The best thing about the Jambalaya samba immersion course is the chance to learn new breaks and patterns from samba Mestres. New Zealand is a long way from pretty much anywhere, so to have Mestre Fred Turuka from the London School of Samba and Wicked Aura frontman Idham Budiman (aka Budi) from Singapore come all the way here to share their knowledge with us was a real honour.

I thought you might like to see just how awesome these guys are.

This is a video doco of the London School of Samba’s preparation for the 2011 Notting Hill Carnival. Fred’s in charge of training and directing the batteria – he’s the one in the white suit talking about having spare drums available for the band about halfway through the video. You can also see him directing the batteria during the parade itself:

London School of Samba – Notting Hill Carnival 2011 from You and I Films on Vimeo.

This is Budi and Wicked Aura in concert – recorded sometime in late 2007 at a franchise of Sarawak’s famous Rainforest Music Festival set in Penang, Malaysia. The punters, including the band were well drenched in some serious rain and mud. It’s awesome – I can’t stop watching it…