http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/travel/surveying-sao-paulos-music-scene-with-ceu.html 2014-09-15 23:47:57 Surveying São Paulo’s Music Scene With Céu The Brazilian singer offers a selective list of spots for catching live acts in the sprawling city. === About 15 years ago, when the Brazilian singer To do so, she went to jam sessions nightly and played as many shows as she could. “I didn’t go to formal school,” said the musician, now 34, who was born Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças. “My school was in the street.” Such an education, Céu contended, could be had only in São Paulo, the country’s largest metropolis, with a population of 11 million. Its sprawl, much maligned, has an upside for musicians: There is always a concert going on somewhere. “It’s such a huge city,” she said, “you don’t even know all the places there are to play.” Recently she talked about a few spots she has discovered. Following are edited excerpts. Q. Where do you go to hear new music? A. There’s this other interesting room near it: Any others? Last month I played in a show with this great artist named Casa de Francisca Any recommendations for more traditional music? Ó do Borogodó, which means something like “a mess,” is great for people who like traditional samba. They often have this beautiful roda de samba — a circle with a lot of horns and percussion — and Kiko used to play at this roda too. It’s very traditional and really nice. You can have a beer and feel how samba is. Any place where traditional meets new?  In São Paulo, pretty much all of the artists play at this huge space from the government: SESC. It’s like a community center. This thing, we have all over Brazil. But in São Paulo, it’s very well organized and very cool because of the guy behind it,