Masamba's Director, Simeon Smith, reflects on the first 30 years of Masamba Samba School.
In 1994, a festival took place in Dublin which was to have a profound effect on community music in Ireland. The Big Bang Festival, hosted by the City Arts Centre and Wet Paint Arts, brought together percussion cultures from Ireland, Africa and Brazil. Over two weeks, a series of workshops and performances took place, culminating in a earth-shattering show at the Ormond Multi Media Centre.
Big bangs create sound waves, and the reverberations from this event are still being felt three decades later. Brazilian samba percussion was a popular element of the festival, with stand-out performances by the Drogheda Samba Band and Mac-Umba (Glasgow) wowing audiences and workshop participants alike. The City Arts Centre decided to harness this positivity and organised a series of team-building workshops facilitated by Colin Blakey of the Drogheda band. Colin had recently left the wildly acclaimed Waterboys at the height of their success, and had settled in Drogheda, providing percussion workshops with local young people. This process was replicated at the City Arts Centre, and the project was so successful that it soon became an independent project, renaming itself Masamba Samba School. 30 years later, the group is still performing and teaching – older, wiser and maybe a little deaf!
I came to the band from a background steeped in music. My father, Terry was a mainstay on the traditional scene in Galway, and was famous for busking outside the Claddagh Palace Cinema and the Galway Races. One of my earlies memories was of the silhouettes of musicians around the open stone fireplace in our house outside Spiddal in Galway, as they jammed into the night.
At that time, traditional music was very much of the people in the West of Ireland. I suppose this experience, coupled with my later obsession with punk music and the DIY movement, fixed the notion in my mind that music should be accessible to all, and that every genre of music should be respected. My work in Masamba is an expression of that belief.
Likewise, there has always been a social justice element to our work. One of our earliest influences was the samba-reggae music of Ile Aiye and Olodum. What impressed me was that these groups could make beautiful music, and use their influence to promote equality and tolerance. These groups came from the Liberdade (liberty) neighbourhood of Salvador in North East Brazil, and ironically, we ended up in the Liberties in Dublin. Amazingly, we recently hosted Ile Aiye at our rehearsal space, rounding the circle in some ways.
In 2002, the City Arts Centre closed. Since then, Masamba has been moving from one rehearsal venue to the next, having had seven ‘homes’ in all, We have been based in the Liberties for over 20 years. The band incorporated as a company in 2002 and registered as a charity soon afterwards. Core funding for Masamba’s activities is provided by the Community Services Programme (CSP), an initiative of the Department of Rural and Community Development. This is social enterprise funding, and the we are expected to match government funding with traded income. This income comes mainly from the delivery of training projects, performances and grants from other agencies.
Currently, Masamba Samba School delivers over 400 percussion and dance workshops each year, and performs over 20 times. Current clients include the HSE, the National Concert Hall, and Dublin City Council, but the group is always available to work directly with small community groups and other charities.
The group has also lent its support to many causes and issues over the years, including the March for Marriage, PRIDE, The ‘Yes’ campaign, and ongoing causes such as support for Palestine/Gaza.
While deeply rooted in the community, we have also plenty of experience of performing at the highest level, having toured to the United States, Mexico, Germany, France, the UK and even carnival in Brazil. At home, Masamba has won awards at the St. Patrick’s Festival Parade in Dublin, and participated in most of Ireland’s premier festivals and played at most of Ireland’s most prestigious venues. There have even been a few TV appearances along the way.
These experiences are great opportunities for band members, but create challenges too. It can be difficult to negotiate the sometimes contradictory needs of the professional or ‘high’ art sector and the amateur or community arts. On one hand , there is the need to produce a professional level performance, while at the same time creating a welcoming environment for participants from diverse backgrounds and with differing needs. In some ways, the mainstream arts sector is now catching up with community based arts, as artists and audiences demand a more tolerant and accepting experience from their arts institutions.
One such challenge for us is on the immediate horizon. On November 4th, Masamba Samba School will perform a celebratory concert to mark our 30th birthday. The event will include the many diverse members of the group, including members of the Masamba Youth Project. We will be joined on the night by our long time mentor and collaborator Dudu Tucci. Dudu has worked with the band in many different settings, going back as far as 1999, and this show celebrates our achievement, and looks to a bright future of samba in Dublin.
Masamba Samba School receives core funding from the Community Services Programme, an initiative of the Department of Rural and Community Development.
The Masamba 30th Anniversary celebrations are funded by Dublin City Council Arts Office.
Tickets for the Sugar Club show are free, but must be booked in advance from Eventbrite here: https://tinyurl.com/4jnan4m4
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