Live music can be found in the streets:
These two guys with musical instruments were in a bus stop in Santa Teresa (one of the most charming neighborhoods of Rio) where I happened to be with Marcio and Sarah, waiting for a bus. Then, a guy who cleans the streets (the one in orange) asked the musicians if he could play with them. Please note that they did not know each other. The musicians simply unpacked the instruments, and started playing samba right there.
And it gets better. The owner of a newspapers stand, sitting on the other side of the street, decides to join the group and gives a dancing show for the amusement of (almost) everyone at the bus stop:
For the first time since I arrived here, I was very glad that Brazilian buses take so long to show up.
When the impromptu show was over, I talked to the guy who cleans the streets (they are called "garis", in Portuguese). He told me he wants to be famous like a colleague of his (Renato Sorriso), who appears on TV every year when is cleaning after the carnival parade in Rio.
Live music is also played in nightclubs:
These are famous and not so famous musicians playing together in the lively neighborhood of Lapa. As you can hardly see (apologies for the bad quality of the video...), they are really enjoying themselves. And the portion of the video where everything is black should have shown that people are dancing. So, it is a lot of fun for everyone!
The friend who took me there used to be a singer (before becoming a law professor) and told me who is who in the band. The most interesting character is actually a mathematician who plays in his spare time. I would ask you to guess who he is, but I am sure you cannot see anything in this video...
Of course, there is live music in weddings!
This is a picture that I took of the wedding place (a gorgeous beach in the state of São Paulo, called Juquehy) a few minutes before the ceremony, where a friend from São Paulo tied the not with a Russian.
This is the band that took over the place once dinner and speeches were over. And they played until 4am!
And before you start thinking that music here is all about samba, let me tell you that Marcio and I had a pleasant encounter with a very good friend at this wedding. His name is Fernando Anitelli and he is a musician (you can watch one of his shows here)
Fernando's history shows that there is music outside the circuit of big record labels.
He decided not to sign contracts with record companies, and sells his stuff independently. CDs are available after the show and his music is available for free downloading in the Internet. And he is a national phenomenon with CD sales comparable to leading singers.
A recent survey by Folha de S. Paulo asked the readers to name their favorite singers. Fernando came up among the top five, despite the fact that he never received any attention of the midia. The title of the article was “Far away from the midia, but close to public”.
There is a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, Ronaldo Lemos, who analyzes the success of artists like Fernando. What happened to Fernando seems to be quite common in Brazil. If you are interested, in this lecture, Ronaldo provides some interesting data and discusses the implications of this phenomenon for intellectual property law and policy.
There is also music at hostels!
In a recent trip to Salvador, the first capital of Brazil, I found out that the guy at the reception desk was the former guitar player of a famous rock band of the 80s, called Camisa de Venus. This is me and a friend with one of the nicest people I have ever met, Karl Hummel:
Last but not least, there is music at law schools...
Two friends (the one that took me to samba club and the one that went to Salvador with me) were captured in a duet singing Madonna in at the law school in Rio. The movie is lovely and shows that they both sing very well, but I did not get their permission to share it with you…. Yes, Brazilians can also be shy, believe it or not!
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