Workshops :: Brazilian Percussion

Brazilian Percussion

Xande Cruz

Saturday, 3pm @ The Lake

Explore...experience... the rhythms and sounds of Brazil.

Hear the rhythms...see the light!

Investigate the world of Afro- Brazilian music. Internalize the beat and learn to play several percussion instruments and traditional rhythms from various regions of Brazil. Bring your own drum or use one of the limited instruments provided by the instructor.

 

Biography

Xande Cruz is a true showman, playing over twenty different percussion instruments and blessing audiences with magical rhythms with energizing vocals. Xande was born and raised in Sao Paulo Brazil. He migrated to New York when he was 20. There he started playing for dance studios, which progressed to touring with samba schools in Japan and Korea. He created a trio of percussionists called Batukis, which performed traditional Brazilian rhythms for small venues. Due to his impressive percussion skills playing a vast array of Afro Brazilian instruments, he began to play with other bands. He also performed with various Brazilian pop bands, African drum ensembles, dance troupes, and theatrical productions in NY, Miami and Philadelphia. Xande’s musical talents evolved and he started writing and singing original works. 

Xande’s debut project, LUZ, approached an atypical sound from his rhythmic percussive roots perspective and from there created memorable harmonies woven into the fabric of his art and his identity. LUZ showcased Xande’s soulful, gritty voice with lyrics that flood the mind with thoughts of social inequality, love, and the cultural peculiarities of Brazil and the US. He pays tribute to the great influences of both of his homelands while redefining “world music”

While working on his second album, Xande broadened his repertoire by accepting a position as Director of Music for Hey, You! The company creates programs to help children with Attention Deficit Disorder complete life tasks in the home environment. The core of the program is delineated tasks set to music. Xande creates music geared to prompt neural and rhythmic patterning which allows the tasks to become habits. Once again Cruz infuses his unique percussive sounds into the songs, which in this format result in internalization of the skill and infectious fun for the children.

Celebrate, Cruz’s second album, is a mixture of Brazilian percussion with turntables and samples, funk guitars, bass, horns and electronics. His new sound is fresh off the streets, rooted in Afro-Brazilian tradition, and steeped in pop melodies and flavors. Expected to be released summer 2014, the songs seep into your mind, body and soul. 

www.xandecruz.com