My attempt at maestreing with Carnival Collective

On Fridays Carnival Collective have a jam session where new tunes are tried out and new adaptations are made to old tunes. I have had an idea in my head since I was in Samba Tawe to put Deep Blue's 'Helicopter Tune' into a samba band setting.

The 'Helicopter' is a real stomper of a drum and bass tune from 1993. I remember when I first heard it in a club and it sounded so different from anything else at the time. People were talking about it afterwards and there was a real buzz about it, like it was the future of drum and bass.

If you listen to it it's more or less made to be played by a samba band so I finally worked out all the different parts and took it along to the Carnival Collective Friday session for people to have a go at it.

There were only about 10 of us but it was really difficult trying to maestre (the maestre is the person who stands at the front of the band and counts everyone in, calls the breaks and brings different sections of the band in and out - a conductor if you will). It's a lot harder than it looks and takes a fair bit of confidence (confidence I didn't have!). But what an experience! I've only been in the band a few months and I'm already getting really involved. It was so good to finally hear the tune in a samba context.

It sounded good but the tune needs a lot of developing to get to the point where it could be one of CC's tunes. But it's a start - and I'm already getting ideas about how it could develop.

For a poor representation of what it sounded like, click here.

That's me in the top right corner, playing with CC in Abbeville, France, thinking: "Hmm, I don't know this break. I'll just not do anything and hopefully remember what it is for next time. Aah, why are the rest of the band running away?"