Rio de Janeiro: Bohemian Rio

<<last | 1 | 2 | 3 | next>>

The following day was Saturday, and if the day was all about the beach then the night had to be about samba. After a few chopes (draft beers) in a couple of botequins (working class bars that open out onto the pavement), I found myself at the Centro Cultural Carioca. My first experience of live samba in Rio was not a disappointment. The band playing were tight and effortlessly wound their way through a selection of swinging samba classics, including a version of ‘Happy Birthday’ at midnight. I was cajoled onto the dance-floor by an insistant Carioca by the name of 'Be' - you don’t go to a samba club to do anything other than dance – so make sure you have your dancing shoes, and maybe a couple of caipirinhas to loosen you up beforehand.

Sunday, and as you can probably guess, it was time to hit the beach again. The road along the Ipanema beach-front is closed on Sundays and the area teems with people walking, chatting, hanging out and checking each other out. Between 4 and 6pm Binário, “the band from the beach”, play on the closed expressway.

Binário’s sound is rhythmically rich and sonically expansive; they have two drummers who create dense grooves that the three guitarists weave their crashing riffs around. The band played for nearly two hours that afternoon and it seemed that whilst the sun mellowed Binário’s pulse got stronger: the percussion became more intense, the guitars fuzzier, yet all the time
the groove went deeper and the swing stronger. They took the crowd that bit higher with every crescendo, a fathom deeper with each drop, until as the last note was played the crowd was whooping for an encore.

Watching them play their sun-soaked brand of rock-jazz-funk whilst the good, the bad and the beautiful of Rio walked, jogged, cycled or skateboarded past, was one of the highlights of my trip.

But wasn’t this meant to be a part-working holiday you cry? Well, yes, and you’ll be glad to know that in the second week I actually did some work. Yes, I helped shoot a pop video for one of our artists, Clara Moreno, on Ipanema beach. It’s a tough life I tell you, I mean it was really hot on the beach, and I had to look away from all the passing beauties for at least half an hour whilst we filmed it. Sorry, I’ll stop rubbing it in now.

I also explored Centro (the commercial heart of Rio) on a couple of afternoons. There are scores of buildings to gawp at, be they the wonderful colonial era oldies such as the Teatro Municipal, or more recent additions such as the impressive Catedral Metropolitana and the somewhat sinister Petrobrás building. I had a great time meandering around the back streets of Centro, whilst the hustle and bustle of Rio flowed all around me, stopping off for the odd salgadinho (savoury snack) along the
way. The Confeitaria Colombo has a pricey yet excellent selection.

Rio de Janeiro: Bohemian Rio

TAGS