Interviews

The past couple weeks has been productive for my fieldwork as I have had eight interviews ranging from 45 minutes to over 2 hours. Riding all over Recife in boiling hot buses that are packed beyond capacity has been the only negative as the interviews themselves have been quite enjoyable. The last woman who I interviewed was also extremely helpful both with the information that she gave me and that she provided me with about 12 names and numbers of people connected with the forró world such as composers, radio djs, musicians, and the vice-mayor of Olinda who has been heavily pressing for city support for local musicians.
These interviews were great in that I had a wide variety of people, 3 women and 5 men, aged 18 to mid 60´s who play forró. Luckily I was able to record all but one of these interviews so that I can go over the material later and pick out the details I will need. I have two more interviews scheduled for tomorrow and Monday and hopefully will get another 5 next week. If I can keep up this pace then I should have over 30 by the time my fieldwork comes to an end (looking at the calendar today I was surprised to see I only have another 6 weeks to collect my data before I have to start making my way down to São Paulo to leave for Amsterdam!). I also plan to go back to the sound recording department at the Joaquim Nabuco Institute this week and pour thorugh their records again to note lyrics for alot of the classic songs played by all these musicians.

Today recovering after a long night dancing in the streets nearby to a maracatu/côco group playing in front of a local bar. I even got to join in and played the berimbau (one stringed gourd resonator used in capoeira), the triangle, and ganzá (shaker). My thumb is raw from the blister I got not having played the berimbau in such a long time. Mostly just relaxed and today and played the pandeiro to accompany my roommate who plays the accordeon.