Boom pap.. tacatoo coota ooooora ..bom bom!! Using different timing and volumes say this back to yourself a few times. It's OK, you can do it in your head so no one will hear you. I am guessing, but I bet after a few times you found a rhythm you liked and your body was moving at least a little bit.

Now relax and imagine this: it's a beautiful evening and you and your friends are sitting around a table at the edge of a 300-year-old stone street. There is definitely something going on down the way. A couple of low vibrations, but, don't worry its not a low rider with the windows rattling. A look fills your eyes with bright colors spinning and weaving, and the sounds are getting louder. First come the dancers, all sizes, colors and styles. Feathery costumes, slick costumes, pants, skirts, tops, hats, women and men, what a combination. They are all dancing to this great sound coming from behind them. The first of the dancers have moved past and now you know what's generating this rumble, its drums and a lot of them. Recall your rhythm exercise and multiply that by 60 people. Besides the great rhythms the first thing you notice is all the different sizes of people and drums. Young kids are playing right beside guys that are a long way past the high school marching band days. These kids are playing great and the sticks are flying. How to describe the sound... it's like passion, pain, a fight, and freedom passed down through generations and projected to us through the hands of the baterista. What a great sound, you can't help but want to dance.

This all happened on our trip to Brazil in June 2003. I am hooked. I want to hear more. We heard live music many times in our short ten days. Daily, before our work project started one of the young men would play a guitar and those that spoke Portuguese would sing. Our Brazilian interpreter and friend Renato has a band with his brother that played for us at a gathering one evening. Several nights in Old Recife we found some type of performance going on at the main square. The church dedication was celebrated with song. Music and dance really is woven into the culture in Brazil. I enjoyed the mix of performers. In addition to the drumming group, Renato's band incorporated younger players into the mix. Most of the groups I am familiar with back home typically are segregated by age; this wasn't the case in Brazil. As soon as you are able it looks like you get pulled in.

Now the next step is to learn more Portuguese so I can understand the songs. I was amazed at how many people would sing the songs being performed. This happened at nearly every place music was played. I know we have some songs that most people know the words too but nothing like this.

Don't resist it. Tap your feet, clap, dance, do whatever you want, but enjoy the music while you are in Brazil.

--Mike Dresher, Recife, Brazil, June, 2003