Tuesday, July 29, 2008
KEEP IT RIO! A night of Afrobeat, Brazilian electronica & baile-funk with
BRAZILBEAT SOUNDSYSTEM (Belezza Records/Brazil-New Zealand) featuring
percussionist/MC NEGO BETO and DJ MARA
celebrating the release of their debut full-length album Nova
plus DJ SEP (Kpfa/Dub Mission/San Francisco)
@ Elbo Room - 647 Valencia Street - SF - 21 & over - club line: 415 552 7788
9 pm to 2 am - $7 - adv. tix: ticketweb.com and jambasetickets.com and elbo room
More info: www.brazilbeat.org

BRAZILBEAT SOUND SYSTEM (BBSS) is a rising international talent on the cutting edge of roots and dance music. Showcasing electronic music with true instrumental rhythmic sensibility, this DJ-and-live-drums collective features internationally renowned Brazilian master percussionist NEGO BETO, and DJ MARA.

Over a 20-year music career, which includes performing and teaching on five Continents, NEGO BETO has toured with reggae legends likes The Wailers, and produced for MTV in Brazil. His hard-case MC style and riveting performances on congas, timbales, bongos, drum machines and varied percussion instruments send audiences to delirium. Born in Bahia, northern Brazil, where he grew up surrounded by the vibrant Afro-Brazilian rhythms, Nego Beto moved to Rio de Janeiro while still in his youth. He completed the course of Rhythm and Percussion at the famed Villa-Lobos Music School in 1983 and participated in samba school, carnaval blocks, religious candombles and musical groups. From 1984 to 1988, he worked in New York as a musician and producer, making the sounds of his drums heard in the most diverse genres of music--funk, reggae, rock, pop. In 1992 he created and produced the world's first Reggae MTV program through Brazil's MTV network, and continued as collaborator on various Brazilian MTV programs including Yo! MTV Raps and MTV Verão (Summer). In 1995 Nego Beto traveled for the first time to New Zealand, and laid the groundwork for projects that would materialize a year later: touring with various Maori bands and recording for the albums Tribal Stomp II and He Taonga Te Reo (Tangata Records). He also recorded with numerous New Zealand artists. Living in San Francisco from 1997 to 2001, Nego Beto founded the funk band Unity5, moonlighted with numerous Bay Area groups, made appearances with Brazilian recording artists, and toured Taiwan with Brazilian music and dance troupe Aquarela. Now dividing his time between Brazil, the USA, and New Zealand, Nego Beto focuses energies on BrazilBeat Sound System.

DJ MARA infuses captivating Brazilian melodies with thunderous basslines. Nego Beto & Mara also write the Brazil Beat column in The Beat Magazine (USA), bringing the newest trends in Brazilian music to tens of thousands of readers.

The BBSS sound is a mashup of funk, house, breaks, dub, roots & drum'n'bass, with tight percussive arrangements completing the picture. Their original tracks have been released in the US, Brazil, Japan and New Zealand. Nova, their debut full-length CD, showcases BBSS's massive basslines, audacious percussion, and fiery vocals. Nova means "new" in Portuguese, the language spoken in Brazil, a vast, incredibly diverse country with a strong cultural and musical orientation. Brazil's many musical genres, including samba, bossa-nova, and baile funk to name only a few, command immense popularity the world over. At the core of these compositions are the drums. Nova is a solid slice of club-wise grooves, full of witty percussive detail, and surprising turns. Twelve original tracks showcase the band's depth of musical talent and diverse styles.