TDSounds

Rio Carnival CD Grupo especial 2010

I've heard a sneak preview of the 2010 Rio Carnival CD (Grupo Especial) and it rocks!

It's been recorded live in the Cidade do Samba in Rio, with each samba school providing its own drummers and 20 singers singing behing theschool's  official puxador. In recent years the official CD has been recorded in a studio, and the recordings have sounded very middle of the road. But on this years CD the combination of the live recording, the participation of the samba school and a very sympathetic mix means that these tracks have the hard driving percussion arrangements I want to hear.

My favourite tracks are Imperatriz (Brazil of all the gods) and Vila Isabel (Noel Rosa, the poet of Vila). Vila is undoubtably the best song but its hard to sing, and a samba enredo needs to be easily singable so that the crowd watching the parade in the sambodromo can join in. Imperatriz has a beautiful first part and a lovely arrangement, including a long stretch where theres no instruments, just singers. This fits in really well with the words but if they do this in their parade its dangerous, as the samba school could go out of time when the drummers return, and lose marks.

However the best thing about this CD is that because of the recording and mix, even the mediocre sambas sound good (and I think Grande Rio's samba would struggle even to qualify as mediocre)

The Grupo Especial CD is released in Brazil in December and you can buy it here.

We will also be selling the Rio Grupo A (grupo de acesso) and Grupo B (Grupo RJ1) CDs - watch this space!