MaSamba Samba School
MaSamba Samba School was created on the huge wave of enthusiasm following the 1994 Big Bang Festival at the City Arts Centre. Initially the group was set up as a team-building exercise for the staff of the arts centre, but demands for performances and workshops soon saw the group becoming independent and working in partnership with the City Arts Centre on numerous projects until the Centre closed the doors on the Moss Street premises. MaSamba has always had an open-door policy of encouraging those with little or no previous drumming experience to attend their weekly community workshops, as well as maintaining a semi-professional performance group which performs at a wide range of events. MaSamba also has a highly successful youth wing – ‘maSamba do Mananha’ (maSamba of tomorrow), which has played at festivals and events throughout Ireland, recently travelling to Yorkshire and Belfast, as well as producing a CD of their own work in late 2004.
Current Work
maSamba Samba School concentrate their efforts on performances and music workshops. The group performs regularly throughout Ireland and occasionally in the UK. The group also delivers over 100 workshop each year in samba percussion, working with complete beginners up to professional musicians.
Highpoints
Mexico – In 2002, maSamba were invited by the local government in Guaymas, Northern Mexico to participate in their local carnival. Over the four nights of carnival, MaSamba performed for over 300,000 people and also visited a number of workshops, schools, and orphanages where we delivered samba workshops and mini-performances.
Brasil – in 2003, 2005 and 2008, MaSamba organised study visits to Brasil for members of the group. In total, 31 members of maSamba and our youth group have travelled to Brasil to study with Brasilian musicians, attend performances and rehearsals of some of the top samba schools, and generally learn about Brasilian culture and the communities that are the strongholds of the samba movement. In 2003, the group performed as part of the official carnival of Olinda, at the invitation of the local government there. This show was extremely well received and we were subsequently invited back to perform there again, but had to decline, due to insufficient funding. In early 2008, the group will join Monobloco, a leading music collective for their pre-carnaval concerts.
Reggae Revolution – Reggae Revolution was a major three-day training programme on the theme of samba-reggae music from the N. East of Brasil. Lead by Giba Gonçalves, a native of Salvador da Bahia (the home of samba reggae), the workshop covered several pieces of music and inputs in specific playing techniques.
Samhain Samba – Using a similar model as the Reggae Revolution, we invited John-Cristophe Jacquin and Jerome Boumendil from the acclaimed Parisian samba group Sambatuc to lead a four-day intensive workshop in the samba batucada rhythms from Rio de Janeiro. Again, this workshop mixed work on repertoire with a strong emphasis on playing techniques and was a huge success. This workshop culminated in a public performance by the workshop group in Temple Bar, to mark the Hallowe’en weekend.
Special Olympics World Games - In 2003, maSamba got heavily involved in the Special Olympics World Games. We were invited by many of the host town committees to perform at the welcoming ceremonies for the delegations of athletes and also delivered workshops with athletes from the Brasilian delegation and in the Special Olympics Village at the RDS. The high point of this project was our participation in the official Opening Ceremonies at Croke Park, along with many world famous artists and politicians.
St. Patrick’s Festival - In 2004, we decided to celebrate maSamba’s 10th birthday by designing and delivering a pageant for the St. Patrick’s Festival parade in Dublin. This project, entitled ‘Amazonas, Glory of the Rainforest’ involved over 100 dancers, actors, musicians and technical staff and won the ‘Spirit of the Parade’ award, as judged by the Festival Committee. We also received a special commendation from the Brasilian Ambassador to Ireland for our representation of Brasilian culture.
In 2006, we again developed a pageant for the St. Patrick’s festival in Dublin, Based around a world cup theme, ‘We’re Off to the Final’ developed the notion that Ireland will one day play against Brasil in a world cup final. This pageant was awarded the Chairman’s Award by the St. Patrick’s Festival organisers.
Again in 2007, MaSamba designed and delivered a major pageant piece for the Dublin St. Patrick’s Festival parade. This time, the group concentrated on the traditions of Maracatu from the North East of Brasil. Using authentic costumes and instruments from Brasil, this project was a huge hit on the streets of Dublin.
Drogheda Samba Festival - MaSamba have been involved in the Drogheda Samba festival for many years, but from 2004 on, maSamba Samba School took this participation a step further, becoming a partner with the Festival Committee in designing and performing in some of the key events. We organised the central stage performance and produced a show featuring ethnic music from Brasil, Contemporary Brasilian Music and Brasilian Dance, and were also heavily involved in the make up of the festival parade.
Belfast Lantern Parade - MaSamba have been involved in this parade since its inception in 2002, but in 2006, we took more responsibility for the programming of the event, inviting esteemed samba tutor Dudu Tucci to visit Belfast to provide training for the drummers and to lead a showcase performance at the end of the parade.
Ireland Drummers
Ireland Drummers or ID is a nationwide project with the aim of bringing street percussion groups together for training and performance purposes. maSamba Samba School has been heavily involved in the planning and delivery of this project since its inception in 2006, and Simeon Smith of Masamba is currently Musical Director of the ID project.
Musical Collaborations
In 2004, MaSamba continued a long history of collaborating with other musicians. We started the year by doing a series of show in the Village and the Olympia Theatre with Meteor Award Winner, Paddy Casey, joining him on stage to perform some tunes from his current album ‘Living”. In 2005, as part of the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures, we were asked to participate in a masterclass lead by UK-based Mercury Award winning dance artist Nitin Sawhney. This project involved deconstructing some of his piece ‘Prophesy’ and creating an Irish-influenced reworking of it for a public performance as part of the festival. This project also afforded us the opportunity to work with other well-known musicians such as Liam O’Maonlai (Hot House Flowers), Robbie Harris (MD of Riverdance) and Brian Fleming (De Jimbe). Also in 2005, Simeon Smith, Musical Director of maSamba toured Europe, the U.S., Canada and Mexico with the highly acclaimed world music act Dead Can Dance. This tour played to over 80,000 people and was a complete sell-out. In 2006, MaSamba’s youth wing participated in a songwriting project with Rónán O’Snodaigh of Kíla. This project yielded a brand new piece of music, fusing Irish rhythms with samba percussion. In February 2007, Simeon Smith participated in the recording of a new album by Sao Paulo band Atroz, and in July he joined Monobloco when they toured the UK and Ireland. Later in 2007, Simeon hooked up with Sully Erna of Godsmack on a collaborative project, which will lead to an album and possible tour.