Needless to say the 4th Scottish Samba Showcase was a resounding success with monumental performances from Edinburgh Samba School, Muleketú and hosts SambaYaBamba. 

 

SambaYaBamba

After a huge mess in the run up the West End Festival has passed back to the community. This year's parade will take place in leafy Kelvin Way and Kelvingrove Park and promises to be better than ever (weather permitting). As usual SambaYaBamba will be playing host to some wonderful guests. This year's highlight is Paris's Muleketu, Almost certainly THE best samba-reggae outfit outside of Salvador and winner of the 2009 Concours de Paris beating off competition from big name multiple winners Aquarela and Sambatuc. In it's 4th year now, the Scottish Samba Showcase will be in full swing the night before the parade with a triple bill of Muleketu, SambaYaBamba and Edinburgh Samba School. Muleketu are a must see item on this their first uk appearance, with their unique Baiano coreography and drum flailing acrobatics. QM Union, Sat 13th June 9pm-2am Tix £7adv/£9door tickets-scotland.com. 

2008 was a great year for the band with fantastic shows from Departure Lounge in Edinburgh to Knockengorroch in the deep south and HydroConnect on the west coast to Perth and Aberdeen in the north. Not forgetting of course the amazing West End Festival and Stereo gigs right here in Glasgow. The Euro-Odyssey was a flying success with Glasgow's bateria playing in excess of 12 gigs in 12 days across France Italy and Germany. 

We've played host to Verde Vai from London, Houba Samba from Montauban and both Barulho and Carnival Collective from Brighton. We've been lucky enough have expert tuition in samba-jungle from Pat Power and in Afro-Samba from mestre Marivaldo of the world famous afro bloco - Ilê Aiyê. 

9 members of SYB have had the opportunity to practice and play with the German based pan-european bateria, 'Bloco X' making Scotland one of the most strongly represented nations. Roddy, (our musical director) is just back from Rio and playing with the Samba School, Academicos da Rocinha and Monobloco for a less traditional take on Rio samba. 

This year looks just as promising with Brighton confirmed for April and an array of very tempting offers from Europe.

Do not miss SambaYaBamba and Brighton Carnival Collective head to head in Stereo! Enough said. If you only see one SambaYaBamba gig this year, this is the one to see. Along with the outstanding CC who have sold out in the Riverside Club twice before. Edinburgh bods have a chance to SambaYaBamba on the Friday night at Departure Lounge in the Caves along with Chief and Dog from Bêbado on the decks.

www.bebado.co.uk

SYB vs Carnival Collective, Stereo, Glasgow Sat 29th Nov

SambaYaBamba are heading to Connect Festival off the back of an incredible european tour taking in Belgium, the South of France, The Italian Lakes and Bavaria. This is certainly the most ambitious escapade SYB has ever undertaken and indeed in all my years of samba i have never heard of any other European bateria taking on such a grand plan either. 30 sambistas, one bus, 14 gigs, 30 degrees, yaaaaas!

The tour took in the Samba al Pais festival in Negrepelisse near Toulouse and the infamous Coburg Samba Festival in Germany, easily the biggest samba festival outside Brazil. Both France and Germany have much healthier samba scenes than the UK but the drummers from Glasgow managed to delight punters, sambistas and critics alike with our unique drum'n'bass and breakbeat styles alongside our ability to play full and correct Rio style samba.

Now in our 4th year at Coburg, SambaYaBamba is becoming something of a local legend and it's clear to see we are getting better slots and bigger crowds every year. This year we had very well attended gigs on the two main stages which you can see on youtube by clicking here

We presented this flag, along with a bottle of our "Vinha Especial" to Mestre Jonas, director of bateria at Mocidade Samba School when he was here in Glasgow to teach SambaYaBamba, and sure enough, as promised, he has put it up in the hallowed quadra of Mocidade Independente do Padre Miguel, Rio de Janeiro. Kinda wish we'd taken a bit more care with the text now but who would have known it would end up there. 

We're always on the lookout for dedicated brass players - especially trumpets at the moment. You don't need to be Maceo Parker, if you're a bit rusty we'll soon get you back on top of it, if not, all the better. Loads of gigs and fun to be had - call or text 07504 131693 (brass enquiries only) to let us know if you're coming and what instrument you play. 

The Brazilian national newspaper; O Globo, with a readership of over 300,000 a day recently did a very complimentary article on SambaYaBamba after they discovered us when researching the Brazilian Pipe band's trip to Scotland. You can view the article as a PDF by clicking here. If you don't understand portuguese you might struggle a bit but take a look anyway and rest assured it's all good news! 

As you may or may not know the Scottish Link Pipe Band from São Paulo are here in Glasgow for the World Pipe Band Championships on Glasgow Green this Saturday. Predictably, SambaYaBamba have been showing them some Glasgow hospitality, mainly the inside of pubs. On Tuesday night we took them down to the painted Kelburn Castle, Largs to see the handy work of their compatriates, Os Gemeos, Nunca and Nina .... And more importantly to have a jam together. Who knew what would happen when a Brazilian Pipe band crossed paths with a Scottish Samba Band! The results were not too disappointing... especially the last quarter where Scotland the Brave takes on a new lease of life over an Olodum samba reggae groove. Here's an mp3 to give you a taster. mp3/youtube