Curry Club

On Wednesday evening there was an event called "Curry Club", hosted by a brit called Tom who has lived out here for 5 years. He's a jazz wizard and runs a music school for kids from the favelas, here at the convent. I helped load some equipment from his place (a small house at the top of a favela) into a car, to take over to the location of the event in the morning. We picked up some ice too. On the way down, Tom spoke about the work he does, and the diminishing music culture of the favelas. Back in the 60's, alot of Jazz and Samba was coming out of these places of poverty; a lot of musical genius. The story is not the same now, however. A lot of youth listen to 'Phunk', which consists of v. obscene rapping over looped electric beats. He said you get kids as young as 3 years old listening to this stuff, though its the teens+ who create it. Its not good for the youth, glorifying crime and violence, among other things. Tom's hope, in setting up this school, is to teach kids how to read and play music. The curry club event, which raised a fair amount, will help buy instruments for these kids, who would otherwise be spending most of their time staring at walls.

The evening was great fun. We paid for entry, plus food and drink. The curry was nice, and quite brazilified with beans. There was live jazz performances from Tom and his jazz musician friends. You can hear a recording via the link at the bottom. Tom's on the trumpet. He's now headed back to the UK for a month to see fam and use the profit from the event to buy instruments for the Escola Sao Jorge (http://www.escolasaojorge.co.uk/)

Live jazz recording from the curry club: http://snd.sc/18kyfbl