Pagee Go Go

What is Samba Pagode? Literally meaning "joke" or "merrymaking" in Portuguese, the word "pagode" has come to refer both to a communal party where people gather to play and dance samba as well as to the samba music played at such a gathering. Since the mid-1970s, there was a resurgence of these informal "backyard" gatherings originating in the working-class suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. Recuperating traditional elements of the samba (such as the partido-alto rhythm and song form) and furnishing the genre with several new instruments (i.e., the banjo, and the tan-tan and repique de mão drums), this roots movement arrived in the Brazilian media under the name "pagode," achieving a newfound commercial success for the samba in the 1980s. Since the 1990s, "pagode" has adopted more electric instrumentation and international pop influences, surpassing the commercial success of the earlier movement to become a dominating presence on the Brazilian music scene. At the same time, the term has come to apply to a more diverse range of music, with samba groups from São Paulo and Salvador, Bahia each creating their own regional, pop-oriented versions of "pagode."

(Thanks to Philip Galinsky, the director of Samba New York, for the paragraph above.)

Lee Clippard
Laura DiJulius
Dimitri Kessler
Gordy Shaw
Marcel Motta
Rhitu Shresta
Sasha Rubin

Pagee Go Go started with Barry's first trip to Brazil Camp (aka band camp for adults) in 2002. The teachers stayed up all night drinking beer, cooking churrasco (barbeque), and playing pagode - acoustic samba around a table. He fell in love with the rhythms, songs, and spirit of the music. The next year he brought 3 bandmates from The Handphibians, Lee, Marko, and Johanna with him. They also fell in love with the music. In October 2003, they started meeting as a group in Barry's musty basement sound room, doing more listening to music and drinking beer than actually playing. Joining them were Jeff, Chris (the string section), Dimitri, Laura, Ana Paula, and others.

They settled on 3 songs (A Batucada dos Nossos Tantans, Debaixo do Meu Chepeu, and Volta Meu Amor) and took their first gig in April 2004, a University of Wisconsin student event at the UW Memorial Union Theater. In July, they played their first bar gig at the Weary Traveler on Williamson Street, a Tuesday night, and immediately got 'the promotion' to Saturday night gigs. They only had 14 songs at that point, and had to repeat them at the end of the second set because the crowd didn't want to stop dancing! They crammed like hell for the next gig and had a whopping 20 songs - 2 real, actual sets.

The next big event was Carnaval 2005 with the Handphibians at the High Noon Saloon. They packed the place so much, that people were standing in line, dancing while they were waiting to get in. The group went through some transition in 2005, losing some key members, but gaining some other ones who wanted to play the music. That is the nature of pagode - lots of people play the music. It's a community event.

Of late the band is going strong with the addition of Reena, who was completely new to the music, the re-addition of Ana Paula, a carioca (native of Rio) who is not new to the music, and return of Laura from Brazil. In addition, they have moved up from the musty sound room to Jeff's 2nd story apartment rooftop patio, and then back to Barry's back porch - much more appropriate for the music. They are still playing at various places in Madison.