This episode explores a different side of the artistic life than I’ve talked about here before, and it’s one that is more practical and less romanticized.
I’m always excited to talk to Jeff Packman. Conversations with him seem to spark in all directions as he contributes observations and clever ways of connecting the dots between ideas. He’s generous and unpretentious, down-to earth, and a really good drummer. For years he was a professional giggling musician in and around Los Angeles, playing Jazz, Latin and related genres. But his interest in the music of Bahia de Brasil grew—specifically in the ordinary musicians who work there.
Jeff ’s first degree was in engineering, but now he is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and associate Dean of Graduate studies at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.
His book is called Living from Music in Salvador: Professional Musicians, Popular Music, and the Capital of Afro-Brazil, and as one reviewer says, it is “a provocative ethnography of professional musicians in various musical circuits of Salvador, Brazil, well known for its creative industry."
I hope you check out the book, and enjoy our conversation!
Music Played:
Theme: Ali Berkok, “The Wolf,” from his album Never Get Lost for Long
Bandcamp
Samba de Farofa, Devo a ninguém, YouTube
Jeff Packman and Sean Bellaviti: private recording of them jamming!
…but here’s Jeff Packman on drums in his Los Angeles gigging days, on Jim Stubblefield’s Cities of Gold
And here’s pianist Sean Bellaviti on a commercial recording
Watch Samba De Farofa in action:
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