Bolero at Sunset

Since 1995, a local musician has been going out on a river boat every single day, playing the beautiful "Bolero" song on his saxophone here in Cabedelo, Brazil. An entire local tourist industry has developed as a result of him going out playing the same sound track every day for the past twenty years. About 40 minutes before sunset, a number of boats carrying tourists would congregate in front of the riverside restaurants.

This is the situation every single day with a couple of thousands of tourists gathering at these restaurants and riverside to listen, photograph and video record the daily ritual. Besides the local restaurants, there are many kiosks and shops open for the tourist congregating for the event. These shops are highly dependent on the tourists the musician attracts and only trade from about 16h00 to around 20H00 each day.

Shortly before sunset, all the blaring music will quiet down and the place will become silent. The musician then start playing his saxophone through a joint sound system shared by all the restaurants. He would slowly make his way through the restaurant to a mooring and then climb inside the river boat to be paddled around the waiting boats full of tourists. The boat man skilfully paddles the boat in the fast flowing river visiting each tourist boat circling as he makes his way. After visiting each boat, the man then paddles back to the adjoining restaurant from where he started and the song ends as the last light of the sun disappears behind the distant horizon. We were in our own dinghy when we video recorded this daily event, the flow of the river was really strong and our dinghy bobbed up and down - hence the jerky video motion.