Serenata de Samba

---

It all begins outside a church... a man has a pack strapped onto his torso like a man posessed ,
then the music starts. There is a white man playing guitar and perhaps his father on violin. Everyone is seated around this pack of sambistas conversing in typical brasilian style . . loud and expressive like the drummers, then the peole get off their perfectly round bundas and take to the streets in their hundreds flipping their feet to the irresistible rhythm of samba. The street is intoxicated with noise. . it keeps moving, up the hill, across town .. children are weaving through , beer sellers are carting their barrows, and every song is anthemed by the mass that enshroud the musicians and the human speaker.. Every now and again you bump into a perfectly formed mulata who stares into the gringo that you are .. but before you know it , you are pushed along and have been spotted by a group of people that know you and the dance continues.. down the hill we go ...yobs in the backstreets urinating and flexing their abrasive vocal chords.. drug addicts waiting for an opportunity and the tourist police well endowed.
We stop for a break and a coixina do frango and finally the last of the flock make their way through, back down to the church .. . Next stop - a pitombeira - the nightclub where cumbia meets more samba and the bar staff rough up some caipirinhas to contage us with esctacy.

---

Photos

olinda night+d.bruno 078
The human spaker