Zenaida Saez, 2012 EEDS Porta-Bandeira at the Evanston 4th of July Parade

Congrats to the Evanston Escola de Samba for an incredible showing at the Evanston 4th of July Parade! Not only did we win 1st place in the category “performance,” but we were one of three overall parade winners. EEDS was awarded the “Pelton Plaque” for “Outstanding Neighborhood Group” (see complete list of Parade winners here).

Today is the big day! Please join us at Evanston’s 4th of July Parade at 2PM today. After months of preparation and practice, it’s time to showcase all of our hard work. Thanks to everyone who volunteered and came out to play percussion and dance.  It’s going to be hot outside today but it’s never too hot for samba – hope to see you there!

The big parade is finally upon us! Tomorrow, we will showcase all our hard work at the Evanston 4th of July Parade, or what we are calling our 4th of July Spectacular. Yesterday we gave thanks to all the people who helped us this year. Today we finally are ready to reveal the identities of the most exalted positions in the parade!

Our 2012 Rainha da Bateria will be none other than EEDS’ own Ariel Barbick!

The 2012 EEDS Mestre-Sala will be Jaime Angeles, a longtime dancer in the Chicagoland samba scene and an amazing performer!

And finally, our 2012 Porta-Bandeira, carrying the EEDS flag proudly, will be Zenaida Saez!

These three amazing dancers, along with the rest of our talented dancers and percussionists, will all be in action at the July 4th Parade tomorrow on Central Street in Evanston. And if you want to see their costumes in person, you will need to come to the parade – we aren’t revealing them here.

Thanks to everyone for following our progress leading up to July 4th, and we will see you tomorrow at the parade!

Just 3 days until the big parade! With so much still to do before the 4th of July Spectacular, things are getting pretty hectic here at the Escola.

For your enjoyment, we took some time out to make our first official videorecording of O Amanhã! Special thanks to all our guest musicians in this piece: Andrew, Reed, and Harji of Bloco Maximo; our puxador Marcos Oliveira, and John Beard on cavaquinho. Extra special thanks to Andrew Green for working so hard on the sound mixing and editing. Enjoy!

Only four days to go until the main event! Today we reveal the team that makes it all happen: the rundown of the identities of our equipes (teams), cabeças (heads), mestres (masters), and carnavalescos (parade organizers).

We are lucky to have Marcos Oliveira, one of Chicago’s finest Brazilian sambistas, as our puxador; and John Beard as our master cavaquinho player! Members of Chicago’s own Bloco Maximo will be leading some of our percussion sections, and as always (as in the photo above!) Diane Berrios will be heading the dancers.

But wait – what of the identities of the three most exalted positions – the Mestre-Sala, the Porta-Bandeira, and the Rainha da Bateria? Those are still secret, and will be revealed each day as we move closer to our 4th of July Spectacular!

Equipe do Dança:
Porta Bandeira: TBA
Mestre Sala: TBA
Rainha de Bateria: TBA
Cabeça do Dança: Diane Berrios

Os Músicos:
Puxador: Marcos Oliveira
Cavaquinho: John Beard
Diretor: Chris Hasselbring

Equipe de Bateria:
Mestre de Bateria: Avo Randruut
Cabeça de Percussão: Andrew Green
Cabeça de Percussão: Reed Flygt

Equipe de Carnavalescos:  Lindsay Fullerton, Chris Hasselbring, Kirsty Montgomery, Matt Rarey

Now just five days until the big parade – can you feel the excitement?

Today we reveal a drawing of the costume for our Porta-Bandeira!

With our newly-designed flag and a flashy green and gold costume, she is really going to steal the show! Remember, stay tuned every day for another revealed aspect of our 4th of July Spectacular!

SIX DAYS (!!) to go until our 4th of July Spectacular!

Yesterday we said to stay tuned for a free MP3 of our recording of our samba-enredo for download. Today, we keep our promise!

Click here to download our live recording of our 2012 samba-enredo, played by EEDS musicians in collaboration with Marcos Oliveira (vocals), John Beard (cavaquinho), and members of Bloco Maximo. Big thanks also to Andrew Green for recording this! Be sure to learn all the lyrics and sing along at the parade!

Enjoy!

Now just one week to go until our 4th of July Spectacular! Sounds like just enough time to learn all you can about our 2012 samba-enredo so you can sing along with us at the parade! Stay tuned in the coming days, because we might just have a free MP3 of our recording of our samba-enredo for download! (Check that, we will.)

This year we are honoring O Amanhã (“Tomorrow”), originally composed and arranged by João Sérgio in 1978 as the samba-enredo of GRES União da Ilha do Governador, a community samba school in Rio de Janeiro. Founded in 1953, União da Ilha is headquartered in the Cacuia neighborhood the Ilha do Governador, in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro. União da Ilha is historically known for innovative, creative, and exuberant costuming and musicianship performed with little money in comparison to some of Rio’s wealthier schools. They ascended to the classification of Group 1 only fourteen years after their first performance in 1960, and today – after winning the Access Group in 2009 – compete in the Special Group, along with the most prestigious samba schools in Rio de Janeiro.

O Amanhã was performed in the midst of one of União da Ilha’s most successful runs: a string of hit sambas-enredo through the late 1970s and early 1980s. These include Domingo (“Sunday”) in 1977; Bom Bonito e Barato (“Good, Pretty, and Cheap”), which propelled them to a 2^nd place finish in Group 1A in 1980 – still the best showing in the group’s history – and É hoje O Dia (“Today is the Day”) in 1982, one of the best-known and most recorded sambas-enredo in history. But today, O Amanhã arguably remains União da Ilha’s most famous samba-enredo, though the school only finished 4^th place finish in Group 1 that year. O Amanhã actually owes most of its popularity not to União da Ilha but to Brazilian singing diva Simone, who recorded her own slower-paced, smooth version in 1983. Her rendition rocketed the song’s popularity, and as a result it has since been part of the standard repertoire of sambistas.

O Amanhã tells the story of one persons’s constant worry over his future, and his persistent quest for an answer to the question “What will tomorrow be?” The narrator consults a virtual laundry list of Brazilian fortune-tellers: a tarot card-reading gypsy; crystal balls; a jogo de búzios, cowrie shells used to consult African spirits called orixás; the petals on a daisy flower plucked in the “s/he loves me not” game; zodiac signs; and finally a realejo, a Brazilian organ grinder tradition where (for a small fee) a green parrot held in a wooden yellow cage chooses a fortune reading from a small box. We only learn the answer provided by the realejo: “I will be happy”.

LYRICS

Now just 8 days until the big parade – can you feel the excitement?

Today we reveal a drawing of the costume for our Mestre-Sala! Decked in Brazilian green and yellow, his headdress will be something to see. Remember, stay tuned every day for another revealed aspect of our 4th of July Spectacular!

9 days until the big parade!

Our big reveal today . . . check out this drawing of the costumes for our passistas! They will be sporting USA red, white, and blue. Remember, stay tuned every day for another revealed aspect of our 4th of July Spectacular!