From Brazil to Bulgaria...
Updated: Mar 22, 2021
Musicians: Alice Zawadzki (violin & voice) and Ben Hazleton (double bass)
The below is an account from Ben Hazleton, about his and Alice's session on the 11th March. They are Spitz regulars now and everyone at Bridgeside Lodge knows them so they can confidently navigate their sessions throughout the home without Spitz staff. Their sessions are always heart-felt, sensitive, genuine, and a real pleasure to witness:
We went up to see J.C, and had a good old session with him. He remembered lots of lyrics to ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me.’ S.I started reciting her usual Scotland the Brave when she saw us. We whipped out some jigs and reels and folk music — our best try at the Scottish Music she was asking for!
Alice was keen to do a Brazilian Choro she had been working on. It’s very uplifting music, with a jolly melody and lots of notes! It had a lot of groove so we played it many times, for several residents. We played it for E.J on the Ground Floor. She really liked it. I thought maybe we should play some Vivaldi or something we know she likes, but Alice was right and E.J really enjoyed it. It brought a smile to her face!
On the 2nd Floor, lots of residents were brought together in the lounge, by Mercy (BSL carer.) G.H, J, M, to name a few. We played for them, which had more of a gig type vibe. We played a variety of repertoire there: some Vivaldi, some Choro, even some Bulgarian Ruchenitza dance music. It’s in a complicated 7:8 rhythm so it was fun seeing people trying to move to it.
It had been J's birthday a few weeks ago so we played happy birthday for her again. I had never been invited into her room before so that was interesting. We did a bit of improvisation with her and it seemed to be really well received.
We were playing the Brazilian Choro when N.J and R came into the dining room on the 1st floor. R lit up and stood there grinning throughout, while N.J joined in with the groove of it on the table.