Brazilian festival brings the crowd to its feet

Beth Carvalho, variously known as the “Godmother of Samba” and “Queen of Carnaval” in her native Brazil, is far less known in this country. But that didn’t matter at all Sunday night, when she headlined the 12th annual Brazilian Summer Festival at the Ford Amphitheatre.

It helped that an apparent majority of the full-house crowd was Brazilian, as did the party atmosphere that has always made the Summer Festival events into celebratory events. But what really made the evening come alive was the gradual buildup of musical energy that culminated in the high-spirited performance by Carvalho and her superb musicians.

The evening began on a charming note with a performance by Samba at Saticoy, a children’s ensemble from North Hollywood, directed by multi-instrumentalist Lee Cobin. This enthusiastic group of youngsters, garbed in colorful outfits, played a full range of Brazilian percussion instruments, from the deep-toned surdo drum to the tambourine-like pandeiro. On some numbers, four small girls sang like a chorus of young birds, their melodies soaring over the percolating samba rhythms.

When the Samba at Saticoy kids left the stage, the atmosphere shifted dramatically with the arrival of the Oya Brazil Samba Show -- six nubile dancers wearing brilliantly colored combinations of feathers, sequins, glitter and G-strings, vigorously dancing the samba on precariously high platform boots.

After a few quick routines, they momentarily surrendered the stage to the M.I.L.A. Samba School, a large, talented congregation of players who romped through a succession of samba variations. The first act ended with the return of the Oya Brazil dancers, who combined with the M.I.L.A. percussionists to set the stage for the arrival of Carvalho in the program’s second half.

Carvalho has been a star of Brazilian music for 40 years, but she performed with the dynamic energy of a new arrival. Virtually every song she offered was well known to the Brazilians in the crowd, who sang along with ebullient gusto. And when she launched into a more familiar item, such as Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade,” everyone in the crowd seemed to join in.

By the time Carvalho took a break for a costume change, the entire rear half of the stage and most of the main aisles were filled with gyrating dancers, their movements galvanized by the playing of Carvalho’s musicians -- the Quinteto em Branco e Preto (Quintet in Black and White) with guest stars Chocolate on drums, Dirceu Leite on saxophone and flute and Carlinhos 7 Cordas (7 Strings) on seven-string guitar.

But it remained, appropriately, for Carvalho to add the climax to this invigorating evening of song and dance. Moving from one side of the stage to the other, encouraging dancers, including some startlingly proficient small children, to bring their samba steps to the spotlight, romping through one samba medley after another, she fully justified the accolades she has received in her native country.

“Godmother of Samba” and “Queen of Carnaval”? Yes, indeed.