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A brief history of the band
maSamba were born on the wave of enthusiam following the success of the 1994 ‘Big Bang Festival’ at the City Arts Centre in Dublin.
Initially rehearsing on the quays of the river Liffey‚ the band were often in direct competition with the 7 O’clock mass being held in the Quay Church - hence the name‚ which also means ‘more Samba’ - something the Priest didn’t seem to agree with !
maSamba have around twenty-five active members from a variety of cultural and artistic backgrounds, with many that are experienced performers and musicians.
They rehearse together on a weekly basis in both the Westland Row Christian Brothers school and an IDA unit in the Liberties area (Directions to the rehearsal space can be located on the contact page), where new members are always welcome.
maSamba circa 2001
Just a few of the group’s career high-lights so far include:
- Mexico – In 2002, maSamba invited by the local government in Guaymas, Northern Mexico to participate in their local carnival. Over the four nights of carnival, we performed for over 300,000 people and also visited a number of workshops, schools, and orphanages where we delivered samba workshops and mini-performances.
- Brasil – in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005, we organised study visits to Brasil for members of the group. In total, 30 members of maSamba and our youth group have travelled to Brasil to study with Brasilian musicians, attend performances and rehearsals of some of the top samba schools, and generally learn about Brasilian culture and the communities that are the strongholds of the samba movement. In 2003, we performed as part of the official carnival of Olinda, at the invitation of the local government there. This show was extremely well received and we were subsequently invited back to perform there again, but had to decline, due to insufficient funding.
- Special Olympics World Games - In 2003, maSamba got heavily involved in the Special Olympics World Games. We were invited by many of the host town committees to perform at the welcoming ceremonies for the delegations of athletes and also delivered workshops with athletes from the Brasilian delegation and in the Special Olympics Village at the RDS. The high point of this project was our participation in the official Opening Ceremonies at Croke Park, along with many world famous artists and politicians.
- St. Patrick’s Festival - In 2004, we decided to celebrate maSamba’s 10th birthday by designing and delivering a pageant for the St. Patrick’s Festival parade in Dublin. This project, entitled ‘Amazonas, Glory of the Rainforest’ involved over 100 dancers, actors, musicians and technical staff and won the ‘Spirit of the Parade’ award, as judged by the Festival Committee. We also received a special commendation from the Brasilian Ambassador to Ireland for our representation of Brasilian culture. In 2006, we again developed a pageant for the St. Patrick’s festival in Dublin, Based around a world cup theme, ‘We’re Off to the Final’ developed the notion that Ireland will one day play against Brasil in a world cup final. This pageant was awarded the Chairman’s Award by the St. Patrick’s Festival organisers.
- Musical Collaborations - In 2004, we continued a long history of collaborating with other musicians. We started the year by doing a series of shows in the Village and the Olympia Theatre with Meteor Award Winner, Paddy Casey, joining him on stage to perform some tunes from his current album ‘Living”. In 2005, as part of the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures, we were asked to participate in a masterclass lead by UK-based Mercury Award winning dance artist Nitin Sawnhey. This project involved deconstructing some of his piece ‘Prophesy’ and creating an Irish-influenced reworking of it for a public performance as part of the festival. This project also afforded us the opportunity to work with other well-known musicians such as Liam O’Maonlai (Hot House Flowers), Robbie Harris (MD of Riverdance) and Brian Fleming (De Jimbe). Also in 2005, Simeon Smith, Musical Director of maSamba is toured Europe, the U.S., Canada and Mexico with the highly acclaimed world music act Dead Can Dance. This tour played to over 80,000 people and was a complete sell-out.
- Reggae Revolution – Reggae Revolution was a major three-day training programme on the theme of samba-reggae music from the N. East of Brasil. Lead by Giba Gonçalves, a native of Salvador da Bahia (the home of samba reggae), the workshop covered several pieces of music and inputs in specific playing techniques.
- Samhain Samba – Using a similar model as the Reggae Revolution, we invited John-Cristophe Jacquin and Jerome Boumendil from the acclaimed Parisian samba group Sambatuc to lead a four-day intensive workshop in the samba batucada rhythms from Rio de Janeiro. Again, this workshop mixed work on repertoire with a strong emphasis on playing techniques and was a huge success. This workshop culminated in a public performance by the workshop group in Temple Bar, to mark the Hallowe’en weekend.
