We are calling all sambistas from Canada, the US, and around the world to join our community bateria, Bloco Mamutão!
Bloco Mamutão brings people together to gather at different locations across North America to meet, play, socialise and mingle, and to celebrate samba, Brazilian culture, and the community surrounding it.
Our very first meeting was held in Toronto, ON, Canada on Saturday, September 21, 2024, where we had over 50 people from half a dozen different cities came together to play the drums.
If you play samba, join us! Sign up with us so we can keep you posted on our next events!
If you would like to be informed on where we can see us next, follow us on social media!
Axé,
Péter and Adam
Péter Sós
I got sucked into the world of samba in 2006 when I joined Bloco de Budapeste. Two years later I was invited to play with Bloco X, Europe's famous all-star samba group. In 2010 with a few friends we founded Bloco de Samba Girassol, Hungary's first bateria dedicated exclusively to Samba Carioca. My first community samba project was Bloco Coração, which was brought to life so the samba community in Central Europe can experience what it feels like playing with a large bateria. In 2014, after moving to Australia, I joined Bateria 61 in Sydney. Building on the success of Bloco Coração, with folks from around Australia we created Unidos da Cacatua in 2018, where we invited all sambistas from Australia and New Zealand to play together a few times a year. And then in 2024, after spending a few years in Canada, with the hope to help further foster the samba community in North-America, we brought Bloco Mamutao to life!
Adam Kafal
A drummer from age 11, I discovered samba in 2012 with Samba Elégua and Batucada Carioca in Toronto, which quickly led to a serious obsession. I started off playing caixa, but picked up tamborim and repique soon after. Circumstances left me with musical direction duties starting in 2013, eventually resulting in the formation of another project in 2016, Blokoloko, until Covid ruined everything.
In the meantime I’ve been a regular member of Bloco X since 2018, and have made a handful of trips to Rio, including two carnaval parades playing caixa with samba schools Innocentes de Belford Roxo in 2017, and União da Ilha in 2023.
We acknowledge that the land we gather and play on across Turtle Island or North America is the traditional territory of first nations peoples.
When we come together to celebrate and enjoy samba, this music we all love, we reflect on the history behind this music, heavily influenced by colonialism. While the music we play, and the culture surrounding it, is happy and full of life on its surface, and is now celebrated around the world as the symbol of Brazilian culture, is heavily influenced by, and its history bears deep marks of oppression, resistance, and the struggles of the Black slaves brought over from Africa to the American continent, as well as Indigenous peoples who struggled at the hands of their colonizers.
As we celebrate and enjoy Brazilian culture, we reflect on our privilege to be able to do so, and on the rich, and often cruel history that led to where we stand today.