LOVE YOUR LOCAL BAND: SambaDá by Amanda Martinez for the GOOD TIMES, Santa Cruz
Thu, Mar 27th 2008

And to think, the birth of possibly the only West Coast band to deftly fuse the finesse of funk and reggae with the sensuous beats and vitality of Afro-Brazilian culture evolved out of the wish of one Brazilian native to travel to America and study economics. It’s true. That was the initial intent of Papiba Godinho, frontman and founder of Santa Cruz’s seven-piece SambaDá, when he left his hometown Brazilia for Manhattan. But, explains the band’s percussionist Marcel Menard, Godinho chose to follow his heart, and that decision, of course, landed him right here in SC, as a teacher of Capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian mélange of martial art and dance of which Godinho is also a master. Five years later in ’97, Godinho started jamming with six like-minded Capoeira musicians and the band was born—but it was only a Brazilian-pop cover band. “We had a big crossroads in front of us and we had to decide,” says Menard. “Are we going to be unique?” Opting for the uncharted musical territory, Menard explains: “we took all of these great Brazilian styles, yet we mixed it up with funk and hip hop and jazz, and people really grabbed onto it. Good ol’ open-minded SC loved it, but the real test came in San Francisco, where club promoters were booking safe and recognizable bands, something their Brazilian clients could “sing all the words to.” But SambaDá was bold, (they told promoters cover bands were boring) and persistent. Menard recalls the band’s huge coup in winning over the “younger crowd” at SF’s Carnivale festival. And in times of disillusionment, they looked to their heroes. “Ozomatli paved this pathway,” says Menard. “They mixed it up big time. They took traditional salsa and they had a DJ mix scratching on top of it. Everybody in the music world, the Grammy-association, is going to say ‘Latin alternative is a genre now … The Brazilian equivalent is not as strong yet, but it will be.” Promising words from an ambitious band that plans to celebrate its tenth year working on a new disc, touring the country, (Menard adds that they just logged 4,000 miles with Ozomatli as their opener, “It was the most electric thing I’ve ever experienced. The crowd just ate us up”) and “uniting the two Americas.” “There’s a whole sense of community in Brazil that doesn’t exist here,” says Menard, citing what he believes to be the most significant difference between the two cultures. “People in America are raised to be individuals first.” But, says Menard, any Santa Cruzan in search of an instant bond with your average Brazilian need only utter one word “surfing.” “Surf and skate culture in Brazil is so big—it really connects the two places.”