Goodbye Sao Paulo; Hello Rio de Janeiro

I was a bit melancholy leaving Sao Paulo, especially after making so many friends, experiencing the amazing local music scene there, and visiting so many cool places. But change is good and I'm excited to be moving to Rio de Janeiro. We played to sold out crowds for every show during out three months in Sao Paulo, and Saltimbanco has sold out in Rio as of April 2006!

It was a pretty comfortable eight hours bus ride and the landscape outside was picturesque.

(click on photos to enlarge)








We arrived at a lovely hotel in the evening and were greeted by live samba, caipirinhas and lot of smiles! And that's just while we were checking in to the hotel!


It felt so good to breathe in the healing ocean air. I woke up the next day to my wife climbing into the bed to show me pictures she had just taken of our view while I was asleep. It's beautiful...a bit strange in a way but gorgeous because I have the ocean to my right, and the biggest favela in Brazil to the left.



This is a good start to the last leg of this Cirque du Soleil tour!

Percussion Shop and Choro Music - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Many of us on Saltimbanco left Sao Paulo for Rio de Janeiro on Monday morning. The Cirque du Soleil big top is going up this week! But before leaving Sao Paulo, I was on a quest for some quality percussion instruments, particularly a berimbau and pandeiro along with some other 'toys'. My friend Bruno hooked me up and took me to a percussion shop called Batucadas 1000. (click photos to enlarge)

Batucadas 1000 percussion shop


Then off I went to play two shows. Afterwards, a bunch of us were invited to a tavern called Ó do Borogodó in the Pinheiros neighborhood to listen to our friend Andre Hosoi play mandolin in a choro ensemble. This is the music that gave birth to the samba.

Andre, Bruno, me, Chantal


Videos of the group performing two songs:

"Proezas de Solon" - Composer: Pixinguinha e Benedito Lacerda

"Simplicidade" - Composer: Jacob do Bandolim

Bleecker Street Gig - Sao Paulo, Brazil

It's a bit of a grind doing 10 three-hour Cirque du Soleil shows per week. So the night we play our last show of the week we really love to let loose and blow off some steam. So on a Sunday at 1:30 a.m., the Saltimbanco band was more than happy to give back to our fellow Saltimbancs and provide the music for the rockin' party we held at the Bleecker Street bar in the Pinheiros borough of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

We played some U2, Green Day, Brian Setzer, Commodores, Jimi Hendrix, CCR, Jet, and the list goes on!

(click on thumbnails to enlarge)

1. Me, Marc Soheir in the back*
2. Serge Maheux*
3. Marc Soheir*
4. Benoit Martin*
5. Paul Hanson**
6. Martin, Sitting in on lead vocals**
7. The Band*
8. The crowd rockin' away!**
9. Crowd shot 2*
10. Vasya "gettin' down"**
11. Taisiya and Bubu**

*Photos by Brad Fernihough
** Photos by Susan Chakmakian

Mad Max Party - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Every Sunday there is usually an activity planned for us at Saltimbanco since Monday is normally our only day off. A couple of weeks ago the technicians and logisitics' team on our site threw a Mad-Max theme party.

They threw us an amazing party and almost everyone dressed up for it. As you would expect from a Mad Max party, it was complete with mayhem, havoc and commotion. There were fire blowers, electric sanders creating giant sparks, an electric bicycle made from a Skilsaw™ motor, a swinging cage in the middle of the dance floor and people getting in touch with their most wild sides.

Saltimanco's current clown and barron, Amo, blowing fire*

Click on thumbnails to enlarge pics*

Video montage of party Highlights



*Animated GIF layers and photographs #1, #3 and #12 by Brad Fernihough

Super-Cool Saying!

Is anyone else out their tired of hearing the word "super" precede every adjective known to mankind? A few years ago, "It's all good" was the response I got to almost every question I posed to someone regarding a blunder.

"Why didn't you bring the money you owed me?"
"Don't worry. It's all good. I'll bring it next time."

You know what, if it was 'all good' I don't think you'd be trying to convince anyone. Thank god that phrase went by the wayside along with those jeans with the white fade on the top of the thigh area. That was certainly a fashion statement from hell that died a quick death, wasn't it? It looked super-dumb.

And speaking of 'from hell,' remember when everything was 'from hell'? The ex-girlfriend from hell, the bad restaurant from hell, the teacher from hell, the boss from hell, the job from hell, and the always-breaking-down car from hell. Things aren't so bad anymore though. These things got better because now she's just the super-crazy ex-girlfriend, it's only the super-bad restaurant...oh wait...things could've gotten worse if you consider the super-satanic boss from hell, the super-exhausting job from hell...Ok, I'll leave this thought to the super-smart philosophers of life.

I'm still waiting for the word "extreme" to come off the last batch of advertisements for products still on our shelves. I think the last bastion of solitude for this super-overused advertising phrase from hell is on a tube of Aqua Fresh toothpaste. Why would I want to use something referred to as extreme toothpaste? It makes me feel as if I'm about to dissolve the top layer of skin from the inside of my mouth and melt my teeth. I just want to clean my teeth and mouth, not give it an acid wash.

Ok, I've got to go because I'm super busy, and if I don't get off this computer my lovely wife's going to turn into the spouse from hell and open up a can of super-harsh whoop-ass EXTREME!

Dona Zica and Plumber's Crack

A few of us from Saltimbanco went to a club here in Sao Paulo, Brazil called Grazie a Dio to watch a local band named Dona Zica. Ok, here's my best attempt to describe this band: Take a bit of the B52s, throw in a little Talking Heads, punk them out a bit then turn them into a detective-themed cartoon in 1940s Brazil. The highlight of the evening for me was when one of the very petite and demure looking female singers singers posed in a "I'll kick your ass" stance with a megaphone, opened her mouth the way a python does when it dislocates its jaw to swallow a baby goat, and unleashed a deep and powerful satanic-like ROOOOAAAAAARRRRRR that shook the entire room!!!!

(click pics to enlarge)




Oh yeah, and this was pretty funny too.
(I heard that Brazil had the best butts in the world. Somehow, this guy slipped through the cracks - pun intended)

MP3s-Bonham Studio Jam Session - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Serge, the drummer on our gig, and I met a fantastic bassist the night we went to Barnaldo Lucrecia. His name was Alexandre Sengling and he invited us to jam with him at Bonham studio in the Osasco area of Sao Paulo, Brazil last Monday. We had nothing prepared as we improvised for a little over an hour. Here are a couple of clips I recorded with my MP3 recorder. Please forgive the distortion in the recording.

right-click link to download
Bonham Studio Jam 1 (Kinda funky, progressive fusion)


Bonham Studio Jam 2 (Freeform progressive jazz)