3 days of samba immersion with Mestre Fred and Budiman
The Jambalaya Festival has the nicest atmosphere, it’s really well-run (massive props to the organisers who did an amazing job!) and the immersion courses are absolutely fabulous.
21 members of Wellington Batucada made the trip up to Auckland this year to take part in the 3-day samba immersion course with Mestre Fred from the London School of Samba and Budiman – teacher of Samba Masala and front man of Wicked Aura. We were joined by members of Auckland’s AKSamba, Hamilton Samba, Tauranga Samba, Samblasta from Rotorua and Samba de Sol from Nelson.
Each day Fred and Budi taught us so many new breaks and patterns that our heads began to spin with the sheer volume of new information. Their normal playing speed was somewhat faster than we generally play during rehearsals back home, and at times it was all I could do to keep up (and quite often I didn’t!).
It was such a privilege to learn from two such talented and enthusiastic Mestres – and even though at times I thought I’d never remember the new breaks (or keep up!), it’s amazing how much you improve when you’re immersed in drumming for three days straight.
Here are a couple of the breaks we learned, courtesy of the very dedicated Gino Marchione who filmed pretty much everything and is in the process of putting a bunch of beautifully-edited videos up on Vimeo:
Bowing Break (Mestre Fred)
Jambalaya 2012 – SAMBA – “Bowing Break” from sambagino on Vimeo.
Alternative TamGroove (Mestre Fred)
Jambalaya 2012 – Samba – Fred’s Alternative TamGroove from sambagino on Vimeo.
Bombardier Break (Mestre Fred)
Jambalaya 2012 – SAMBA – “Bombardier Break” from sambagino on Vimeo.
Kompang Break (Budi)
Jambalaya 2012 – Samba – Kompang Break from sambagino on YouTube.
Funk Groove (Budi)
Jambalaya 2012 – FUNK Groove – Budi from Wicked Aura from sambagino on Vimeo.