I go to Traço de União to listen to music, that's the spirit! The musical quality is a priority there, with nice acoustics to really put samba musicians and composers under the spotlight.
It is a really big shed, an old parking lot, but that was slowly turning into a great root samba house, after a lot of investment. Traço de União has the blessing of our godmother Beth Carvalho, one of the greatest samba artists of all time.
A lot of good artists began singing there, such as Diogo Nogueira, son of the legend João Nogueira, since the beginning, and old time carnival singers, like Almir Guineto and Aldo Bueno.
As it stays open for 12 hours, the audience recycles itself all day long. There's people who go there to eat the feijoada. Than there are those guys who come just to have a beer. And then, when the sun sets, the tables are put aside and the place turns into a big dance floor - and different people enjoy an evening of samba, with that samba school feel.
It all began in the 1990s, when a group of friends, musicians and journalists, had a place in Butantã that could accommodate 50 people, but 100, 200 people use to go listen to quality samba there. When the place shut down, we went after another place where we could transfer the whole experience to, and so Traço de União was born.
I'm a partner of Traço de União and nowadays I don't work there anymore, but I'm a habitué and, of course, a marketer for the house. It's open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. On the Saturday we have feijoada and the place just gets crowded, 1000 people must circulate there. And there we are, bringing top quality music for those who want to join!