This is really, really cool: the Carnaval de Campos do Jordão yesterday announced the theme for this year's Carnaval street day on February 24th. In this Ano Villa-Lobos, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Villa's death, the theme will be the works of Villa-Lobos. Six Samba Schools will be in the parade this year, each with a special Villa-Lobos theme:

• Jardim Márcia - “Uma homenagem a Villa-Lobos”
• Jardim Imperial - “Uirapuru”
• Vila Santo Antônio - “Bachianas”
• Bloco dos Artistas (Vila Britânia) - “Choro”
• Acadêmicos do Britador - “Amazônia Fauna”
• Vai-Vai da Mantiqueira (Monte Carlo) - “O Trenzinho do Caipira”

I can't think what a comparable popular culture event in Europe would be to celebrate this year's Haydn or Schumann anniversaries.

More information at the Guiacampos website.

Carnaval and the Bossa Nova

I missed this NPR feature, from Performance Today, from 2005, on the Carnaval and the popular music of Brazil. Besides the Villa-Lobos piece played by pianist Luiz de Moura Castro and selections from the Obrigado Brasil project, you can listen to a quick rundown of important genres of Brazilian popular music: samba, choro, bossa nova, the music of Bahia, and capoeira.

Make sure you follow the link to the Performance Today page for Obrigado Brazil: Yo-Yo Ma's all-star Brazilian project. The Villa-Lobos piece is A Lenda do Caboclo, with Sergio & Odair Assad and Ma, but Villa's finger-prints are all over much of this music.

You can buy the original CD of Obrigado Brazil from Amazon.com: