Life is a Carnaval

The holiday has been traced back to the ancient Greek traditions of Dionysus and Dionysia. If you live in New Orleans or Rio it’s impossible not to get swept up in it. Most large cities around the world gyrate to its frenetic rhythms, driven by drumming and dancing to a fever pitch.
Today marks the final fling of Fat Tuesday (known in N’awlins as Mardi Gras), before the coming of Ash Wednesday, which traditionally marks the beginning of a 40-day period of the austerity and self-denial of Lent.
If you’re a drummer or percussionist and lucky enough to live in a city that pulls out all the stops for this blow-out, you’ll likely find yourself in the streets, beating on something—be it a drum, a bell, or maybe the guy who’s trying to pick your pocket while you’re distracted by the dancing girls.
In Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Recife, people save for months to buy elaborate fantasias, or carnaval costumes. Samba schools, neighborhood carnaval organizations, compete to put on the most impressive displays of drumming and dancing during competitions that take place in different areas of the city. The most well-known of these competitions takes place in Rio's Sambadrome, a large venue built especially for the samba parades. The samba schools each consist of thousands of members, dressed in elaborate costumes and dancing routines they have rehearsed all year to original music. Each schools presentation is based around a central theme, typically a historical event or a Brazilian Indian legend.
While Brasil is an endlessly fascinating country and Rio is indeed a marvelous city, the poverty and crime cannon that besets the people of Brazil's urban centers should not be glossed over. The same favelas, or shantytowns, that spawn the greatest carnaval celebrations are rife with violence, drug crime, and police corruption. An excellent documentary film called Favela Rising documents one man's struggle to uplift his crime-ridden neighborhood via AfroReggae music. City of God is another great film that presents both an unblinking look at Rio's dark side while also giving a sense of the basic joyfullness that's characteristic of the Brazilian people.
To get a sense of what carnaval in Rio is like, check out the 1959 movie Orfeu Negro, or Black Orpheus, in which the ancient Greek Orpheus myth is played out against the background of carnaval. The 1999 remake by Carlos Diegues, entitled simply Orpheu, while a lesser film than the original, nonetheless stands on its own in presenting an evocative picture of 21st century Rio.
The massive processions are powered by percussion sections, or batarias, that number several hundred strong. With the growing popularity of world music in general and Brazilian music in particular, many of the percussion instruments used by these giant rhythm sections are available for contemporary drummers and percussionists.
Agogo bells are duo-toned bells that keep the samba schools on beat with their characteristic high-pitched rhythms. Various shakers help propel the percolating batucada drum grooves. The Pandeiro is the Brazilian version of the one-headed drum with jingles that we know as the tambourine. Remo makes a handy strap, the Dual Slider Percussion Strap, that allows you to play your African-style djembe drum in the style of the hand-drum sections of the carnaval processions (desfiles) of northern Brazil. Samba whistles are used to signal changes in rhythm and tempo.
Companies like Latin Percussion, Meinl, Remo, and Toca carry a huge range of Brazilian and world percussion. Short of catching a flight to Rio, the best way to learn how to play Brazilian rhythms is by listening to and studying them. Musician's Friend carries some books and CDs on the subject such as Brazilian Rhythms and the Åpuro Brazilian PVG Songbook.