wild clubbing music piped into bars with clients spilling out into the streets to…. Take a breath… the crappy restaurant where I ate my crappy dinner simply because I was attracted to the pretty cool band that played all the rock standards – check out their Rolling Stones song on the video here… To finally returning to the Club CEM that I had visited last year and listening to several very interesting Brazilian traditional bands.
The Club CEM has a wonderful atmosphere of a loft, garage, venue. It is run by the pianist named Paulo, known under the stage name of Kannec. I jammed there last year with an interesting guitar player, but this year I returned anonymously and decided to listen to the evening’s musicians. It was a very, very open mic-like atmosphere but there had been several bands and singers booked in advance in an evening that appeared to be a showcase for local artists. All pretty much traditional acoustic music. But I just loved the vibe.
Tomorrow, I’ll write about the interesting young Brazilian who has been whipping up a whirlwind of talk around his just-released new CD.