Sala de Reboco

Well, starting to make some progress in my second week here. I met Roberto, a forró producer that lives in Recife, through a fellow researcher also studying forró (thanks Megwen!!). He knows many musicians here and should be a great help in making contact with them. Last night I went with him, his girlfriend, and a friend of hers to the Sala de Reboco, a popular forró night spot in Recife. Before we went there though we stopped at the Patio de São Pedro, which had a big (over 20 musicians!) frevo band playing for free to a small but very enthusiastic crowd of fans. Frevo is big, loud, and brassy music that sounds almost like your high school or military marching band mashed together with samba and choro and topped with a rainbow of colors. The dance is frenetic and complicated and the dancers are usually outfitted in flashy outfits and they sometimes wave around these tiny multi-coloured umbrellas; it makes you want to laugh and most Brazilians who are not from Pernambuco do laugh when you mention frevo!
The Patio is a big plaza with the requisite colonial church beautifully lit up in purple and orange hues, and is surrounded by small brightly painted bars that fill the period buildings. We met some musicians there and one of them was very friendly and gave me his cd, covering the front in a big blue autograph (What´s your name again, Kalvin, Kelvin, Kelvis?!? Kelvis has now become my newly adopted name here as no one ever gets Kevin on the first try unless I introduce myself as Kevin Costner. I do like the sound of Kelvis though, kind of makes me want to start a Las Vegas lounge act). The cd actually turned out to be very good, a combo of northeastern sounds, forró, maracatu, coco, etc. I´ve been discovering how popular it has become to mix together a variety of Brazilians sounds and stay away from a limited notion of a "pure" sound, maybe this can be connected to the whole miscegenation ideology which is still very strong here. It´s positive sides can be seen in an embracing of mixture, be it with music or with peoples, the negative is that it functions as a blinder for the racism inherent in society here.

So, after a birthday cake for Roberto´s girlfriend and several more rounds of introductions to various locals we made our way to the forró. Sala de Reboco is located in the Caxangá neighborhood, which could be described as "popular" here, meaning that it´s not quite a favela, but not really middle class either (at least in European or American terms). Upon entering Roberto grabbed my arm and led me to the backstage room where the musicians were hanging out before the show. A new round of introductions, "This is Gilberto Gil´s sanfona player, this guy is the best zabumba player in Pernambuco....." I made the aquantaince of an accordeon player named Camarão (Shrimp), in his late 60´s, with a big belly, friendly face, and huge glasses who played with Luiz Gonzaga (undisputed master of forró). We talked as he ate his caldinho (bean soup) before the show. I asked him a few questions about his music and life, but the room was so full of people coming and going and various conversations and music happening that it wasn´t really a proper interview, but he invited me to come over to his house to talk further which was great. So, after a few other conversations backstage we made our way back to the table. I noticed that the bathrooms were marked as "macho" and "femea" (the terms in Portuguese for male and female animals) which I thought was interesting. A whole lot of "country" going on in there. Cows heads mounted, walls painted with rural themes, wooden fences, plenty of jeans, and a load of cowboy hats, both north-american style stetsons and the leather ones of Northeast Brazil. Not everyone was in "country" style dress though. I danced with Diana for a couple hours who had previously advised me that I should be careful as she didn´t stop dancing once she started (true to her word!) and when I could stand no more, made my way back to our table and had a couple beers as I observed the interactions between the patrons in the by now steaming club. Anthropology can be sweaty work!


More observations to follow as I´ve already spent over an hour in this internet cafe....