Genres

if you dont listen to classical music, start!

If you have not heard this stunning peice of music i recomend that you go buy a CD right now:

iv just completed the prelude from my first collection of peices called “fairy suite” check it out on my M page:

http://myimn.com/profile/bemtevi

i have added 4 new CDs to my collection:

Livro by Caetano Veloso

The soundtrack to the Sound of Music

Sean Kingston

Collected by Massive Attack

The term Candomblé is a combination of two words from the Central African Kikongo language: Ka and ndonbé, together meaning “custom of the black people.” The drums play an essential and dominant role in Candomblé ceremonies. The master drummer plays the rum, which improvises intricate variations. The rumpi and lé play relatively unchanging patterns as they repeat one steady rhythm. The master drummer or alabê (Yoruba alá agbè) always has overall control of the ceremony, so it is important that drummers never go into a trance.”

-Gerard Taylor (Capoeira: The Jogo de Angola from Luanda to Cyberspace)

I highly recomend this book to anyone who finds african culture interesting.

heres a video from about two days ago of me playing keys with a band at my streets block party.

Find more videos like this on M

heres some of the capoeira from brasil day:

here is some of the pagode (paw-gO-djee) from yesterday, the capoeria is coming up tomorrow i think.

today i hung out at brasil day. this cultural festival was held at the la brea tar pits from 12-6, sorry i hadnt informed you earlier, i have been kinda consumed with school, i have two tests on monday and a bunch of preformance peices coming up, yikes! anyways… brazil day was awesome! there was pagode, a style of street samba that developed in rio de janeiro, there was forró, a style of dance and music that derrived from baião, and capoeira, the famous brazilian martial art. i also picked up one of these:

  a tamborim.

they are really fun to play. expect videos today or tomorrow of some of the cool preformances at brasil day.

Bem-te-vi

here are two videos of tupac songs i really admire:

Bem-te-vi

i miss atabaques

so now with my juries finished (i think i did well :D) i have only one last performance, tonight 7:30-9 at K300 on PCC. I, along with my piano partner Wei, will be performing the ballet from petite suite by debussy on piano. it should be great. i will be video taping it so expect a video soon. well better get to practicing.
Half Moon

Well tomorrow is my piano jury. im pretty nervous, but im sure ill do fine.
i watched a movie today. “City of god” its about a boy who grows up in the slums of rio de janeiro. its an amazing movie, but very difficult to watch. it is most definatly for a mature audience.
i cant wait till im done with school…
Half Moon

so today i had my final performance for my piano performance class. i played “mazurka Op. 17 No. 4″ by F. Chopin. i didnt do as well as i had hoped, but not as bad as it could have been. i think most of my mistakes were caused by the fact the i didnt try out that piano before i played. i had no idea how the keys would feel, how sensitive the pedal was, how the piano and room sounded, etc. some of the comments i got were “the pedal was blurry” and “the left had didnt have enough dynamics” and “tuck in your shirt”. i hope itll be all polished by juries.
i also went to a marimba performance today. i was walking into school when i saw robin, my latin percusion sub. he asked me if i wanted to come so i said sure. well, it was absolutely amazing. i talked to the girl who performed after and she was really cool and nice (not to mention and amazing marimbist). if you are not familiar with this instrument, i advise you to check out her site:
http://www.takadanaoko.com
listen to some of the samples she has there. my next performances are friday and saturday im pretty nervous. wish me luck!
Half Moon

I had a performance tonight for my guitar ensemble class, ill be posting the video soon.
Jouba

This from a classical guitar concert i went to a while back.

Michael

this morning i had my first latin percussion techniques class. very fun we learned a basic conga rythm and some of the history of afro cuban music. we breached on a few other subjects like middle eastern, african and afro brazilian percusion. it was a good class but my hands hurt. what is your favorite musical tradition?