RIO DE JANEIRO – The Maze is aptly named. Not that
the renowned guest house in the Tavares Bastos favela above Catete is
especially difficult to find, for Rua Tavares Bastos winds and bends all the
way up the hill from the main road Bento Lisboa near Catete or Largo do Machado
Metro Stations………..
Jamming at Jazz at The Maze in July 2010 by Felicity
Clarke.
……..rather
that upon reaching the community at the top, a left turn takes you on one of
those mysterious single file passageways created by haphazard three story
buildings in close proximity. Follow the arrows, look for a sign on the floor
and, if you’re lucky, you’re at The Maze.
The
Maze has been home and castle to Englishman Bob Nadkarni for nigh on thirty years. As well
as successfully campaigning for the installation of the BOPE in the favela,
creating positive visibility and opportunities for the community and providing
a unique tourist experience, Bob has made The Maze a hot spot on the nightlife
culture map of Rio with his hugely popular
monthly jazz nights.
Taking
place the first Friday of every
month, Jazz at The Maze started out in 2006 as a way for Bob to cure some
rather specific saudades: “I used to be in a jazz band in England
and it’s one of the only things I miss so I decided to bring it here. Twelve
people came to the first night. Now we’ve just celebrated our fourth birthday
and get crowds of five hundred people every month”.
The
growth of the night’s cult status is not surprising. Jazz at The Maze is a
curious event, with the playing of a genre with roots in early
twentieth-century New Orleans in the context of
a Rio favela. With a focus on romantic jazz,
most of the tunes played at Jazz at The Maze were composed between the 1920s
and 1960s and recorded by artists like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. In
an open jam session that has brought together amateur musicians from all over
the world, the changing band and vocalists swing through a series of songs,
improvisations and raw, soulful sounds.
As
Argentinian singer Nuria Pucci’s nonchalant rasp soars through the space in an
almost funky version of Gershwin’s Summertime, it’s clear that Jazz at The Maze
is a serious musical offering. But what draws the mixed crowd of middle to
upper class Cariocas, expats and international visitors is the whole
experience.
For
Bob, whose generosity of spirit and warm, welcoming banter make him a popular
character and perfect host, the music is an obvious passion. “There are only
twelve notes in western music and it’s amazing what you can do with them”, he
enthuses. “Jazz is about friends meeting and it’s about playing in a
sense. A game or a conversation between the musicians that crosses all cultural
barriers.”
The
‘edgy’ favela location is part of it, but equally The Maze’s fascinating
magical-cavern character adorned with Bob’s artwork and the mesmerizing view
over Guanabara Bay create a setting genuinely
like no other.
Which
brings us back to that name. Labyrinthine in structure, The Maze both dazes and
amazes, but far from confusing, the monthly jazz nights (and rock ‘n’ roll band
nights every third Friday of the month) create a pleasingly laid-back
atmosphere and tangible vibe of enjoyment throughout the crowd. Jazz in the favela: a puzzling prospect
that’s a resounding success.
Jazz at The Maze, every first Friday of the month,
Rua Tavares Bastos, 414 casa 66, entrance R$30. You are advised not to take
your car as there’s nowhere to park and transport up and down the hill is
available all night.
MAZE FOOTNOTE( with thanks to The Rio Times )
We´ll see you
on
Friday 6th
August
**By the way, we don´t work
with Credit or Debit cards**
Não aceitamos cartões de crédito e débito
Bar open from 21.00h – 03.45h
Bar aberto das
21.00h – 03.45h
*
Jazz at the MAZE
Coming up this month on
*******************
**TV
Record**
**TV Brasil***
*******************
Jazz Guesthouse Lifts a Favela
By Doug Gray, Contributing Reporter
Bob Nadkarni with a view from the roof, photo provided
by The Maze.
RIO DE JANEIRO – July 2009 sees the third birthday of Jazz At The Maze, and marks eight
and a half years since the opening of the guesthouse of the same name built from
scratch by Englishman Bob Nadkarni in Tavares Bastos Favela in Catete, where he
has also lived for the best part of thirty years.
With the live music nights becoming bi-weekly as a result of their
word-of-mouth success, the Maze pousada now accommodating around 25 people at
capacity and having been used as a location for rap videos and blockbuster
films, some would consider allowing themselves a little time to reflect. Within
five minutes in Nadkarni’s company, it is clear that this is not the case.
Nadkarni arrived in Brazil in 1972, and the running theme through Bob’s life
in the favela has been trying to create opportunities for the people living
there when traditionally they have been given few, marginalized or castigated by
those in power.
Nadkarni’s priority some twenty years ago, before the creation of The Maze
could have been achieved, was a campaign to get the BOPE (the Elite Special
Forces unit of the Military Police) Headquarters moved from Niteroi to a large
disused building in Tavares Bastos. At the turn of the millennium the campaign
finally succeeded and though he had never personally had any problems with the
gangs, the number of young people killed or dislodged as part of the violence
there was a daily fact of life.
One of the golden securty rules of Rio is never go by yourself to a
favela, specially at night... Well, The Maze in is the place to break
it! This amazing art gallery and bar (and also a B&B) is hidden on
a calm favela in Catete, at the south zone of Rio. Every first friday
of the month, this place turns into a jazz club, where cool locals and
well informed foreigners meet to listen great jazz, bossa nova and
samba. All that with great caipirinhas and an amazing view of Rio. And
if you are a musician, dont be shy to talk to the musicians and perform
with them, is highly recomended by then.
I just dont place a highly recomended because the only beer sold is
Priums, a bad brazilian beer. Arrive early to get a good place with the
view and get the discount, paying R$ 5 to get in.
Olha, é difícil eu prometer algo e não cumprir... pois é, tinha dito que ia pessoalmente ao The Maze, conhecer o local, o Bob e a Malu, e fui!
Agora
gostaria de dividir com vocês as minhas impressões, um pouco diferentes
daquelas que meu amigo descreveu e publiquei aqui no Blog: Caros amigos, vos escrevo...
Então,
fomos em seis pessoas, pegamos dois táxis, e outros amigos deveriam
chegar lá e nos encontar mais tarde. Demos o endereço e tudo bem. Fui
no táxi de trás, com dois amigos. Meu amigo que já tinha ido e sabia
como chegar foi no táxi da frente, explicando.
Realmente, se
chega a uma rua de bairro, normal, e a rua vai subindo o morro, vai
subindo, subindo e girando, girando, até chegar ao final da rua, onde
há bastante espaço para fazer o retorno pois não se pode ir adiante. O
táxi da frente começou a dar ré, e o meu taxista se assustou. Começou a
dizer "Não é aqui! Não é esse o lugar! Está errado!"
Enquanto
isso, meus amigos começaram a descer do táxi, nisso, o amigo que estava
ao meu lado disse ao taxista: "Está certo, é aqui sim! Veja, o pessoal
está descendo então é aqui mesmo que a gente fica..."
I arrived in Rio later that morning and followed Bob Nadkarni’s
instructions to The Maze, his guest house on the favela in Catece (the one
obligatory destination in South America, this place, see http://jazzrio.info -
ignore the fact that the website is sometimes out of date; Bob’s a busy man
wheeler-dealing with top film companies on how they should compensate the favela
for using it as a film location).
After a completely open schedule in Montevideo, Rio was pretty busy. My
first gig was a street in Carioca in downtown Rio where I set up amongst the
card sharks. I really wasn’t sure how Bach was going to go down here so was
really pleasantly surprised when a small circle formed around me. I was
joined after a while by Helen from the BBC, who lent a touch of glamour to the
proceedings (it always helps to have someone holding a mike at you in the street
– people stop just to work out what’s going on).
First
there was Hollywood, then came Bollywood in Mumbai, Nollywood in
Nigeria, and Lollywood in Lahore. But have you heard of Bobbywood?
Anton Foek visits a friend to find out more.
Hot
on the heels of his reports from the towns of Outlook in Washington
State and Paradise in Northern California, he's now in Bobbywood in Rio
de Janeiro.
Bobbywood - not internationally
famous - is the nickname for the corner of a favela or shantytown in
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, which an English expatriate has made his
home.
In a Rio shanty town, Andrew Downie experiences spectacular sights and sounds.
By Telegraph.co.uk
I am standing with a few others under a blue tarpaulin in one of those
torrential Latin American downpours a few hundred yards from Bob
Nadkarni's house and I fear the worst for his monthly jam session.
Cariocas, as residents of Rio are known, are like
cats: they hate to go out in the rain. Nadkarni is about to stage Rio's
most unusual jazz night, but it looks as though no one will be there to
hear it.
Then a taxi emerges from the gloom and
four Germans get out carrying guitar cases and saxophones. They join us
under the dripping tarpaulin and we throw back beers and wait for the
rain to ease. When it does, we dash through the puddles towards the
entrance of the Tavares Bastos favela and head up a narrow staircase to
the Maze.
The Maze is Nadkarni's sprawling,
unfinished labyrinth of a home set on top of a favela, one of the
600-odd slums that dot the self-proclaimed Marvellous City. Nadkarni,
63, a former BBC cameraman and professional sculptor, started building
it 26 years ago when most of the dwellings here were made from wood and
tin. Now it is one of the largest buildings in the area.
"There is something about a favela that is so different from the controlled way we live in the West," he says.
