rhythms of the city blog

mandinga arts having bought a milkfloat, have given us the possibility of amplifying more than just voices this year, and thames festival 2005 was out first real variety-show-parade. maurizio and christiane sang, alongside the bateria augmented by 2 horns, bass and guitar. once again a suite of music with ascending tempo, one song for each section of dancers. the first time we put in english-language songs. result. the people in the street sing along in the local tongue, and we are no longer (musically) mostly foreign to london.  setlist: i shot the sheriff (reggae), superstition (2nd line new orleans funk), bate bundinha (samba-funk), i feel good (yes, samba) big thanks to jérome boumendil of sambatuc for the arrangement, aguanile bonko (salsa-funk). it was this parade that had the first ingredients of our first album. check mandinga’s photo gallery.

rotc with mandinga arts @ thames festival 2005

we are back as pirates, you will have read about or seen these costumes in 2004. rotc now play the rhythms of cuban carnival, aided and informed by ace dancer guillermo davis and with plenty of help from the community of cuban-informed percussionists of london. but why, you ask, are those brazilian drums? that is because congas are damn heavy to carry in procession, and don’t make as much noise as samba instruments. authenticity at the expense of back-pain does not make for an easy future. also, this is a reason why carnival in cuba is but once a year, and probably doesn’t last 5 nights as in rio de janeiro.  carnival de cuba ambled around the south bank and also took to the stage in bernie spain gardens. see mandinga’s gallery of the event.

rotc with mandinga arts @ carnival de cuba 2005

stockwell, as you dear reader well know, is the home of the guy who first imported the pineapple to britain. and you can see pictures of fruity costumes in mandinga’s gallery of the event here. we, however, are dressed as pirates in pyjamas. (see below), and we would be rocking the self-same costumes once more at the thames festival later that year. it was a local affair and very much about everything stockwell. note local landmark “the leaning tower of ben” in the background, romero da mangueira is in the foreground. we paraded round the pavements of the area before hitting larkhall park for a stage presentation.

rotc with mandinga arts @ stockwell festival 2004

in the dim-but-not-so-distant past of 2003 there were not many opportunities for parading. rotc played a lot of samba, but the opportunities for performance were often ones we made ourselves. the lord mayor’s show, with its historic and not-ever-so-slightly military overtones, we have learnt over the years, whilst seeming like a great opportunity was more of a run than an amble. note the gold lamé costumes. they were generously given to us by charles and julieta sometime after the event. visit mandinga’s photo gallery for more of a flavour.

rotc with mandinga arts @ lord mayor’s show 2003

8 members of rotc had played thames festival 2002 as the tamborim section of quiolombo school of samba, who proudly wore mandinga arts‘ costumes and inspired mandinga arts dancers. this year it was our turn, and the start of a long and fruitful relationship with some of the UK’s top carnival designers – charles and julieta. also there were no tamborins in our orchestra – shekeres, bells, timbas, caixas, repiniques & surdos. in the days before mandinga milkfloat/soundtruck we were challenged to provide music of a mostly african theme to link to the choreography of each section of costumed dancers. the result was a mini suite of contrasting african rhythms, arranged for samba drums. behind the pictured drummers in ivory-coast inspired costumes, there was a small horn section, and behind them, 4 sections of dancers. the music: digba (ivory coast), sikyi (ghana), toque for babalu aye (cuba/nigeria), cumbia (columbia). hard and challenging work. visit mandinga’s photo gallery for more of a flavour.

rotc with mandinga arts @ thames festival 2003