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 

Coburg Samba Festival does it again in 2007, what an amazing time we had yet again. Over 100 bands from all over Europe and Brazil; Bloco X, Aquarela, Mangueira, Muleketu, Houba Samba, LSS the list goes on and on. SambaYaBamba and Bloco X took it in turns to rock the Hungry Highlander till the early hours every night of the festival. Roll on 2008. In the meantime we'll turn our attentions to the Wickerman Festival near Dumfries!

SambaYaBamba were overcome with emulsion when the world famous graffiti artists Os Gemeos, Nina and Nunca agreed to paint one of their drums!

They are in Scotland to paint the walls of Kelburn Castle near Largs in a very special and large scale art project but couldn't resist turning their spray cans on one of the band's Surdos (bass drums). The São Paulo gang are known for their vibrant contemprary style and the castle is looking absolutely stunning in it's new livery only half way through the project. SYB, the official project band will be playing there again on the 31st May but visitors can go along and check the progress at their leisure as well as enjoy the beautiful grounds.

The band wait with baited breath to see what amazing design the artists will come up with for them. Interestingly the existing drum cladding on the SYB drums is a highly manipulated take on one one of Os Gemeos older pieces. www.thegraffitiproject.net

It's true! The world famous samba school, Mocidade Independente's mestre came here to Glasgow to teach SambaYaBamba for a whole weekend in May 07.

In case you haven't heard of him, Jonas is one of the most respected Mestres in Rio. He's worked with samba shcools Viradouro, Salgueiro, Porta da Pedra and for the last few years has been Mestre of the bateria at Mocidade.

He has 30 years of samba experience under his belt and has previously won the golden standard for best bateria at rio carnival. He very kindly showed us loads and loads of Mocidade breaks which you will hear in our set, and we showed him Glasgow! http://www.mocidadeindependente.com.br/

This week SambaYaBamba played host to Rio favourites Monobloco. Four of the crazy sticksters were in town to hook up with the mighty bamba and impart some of their great wisdom. We studied samba and samba-funk the monobloco way, then took them to the Lauriston to get fried on guinness and malts.

The after-party went on till early morning with our guests performing an imprompteau samba gig on dustpan & brush, bottle tops, teapot and cupboard doors. If you haven't heard Monobloco you have to check them out, the modern funky side of Rio samba. Their website is www.monobloco.com.br