Thoughts on Brazil

August 22, 2008 – 12:35 pm

Just got back from our Brazil trip with Josh Rouse a couple of days ago. I had hoped to write something sooner, but it has literally taken days to get my head back together as we invariably flipped our waking/sleeping schedule upside down over the short trip.

We arrived Thursday night in Sao Paulo only 2 hours ahead of our normal time zone but it seemed like it was another day completely after the long flight. Once at the hotel, we huddled up at the bar to re-connect for a bit over some frosty mugs of beer (cerveja).

Friday morning we went straight to rehearsal. The rehearsal space was interesting. I was behind one of those plexiglas drum shields with barely any monitor; the perfect situation to create a feeling of disconnectedness and disjointedness. As most musicians would tell you, it’s best to have a crappy rehearsal before the gig. It’s a good omen…keeps everyone on their toes. We lucked-out.

Friday night we played to a sold-out crowd at the SESC Cultural Center theatre in Sao Paulo. Enthusiastic audience. Great crowd response. I thought we sounded pretty great personally, and although I was a bit nervous as we haven’t played together in 8 months, everything fell into place right where we left off.

Up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning for a 5 hour flight to Natal for the Mada Festival. After a few hairy moments at Guarulhos airprort in Sao Paulo (This was the 2nd of 4 times in as many days that we would be in this airport.) where it looked like we wouldn’t make our flight or more likely our bags wouldn’t make the trip, everything worked out and we were on our way. There were lines of people looking to check-in that stretched all the way through the hallways and into other terminal buildings. Somehow Paola, our magnificent promoter, managed to force our group to the front of the cue.

Arrived in Natal mid-afternoon and were quickly shuttled to the resort hotel where the festival was held. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, mid 80’s (F) in temperature, the Atlantic was kicking up some nice waves. (Natal is located at the north-eastern corner of Brazil.) Peacocks were wandering around everywhere. I was so looking forward to having the next day off there. I wondered if there would be any late night hangs by the pool.

After some steaks by the pool, as the sun was going down around 6 pm, I noticed that the rising moon was eclipsed. Naturally no one in the group believed me, but later it was confirmed by the festival promoter. So far I have seen lunar eclipses on 3 continents. (One was on my 33rd birthday in Amsterdam…I promise it was real)

Anyway after waiting around trying to stay awake for hours it was getting closer to show-time. An hour or so before our set, the skies opened up and it poured rain. Fortunately, it didn’t slow the enthusiasm of the audience who danced and played in the rain all night. We went on stage at around 1:15 am. Set started off with some issues, Josh’s guitar jack was cutting in and out until he banged it around 3rd song in and it stuck. Mike was in keyboard hell as the rig he had was cutting in and out. All the while, water pouring through the tent soaking everything including my cymbals. None of it mattered as the crowd sang along to every word (a testament to the long-reaching power of the internet as Josh doesn’t have records out there) and danced and cheered. Overall, it turned out to be a great set.

Sprinting to our backstage area, it was still impossible not to get soaked, which is great for me because usually I’m the only one soaked with sweat. It was comforting to see that everyone was wet.

After a few beers and send-off’s to Mike Cruz and Chris Moon, we were invited up to the piano bar in the hotel to sing Beatles tunes with the other musicians. Being the only Americans at the festival, we were the novelty.

Almost all of the other musicians were up in the piano bar making merry singing Beatles tunes when we arrived. It was a great vibe. Song selections switched to Johny Cash, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, etc. It was like they couldn’t wait to show us how much they loved our style of music. After a while I requested that they treat us to some proper Bossa especially as we were there on the 50th anniversary of the musical style their people created and hadn’t heard much of it yet. My request was met with “Naaaah, no one wants to hear that” kind of thing, as if it’s trite to them or something. But somehow one of the dudes kicked it off and then there was no stopping them. They romped through some of the best classics with everyone singing in chorus. Imagine “Mas Que Nada” in that setting! It was powerful, soulful, and oh so beautiful. It’s one of those moments of timelessness where you’re outside of yourself looking in. It’s a brotherhood of man kind of scenario. Although we are separated culturally and geographically, we are One and the music is such a great way to celebrate that truth. And the Brazilians know music. Big time.

The sun came up too, too quickly. I wished it didn’t all have to come to an end.

Our day off was spent slowly returning to reality by the pool under an overcast sky. I was a little sad that it wasn’t as sunny as the day before; Hags didn’t mind. Went to dinner with Fabbie and Paola our gracious hosts/promoters at a local restaurant featuring live Samba music, and traditional Capuera dancing (Brazilian dance fighting…think Dustin Hoffman in “Meet the Fockers”). It was good to see some cultural stuff. I ended up dancing with a staff member and although my mates graciously said that it looked like I had been doing it all my life, my self-consciousness got to me and I was a sweaty mess by the time my teacher discarded me and moved on to someone drier.

Back to the hotel to wait until 1:30 am to head to the airport to make our 3 am flight back to Sao Paulo. Slept on the plane for the 3 hour trip, but kept waking myself up with what had to obviously be loud snoring outbursts. I felt so bad for the folks I was sitting between.

Hung out by the pool bs’ing all day at an airport hotel in Sao Paulo while the peacocks circled our table.

Flew out of Guarulhos at 11:45 for the 10 hour flight to Dallas. Slept most of the flight thanks to the ambien my wife graciously bestowed and despite the nazi flight attendant that spilled coffee on me and bitched-out some cute girl sitting next to Hagsy, embarrassing her in front of the whole cabin. It was quite the contrast to our internal Brazilian flights where the attendants are obviously hired according to old-school, some would say sexist standards (men and women, mind you). Sometimes it just works. Call me sexist. It’s just so much better than some short-haired, scowling, mean woman who reminds me of my scary 3rd grade math teacher, who gets mad when you correct her when she gives you the chicken even though you clearly stated you wanted beef.

Made it through customs just in time before a whole military troop that was getting set to go through passport control. We got to the front of the line and I overheard the guy directing the lines say to his assistant, “when the military comes over, shut her down.” If we were 3 minutes later, we would have missed our connection to Nashville.

Arrived back home in Nashville Tuesday morning to greet my lovely wife and beautiful daughter with kisses and airport gifts, and low blood sugar levels with a lust to get horizontal like I’ve never had before.

It was truly a wonderful, soulful experience. I loved every minute of it and hope to go back sometime. If I do get to go back and if I somehow win the lottery or something in between, I’d like to bring crates of good drum stools to the Brazilian people. The entire time I was there, I didn’t get to play on one proper stool. For a country of so many wonderful drummers they must have backsides made of rawhide. My battle cry is “Good, sturdy, adjustable, comfortable thrones for the people!”