Story by Jesse Lerch
Photo by Hae Min Lee
Poster provided by Carnaval Brasil!
Eugene may be more than 6,800 miles from Rio de Janeiro, but the Oregon city is home to a bustling Brazilian population. If you’ve never seen this part of Eugenite life, keep your Saturday night free.
On March 12, Cozmic Pizza will host Carnaval Brasil!, a night celebrating Brazilian culture with dance and music. “It will be an honor to play for and with so many supportive, enthusiastic Brazilians,” says musician Pat Morgan, who is scheduled to perform Saturday.
The event offers a look into the world of Brazil for a night of intense celebration coupled with a message of the destitute reality of those Brazilians in poverty. For the past nine years, Students Helping Street Kids International (SHSKI) has sponsored the event to coincide with the epic Carnaval of Brazil.
Four Brazilian bands will recreate the noise and energy of Carnaval: Sun Bossa, WOU Brasil Combo, Calango, and Samba Já. All but WOU Brasil Combo originally began in Eugene. Although the groups are acoustic, event director Andrea Callahan says they will be loud. She brings a box of earphones along just in case the audience can’t handle the volume.
The bands play a range of styles, but all have roots in Brazil and the country’s blended sounds of Europeans, Africans, and native Indians. Such diversity has led to an enormous musical variety with a rich and complex sound.
“For these American musicians who play with us, it’s not about playing one more gig,” says Edson Oliveira, a native Brazilian and Sun Bossa frontman. “They really have a strong connection with Brazilian music.”
Carnaval Brasil! will also feature a samba dance workshop, which will offer basic lessons for beginners. It will allow participants to get a little closer to, workshop coordinator Kelly Tavares says, “a very rich country in music and dance.”
With the celebration comes also an element of sadness. The history of hard life in Brazil is imprinted upon the music.
“There is this strong African influence blended with the Portuguese. They have a melancholy soul,” Oliveira says. The mix comes from “five centuries of people going to Brazil, living there. It’s not that different than blues or jazz.”
As a nod to this aspect of the country, Carnaval Brasil! also serves as a fundraiser for Brazilian children living in poverty. SHSKI provides scholarships to academically promising children living in the favela shanty towns of Brazil. These children can then attend one of the SHSKI sister schools in America. The Eugene’s 4J district and Willamette High School both participate in the program with nine Brazilian children currently enrolled in a cultural exchange between the two nations.
Saturday’s event will end, as it does every year, with Samba Já, a thirty-person group of musicians local to Eugene. Although the offical end time is set for 12:30 a.m., organizer Andrea Callahan says “everyone’s passionate and in a frenzy at the end of the night.”
There is an entrance fee of $10 for adults and $8 for students. Those under twelve get in free. Costumes are optional, but it wouldn’t be a Carnaval without them.
