Between the ages of 2 & 4 I lived in Brazil with my Mum, Dad and younger brother. The neighbourhood is called Liberdade (Freedom) in the city of Salvador, in the state of Bahia. Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Rumour has it we lived above a samba school. What I know for certain is that music, and particularly samba, simply pours out of every nook and cranny of this wonderful city.
When I returned to Salvador in my early 20s, I did so with two things in mind – to learn capoeira and play samba. This time I was based more centrally, just up from the Pelourinho, home of Olodum.
Pelourinho is a municipal square set on a steep hill. Regenerated and now a UNESCO world heritage site, it has become a must-see for anyone visiting the city. Back in the 1980s it was crumbling ghetto; home to the poor and deprived. I was warned by well-meaning friends and colleagues not to go for fear of being robbed or worse!
Pelourinho translates as whipping post. Modern day Brazil was founded on the transatlantic slave trade and more African captives were taken to the port city of Salvador, Brazil’s then capital, than the total number taken to the States and the whole of the Caribbean combined. Yep!
Friday evening in Pelourinho was Olodum’s open rehearsal night and the square was simply rocking with mainly young and local music lovers drawn by the irrepressible sound of the afro bloc samba rhythms pioneered by the legendary Neguinho da Samba. Crime and violence were at a minimum. Samba soothes the soul and is a respite for all. I couldn’t get enough. I was hooked.
Timing is everything. When I returned to the UK and had the good fortune to meet virtuoso percussionist and samba connoisseur Richard Ajileye. Richard had also supped from the intoxicating waters of the Pelourinho muse. He’d started his own afro bloc, the London Afro Bloc: Roots to Fruit and he welcomed me with open arms.
I couldn’t believe my luck. Fresh back from Brazil, I was now hob-nobbing it with some amazingly talented musicians.
30-odd years later and here we are with Samba4Fun, a collective of like-minded people using music, and specifically afro bloc samba, as a vehicle for promoting and enabling individual and community wellbeing by creating safe and inclusive learning environments in which people can develop new and existing skills in partnership with others increasing personal resilience and adaptability and thereby fostering positive personal growth and development for everyone involved. Each individual attending drumming is going to get something different out of it because individual needs are all also very different.
The dream is to take this to the people. To get more people to have the chance to play. To take it to peoples and places where this kind of activity would not otherwise reach.
We are also committed to preserving the rich history and cultural identity of Brazilian Afro bloc samba as a vital community art form.
Forward ever, backwards never.
