#101 Iúri Oliveira- Portuguese Percussionist for Sara Alhinho and More!
This week’s guest Iúri Oliveira is a professional percussionist residing in Portugal. Photo by Sergio Dias.
First up this week is Gig Alerts. Over the weekend, there was the Global Citizen Festival South Africa, celebrating Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday. You can watch the stream of that concert HERE. The SF Jazz is having their 2019 Gala honoring Chucho Valdes with a host of great musicians participating. More info and tickets can be found HERE.
Our Educational Spotlight for this week is that (friend of the show) Scott Kettner has an educational website called World Drum Lessons (dot com), and he added new lessons. This includes the triangle and Forro grooves. The sound bite we used was from the Forró de Fòra EP. The other educational spotlight is CD Baby’s DIY Musician Conference. That will be held in Austin, TX from Aug 16-18 2019. For discounted tickets, CLICK HERE, and use the code: ATXPRESALE.
The iconic recording is “Aires De Navidad” by Willie Colon (feat. Hector Lavoe) from the Asalto Navideño album.
Product Reviews for this week are student model/intermediate level drumsets and percussion lines. LP has Aspire and Matador series, Pearl has the Primiero, Meinl has the Headliner and Gon Bops has the Fiesta. With regard to drumsets, some of the ones we named are: Ludwig’s Pocket Kit and Breakbeats Kit, Gretsch has the Catalina Club, Pearl has the Midtown and the Roadshow Jr., Tama has the Club Jam, and Mendini has the Cecilio. There are also cymbal packs by Zildjian, Sabian, Istanbul, Meinl and more! You can step up your drums with good drum heads as well from companies like: Remo, Evans, & Aquarian. For tuning and other upkeep and care information, you can check out the web series “Sounds Like a Drum”.
For listener letters, we found an answer to the 1964 LP Bongo head situation. You can try THIS HEAD for the traditional rawhide heads. Or if you want to go synthetic, you can try the NuSkyn or Skyndeep tucked heads from Remo.
Music News for this week is: House concerts and other places to play your music. You can also check out this book by Shannon Curtis who shares how to make a living doing that. Damon also mentions the company So Far Sounds for alternative concert venues. Another hidden gem is performing in libraries. If you are looking to perform at Colleges and Universities, check out NACA. If you have been following the new tax cuts and jobs act and are wondering how that affects you as a musician, then check out THIS BLOG POST. Lastly, a rapey Christmas Carol has been banned from a Cleveland radio station.
The song leading into the interview is called “Mana Minga” by Mother Nature.
Iuri started playing around his house and eventually went to The Rhythm Studio Conservatory in London. He studied with Marcus “Santana” Raimundo, a Brazilian percussionist.
When he completed his studies in London, Iuri went to Holland to study with Roel Callister at the Drum Drum Drum school.
The Portuguese singer of Cape Verdean decent Iuri mentions is Sara Tavares. He ended up subbing for the percussionist for Sara who also played for Cesaria Evora.
Iuri uses Evernote to organize his notes and draw his kits. Damon takes pictures of his setups and uses ForScore for writing his music.
The Argentinian Leguero is a drum that Iuri mentions purchasing. Damon brings up starting to learn the Cas Cas (or Asalato) shakers. One of the eccentric things in Iuri’s stick bag is a jaw harp or as he refers to it, a mouth berimbau.
Some of the books Iuri has and studies from are “Los Tumbaos de la Salsa” by Daniel Genton. The Mel Bay publication “La Rumba vol. 2” by Cliff Brooks. “La Percusion en el Flamenco” by Nan Mercader. Michael Spiro’s “The Conga Drummer’s Guidebook”. “Tumbadoras vol. 2” (second row down) by Enildo Rasua Vall-IIosera. “Caderno de Ritmos Brasilieros & Instrumentos de Percussao” by Paulo Kayma. “African Percussion” by Serge Blanc. And “Tecnica, Ritmos Y Rudimentos en las Congas” by Diego Silbermanas.
Iuri uses Latin Percussion instruments, Remo Drumheads, Turkish Cymbals, and Innovative Percussion Sticks and Mallets.
You can follow Iuri on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram
The song leading out of the interview was called “Santo Nobo” by Sara Alhinho.
