Imperatriz Leopoldinense Puts Authenticity in Carnaval

Carnaval was all over the place Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium, which was filled with the festive music and spirit that always mark the annual Brazilian Carnaval event. The stars of this year’s show were a collection of musicians and dancers from Rio’s prize-winning Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school, and when they took the stage shortly after midnight, the initial effect was exhilarating.

Garbed in picturesque green and yellow costumes, the group’s six percussionists kicked off a gripping call-and-response rhythmic pattern, following it with a torrent of powerful, in-the-pocket samba rhythms. A few minutes later they were joined by a musician playing the ukulele-like cavaquino, a singer and their own dancers as they opened up the proceedings into an animated, mini version of Rio Carnaval.

“Mini” because the 12 members of Imperatriz Leopoldinense represented only a tiny percentage of the group’s 6,000 members. And the contrast with the real thing was especially dramatic when one compared the Palladium proceedings with the ballroom’s video screen images of huge ensembles of elaborately costumed musicians and dancers surging through the streets of Rio.

But although the Imperatriz drummers did not sound particularly superior to some of the Southland’s own Brazilian percussionists, they brought an irresistible sense of authentic spirit and vivacity to an enthusiastic crowd that was intent upon happily dancing its way into the early-morning hours.

Don Heckman