Music activities
February 11th, 2007 at 8:50 am (general posts)
I play in two bands; a rock and roll type group and a Brazilian style samba batucada percussion group.
The samba band is Samba Nova. What a great group of people and a terrific musical experience. We consider ourselves a “community band” that exists as a collective but manages itself with a management team. I’m one of four people who sort of run the business side of things, although it’s all very cooperative.
We are a practicing and performing group of around 25 people of varied backgrounds. The group was formed many years ago by Matthieu Keijser, who passed away in October 2006. Our new leader learned samba at his Granny’s knee in Brazil. He’s a truly excellent samba band instructor and leader and we are learning new materials and enjoying every single minute together as a band. We perform at festivals and events paying gigs and expect to be busy with events all year long. It’s extremely enjoyable.
The rock and roll band is a bunch of guys who more or less have been hanging out together, some for 20 years or more. I’ve been with them for roughly 15 years mostly playing my amplified violin. When I started we played a lot of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan and folk/rock type of music with great harmonies and music that suited my instrument. Since then we have bought more and more gear and become louder and louder and the genre of music has become more guitar-centric.
While the music is often good, with blues and rock and spontaneous inventions that seem to really fall into a smooth groove every once in a while I hear things like Smoke on the Water which for me is probably the bottom of the barrel as far as music goes.
We have played a few small events over the years, mostly parties and the like but no one has any will to do anything more than just “jam” in the music space. During jam sessions, sometimes three electric guitars will play at the same time, each seeming to compete with the other. No one ever discusses the songs or tries to improve and there usually isn’t even any agreement on what song to play.
I used to sing in the Atlantic Swells Barbershop Chorus. We performed regularly but I couldn’t commit to the many shows and other activities throughout the year.