Brazilian jazz vibes offering entertainment and education

By Dale Woodard on September 24, 2021.

Fans of Brazilian music will not only get to hear it this weekend, but also learn about it first-hand.
A Brazilian jazz concert is taking place Saturday night at the University Drive Alliance Church at 55 Columbia Blvd. West at 7 p.m. with a workshop following Sunday at 2 p.m., offering an educational and artistic experience for those who attend.
Proceeds from both events will go towards Branches, a non-profit organization that delivers music lessons to youth who would not have the opportunity to access it in Lethbridge.
“I had discussed with some of the instructors at the University of Lethbridge and they thought it would be cool if we could explain more about the music, so we added the workshop,” said Saulo Neves, director and performing artist of the concert.
The concert congregates Brazilian and Canadian musicians playing some of the most popular and expressive Brazilian songs. Love, Joy, Hope and Passion are some of the core elements of the music to provide the audience with the deep feelings of Brazil.
The nine performers are musicians from the Lethbridge Symphony, the university, independent groups and other professional musicians from diverse backgrounds.
Neves said the concert will be bilingual.
“All the songs are Brazilian. We’ll have them performed in Portuguese and English, but the presentations will be mainly in English,” he said. “It will be almost two hours. We have 14 songs we’ll play.”
The workshop Sunday will be a two-hour, two-part session.
“The first hour we’ll go through the songs of their culture,” said Neves. “They are characteristic of different regions of Brazil, some styles like samba from Rio de Janeiro. The idea is we’ll go through all of the songs and have the band onstage playing some parts of the songs, just interacting and asking what they thought of the song. We will tell the context and where the song came from and where to listen more about them and get more information about these styles.”
After a break, the second hour will consist of the percussionists showing the basics of the different styles.
“One of the core messages is that Brazilian styles come from percussion,” said Neves. “We’re inviting people to bring their own instruments. We’ll have some percussion instruments available. But we’ll start with percussion with everybody and then we’ll move to their specific instruments. So, if you play trombone, you’ll have a chance to learn how to play trombone based on the knowledge you got about percussion.”
Branches will be the beneficiary of Saturday’s show.
“They’re increasing their capacity now,” said Neves. “They deliver lessons and the musicians are excited. The musicians from Lethbridge suggested sending the money to them. The plan was we needed something to offer the community something in terms of art. It (Branches) is recognized among the musicians here as a good education that really delivers music lessons to people who need them.”
Tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/167774966441 or by phone at (587) 834-2374
The show will implement the Alberta restrictions exemption program requiring proof of vaccination or negative COVID test result.

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