CARAIVANA!

Last year Rio de Janeiro officially was elected the host city of the 2016 Olympic Games, the event took place in Copenhagen and the picture above shows a snap-shot of the enthusiasm of the Brasilian delegation when the result was announced. The large Brasilian delegation was headed by the president of the nation - the popular Mr. Lula - and representatives and officials of the Brasilian sport games, among these people the worldfamous football icon, Mr. Pelé, also participated. The Brasilians had made proper preparations for the victory of Rio de Janeiro as host city of the 2016 Olympic Games in competition with the city of Chicago, thus, the delegation also consisted of a band of musicians to support the spirit of the enthusiastic delegates and to help celebrating the supposed victory. When the vote result of the Olympic Committee was announced, these musicians naturally participated in the event and during the celebration festivites afterwards a group photo featuring president Lula fronting the six members of the band was shot, acknowlegding the importance of music as the heart and soul of Brasilian culture, I suppose.
The six band members - here fronted by president Lula and the two ladies - were officially chosen to represent the best of Brasilian music in Copenhagen during the crucial week before the choice of the host city for the 2016 Olympic Games. The name of the band is CARAIVANA and the six members of the ensemble, coming from different Brasilian cities, met in 2005 while on holiday in a small village in southern Bahia and became friends. Before they met in the Bahian coast, CARAIVANA's members were already renowned individually. Douglas Lora, from São Paulo, is a songwriter and guitarist. Dudu Maia , from Brasilia, bandolinist, has been standing out in Brazil and abroad as a performer, composer, arranger and producer. Alexandre Lora , also from São Paulo as his brother, is a percussionist and drummer. Alex Souza, from Brasilia, is an actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist. Fabio Luna , from Rio de Janeiro, is a flautist, percussionist, composer and performer. Juninho Billy Joe , from Bahia, is a singer, percussionist and composer. As mentioned, these musicians met in 2005 and soon they all developed a great friendship and understanding between them, and as the game started to get serious, French producer Daniel Vangarde invited them to record a cd, shown below.

The cd offers different rhythms such as samba, choro and forró. Jacob do Bandolin, Edu Lobo, Noel Rosa, Sivuca and Gonzaguinha are some of the composers chosen to form this mosaic, which also includes Pixinguinha and Ary Barroso. Tracklist and more info about the music including streaming audio to be found at the official website of CARAIVANA, accessible here - Below I'll insert a couple of the uploaded videos made at the presentation concert of the cd in Rio de Janeiro to give you an impression of the magnificent music included on the cd. - Here is first a live performance of 'Tico-tico no fúba'


From the same live-performance, here is a rendition of Noel Rosa's 'Conversa de Botequim'


Finally, to end this small presentation of CARAIVANA, here's a live-performance of the forró 'Cabaceira mon amour' - enjoy!



I recommend a visit at the official website of CARAIVANA to get more info about the group and the activities it has participated in so far, including great photos and video material - also from the Copenhagen event.

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Feliz Natal & Feliz Ano Novo 2011/ A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year 2011!

Jo