This week’s guest is Iúri Oliveira. Percussionist, multi-percussionist, composer, researcher, sound designer, and music producer. He graduated from The Rhythm Studio (London School of Popular Music) and Drumdrumdrum in the Netherlands. An active performer in multiple percussion styles and rhythmic traditions, he explores a variety of sounds ranging from Fado to World Music, Latin Jazz to Fusion, Pop to South American sounds, and from electronic music to free improvisation.

Currently, he is one of the most creative, expressive, and sophisticated names in Portuguese music, known for his unique and broad approach. This has led him to collaborate with musicians and composers from various musical genres around the world, including soundtracks for film and theater.

With extensive live performance experience, especially as a sideman, he has performed on some of the most iconic stages in Portugal and around the world, including the iconic MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where he performed with Madonna at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards.

He actively collaborates as a studio musician for artists worldwide, such as The Cinematic Orchestra, Hélder Moutinho, Nancy Vieira, among others, and also from his personal studio, where he adds his inspiration to the knowledge he absorbed from mentors like Giovanni Hidalgo, Marcelo Wolosky, Roël Callister, Marcus Santana, and Jarrod Cagwin. He creates unique universes and intentions for each musical concept presented to him.

Iúri Oliveira also embraces an authorial dimension, having released the tracks, SUÂO featuring Carlos Sanches, CASA, featuring Edu Mundo, HABITAT, in collaboration with Manuel Rocha, and the soundtrack Atemporal for the movie "The Shrovetide Devil" and AURORAS for the film JOÃO AYRES - O PINTOR INDEPENDENTE, with which he won the Best Original Composition Award at the Paris Film Awards, the European Art Festival, and the Red Moon Film Festival. More recently, he released his first album of original music, MANIFESTO, a solo album where he takes a deep dive into wood, skin, and steel, without using loops or electronics. This album traces a vibrant path full of colors and textures.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Kit Chatham! Kit is an internationally recognized percussionist, performer, composer, arranger, and educator. Kit’s experience in many forms of percussion, including drum set, world percussion, orchestral percussion, and marching percussion, makes him a highly sought after performer & clinician and create a percussive sound that is uniquely his own.

Kit has been a Drummer/Percussionist, Bandleader, and Artist Coach for Cirque du Soliel since 2005. He currently is the Drummer/Percussionist for Cirque du Soleil’s newest show in collaboration with Disney called Drawn to Life. Kit has enjoyed performing throughout the world and in front of millions of spectators with other Cirque du Soleil productions: KURIOS (2014-2019), Kooza (2013-2014), Zumanity (2012-2013), Mystere (2012-2013), Viva Elvis (2009-2012), and Corteo (2005-2009). Kit has been the original Percussionist/Drummer and helped to create his characters for Drawn to Life, KURIOS, Viva Elvis, and Corteo. In over 7000+ shows with Cirque, Kit has not missed a single show. He is known in Cirque circles as the “Cirque du-rummer” because of his performances in seven different Cirque du Soleil productions

Before joining Cirque du Soleil, Kit completed an exciting run from 2003 to 2004 as the featured percussionist soloist and music/percussion manager for the critically acclaimed instrumental theatrical show, CYBERJAM, in London, England’s West End. From 2001 to 2003, he was the featured snare drum/percussion soloist with the Tony and Emmy Award-winning Broadway show, BLAST!, which toured the United States, Canada, and Japan.

Kit has performed with numerous bands and ensembles and toured throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. He has arranged, composed, and designed for some of the world’s top music ensembles and organizations. These include Cirque du Soleil, SmartMusic, Finale, the University of Georgia, London’s Royal Military Academy, the University of Tennessee, Crossmen Drum & Bugle Corp, Terminus Percussion Theatre, Atlanta Quest, Odyssey Percussion Theatre, and many scholastic groups throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. He has made television appearances on The Late Late Show with James Corden, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Miss Universe Pageant, The Today Show, Regis and Kelly, CNN, PBS, the BBC London, among others.

When he is not performing with Cirque du Soleil, Kit continues his involvement with the global music community. Kit also runs his own recording studio and music production company, TikBeats, and is a music producer/casting consultant for both Cirque du Soleil and Walt Disney International. He has published six books on percussion and is co-creator of The Principal Percussion Series for Percussion. Kit continues giving in-person private lessons to aspiring percussionists in the Orlando area.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Kit received his bachelor’s degree in Music Education from The University of Georgia, where he studied percussion with Dr. Thomas McCutchen and Dr. Arvin Scott. While at Georgia, he instructed, composed, and arranged for the UGA Redcoat Band, played in numerous music ensembles, and toured Europe at many prestigious jazz festivals like the legendary Le Montreux Jazz Festival, the Jazz à Vienne Festival, and the North Seas Jazz Festival with the University jazz ensemble. Kit received his master’s degree in Music Technology from Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah.

Happy Birthday to Henry Cole! Henry has performed with acclaimed jazz groups, including the Grammy-nominated Miguel Zenón Quartet ,Grammy winner David Sánchez, The Gary Burton Quartet, Quincy Jone’s Global Gumbo, Alfredo Rodriguez Trio, The Ben Wendel Quartet and the all-star quartet “90 Miles” featuring Sánchez, Stefon Harris and Nicholas Payton. He has also recorded and performed with Chambao, Calle13, Residente and Draco Rosa.

Happy Birthday to Dani Markham! Dani began playing with The Fabulous Leopard Percussionists as an 8 year old, where she discovered her love for music. Today, Markham is one of the most daring and inventive percussionists working today, and is in high demand across the pop and contemporary music world, as well as the New York theatre scene. As a touring member of influential bands Tune Yards and Grammy-winner Childish Gambino (Donald Glover), Dani has played all around the world. Recent stage appearances include the 2018 Grammy Music Awards with Childish Gambino, onstage drumming for Sonya Tayeh’s acclaimed ‘You’ll Still Call Me By My Name’, and as a featured guest on Saturday Night Live. Markham is a Latin Percussion and Musser endorsed artist, and is a graduate from the acclaimed Frost School of Music of The University of Miami.

Happy Birthday to Nêgah Santos! Nêgah, a remarkable hand percussionist from São Paulo, Brazil, has been influenced by a wide variety of artists and music genres, including Afro-Cuban, Fusion, R&B, Jazz, Pop, African, Indian, World, and Brazilian music.

Nêgah’s music journey began in her teens when she joined a non-governmental organization (NGO) in São Paulo that provided music, sports, technology, and art classes to children from impoverished neighborhoods. There, she first experienced performance and music theory, and within a short period, she was accepted into the renowned Tom Jobim Music School (ULM - Universidade Livre de Musica). After three years of dedicated study at Tom Jobim School, Nêgah received a full scholarship and graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2015.

In Brazil, Nêgah has also graced the musical theater scene with performances in shows like Mulheres Alteradas and O Primo Basilio. She’s also collaborated with renowned artists like Joyce, Marcos Valle, Jorge Aragão, Alcione, Falamansa, Sandra de Sa, Toni Tornado, and many others

Notably, Nêgah made history as the first female percussionist for the Riverdance 21st-anniversary Euro Tour in 2016. Nêgah Santos’ range of styles brought her opportunities to also work and perform around the world with renowned artists such as Esperanza Spalding, A.R. Rahman, Alejandro Sanz, Terri Lyne Carrington, Diane Reeves, Meshell Ndegeocello, Christian McBride, Trombone Shorty, Ledisi, Clinton Cerejo, Nona Hendrix, Lizz Wright, Tia Fuller, Valerie Simpson, Sheila E., and many others.

In recent years, Nêgah has received prestigious awards, including an Emmy (from the Television Academy) and a Peabody, for her role as a percussionist on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Her responsibilities include writing, performing, and contributing to the arrangements of the band’s diverse musical genres. Jon Batiste, an Oscar and five-time Grammy award winner led the band Stay Human from season one in 2015, before transitioning into The Late Show Band, currently led by Louis Cato since 2022.

Beyond her work on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and collaborations with Jon Batiste, Lake Street Dive, Cory Wong, and other artists, Nêgah has her own musical project. The latest being the album, Forró Da Nêgah. This album showcases her compositions in the northeast Brazilian style of Forró.

Happy Birthday to Scott Amendola! Scott, the drummer, composer and bandleader who’s been a creative force on the Bay Area jazz scene (and far beyond) for the past three decades, knows all about the power of subtraction. His new stripped-down trio SticklerPhonics brings together long-time collaborators Raffi Garabedian on tenor saxophone and trombonist Danny Lubin-Laden, NewYork-seasoned improvisers who’ve worked together since their formative years in the vaunted Berkeley High Jazz Band, circa 2003.

The trio has plunged into the unmediated terrain that opens up in the absence of the usual guidelines,“a situation where there’s no bass and no chords,” Amendola said. “The sound is ever evolving.We’re really settling in, but there’s also the feeling like there are places to go. We’ve been adding my electronics and Danny bringing in a little looper. We’re just getting started.”

With all three players contributing original compositions, SticklerPhonics is a volatile combo that can draw on a vast continuum of jazz practices, from traditional jazz polyphony and ambient soundscapes to funk and free jazz.Amendola, who first gained national attention in the Grammy-nominated three-guitar and drums band T.J.Kirk, has a deep well of experience in unusual instrumental settings.His long-running duo with Hammond B-3organist Wil Blades got its start when they developed an impressively detailed version of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s late masterpiece Far East Suite.

There aren’t many models to follow for SticklerPhonics, though Barondown with tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and trombonist Steve Swell is a major source of inspiration. “Scott hipped me to that group,” said Garabedian. “It’s fun to be in this almost uncomfortable situation. You need melody, rhythm,and harmony, and the challenge is how can you successfully get all that with what you’re working with.”

Graduates to the New School who have both released ambitious albums of their own, Garadedian and Lubin-Laden co-led Brass Magic, a stylistically omnivorous, horn-laden band that melded funk and rock, R&B and an array of international brass band idioms. Their deep connection on and off the bandstand informs the music of SticklerPhonics, which continues to calibrate different approaches for various spaces.

“We had this chemistry right awayas teenagers,” Lubin-Laden said.“It seems like Scott is in a very similar place to us musically. SticklerPhonics feels very exposed, but there’s this freedom in being able to accompany each other when we take solos.And Scott is the miracle glue for the whole thing. He’s such a force of nature as a drummer.

”Born in New Jersey and long based in Berkeley, Amendola has woven a dense and far-reaching web of bandstand relationships that tie him to leading artists in jazz, blues, rock, new music and beyond.A creative catalyst as a bandleader, composer, and accompanist, he’s collaborated closely with artists such as guitarists Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, John Schott and Charlie Hunter, organist Wil Blades, violinists Jenny Scheinman and Regina Carter, saxophonists Larry Ochs and Phillip Greenlief, and clarinetist Ben Goldberg, players who’ve all forged singular paths within and beyond the realm of jazz. He’s led or co-led some two dozen albums and contributed to more than 100 recordings.

A Berkeley native now living in Oakland,Lubin-Laden studied with Art Baron, Alan Ferber, Lee Konitz and Ambrose Akinmusirie at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. In addition to SticklerPhonics,he performs in a wide array of settings, including the Jackie McLean repertory band JACKNIFE, Oakland R&B legend Johnny Talbot and DeThangs, the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, and Brass Magic, the stylistically encompassing ensemble he co-led with Raffi Garabedian. Healso leads his own projects.

Born and raised in Berkeley, Garabedian studied with jazz heavyweights such as Tony Malaby, Mark Turner, Chris Cheek, Bill McHenry and Andrew Cyrille at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.He’s recorded and performed with a variety of artists, including Jorge Rossy, Ben Street,Dayna Stephens, and R&B innovatorJohnny Talbot. He can be found playing around the Bay Area with the ElectricSqueezebox Orchestra and leading his own quartet and octet, and also performs with his brother, New York bassist Noah Garabedian.

Gig Alerts

The Brothers are going to get together again to play Madison Square Garden on April 15th and 16th. Friend of the show, Marc Quiñones will be on percussion.

The Denver Jazz Fest will be happening from April 3rd-6th. One of the groups headlining is Ghost Note with friend of the show, Nate Werth on percussion.

The Doobie Brothers are going back on tour this summer. Friends of the show, Marc Quiñones and Ed Toth will be playing percussion and drums for the group.

Educational Spotlight

The Connecticut Chapter for the Percussive Arts Society is having their day of percussion on Sunday March 23rd in Naugatuck, CT at Naugatuck High School.

The New York chapter for the Percussive Arts Society is also having their day of percussion on Sunday March 23rd in Hempstead, NY at Hofstra University.

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The California Chapter of the percussive arts society is having their day of percussion on Friday May 2nd and Saturday May 3rd in Fresno, CA at Fresno State University.

Iconic Recording

Iúri chose the song “Iroko” from the album with the same title by Omar Sosa featuring Tiganá Santana.

Music News

Because it’s tax time in the USA, here’s a post to help you sort out your write-offs and deductions.

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The Super Bowl happened this past weekend. You can read the TRANSCRIPT HERE, and watch the full performance below.

Damon mentioned THIS POST and also THIS POST to give more insight to the many layers to Kendrick’s performance.

There were several New Orleans musicians involved in performances including Harry Connick Jr. and Trombone Shorty and Jon Batiste.

With regard to Black History Month, here are some connections the Super Bowl halftime show made.

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And one more “easter egg” post for good measure.

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Chappell Roan gave a Grammy-winning speech asking for a livable wage and healthcare for musicians.

Representative Rashida Talib worked with the United Musicians and Allied Workers to come up with the Living Wage for Musicians Act back on March 20th, 2024.

Music executive, Jeff Rabhan wrote an op-ed in response.

Chappell challenged him to match her $25k donation. Other artists and musicians have also stepped up to match the $25k contribution.

Iúri Oliveira Interview

The song leading into the interivew is “Manifesto 6” from Iuri’s newest album, ‘Manifestos’.

Damon welcomes Iúri back on the podcast, after previously being on in Episode 101.

Iúri had a birthday the same night as his release show for his new album. He talks about the planning that went into it.

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Damon suggests submitting to Chamber Music Festivals.

Iúri doesn’t use loops on this particular show, then uses the Roland SPD-SX for interludes between pieces.

Damon mentions the water drumming.

Iúri talks about using the cabash gourds and the bells with it.

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Iúri always carries a Zoom recorder on him.

Iúri talks about the creation of Manifesto 6.

Damon mentions synesthesia, which Iúri has. Two other people that also have this were Jimi Hendrix and Kaz Rodriguez.

Damon mentions friend of the show, Kevin Ricard and his interview.

Damon mentions having Iúri’s music orchestrated for percussion ensembles. Iúri plans to do that as well as orchestrating for a percussion ensemble and film scores.

Damon brings up the Oro Seco, and Iúri studied that in London and continued in Portugal. His family is from Angola.

The also talk about the Percussion Tutor App.

Iúri talks about which order he recorded the album in.

You can buy Iúri’s NEW ALBUM, ‘Manifesto’ as both a digital or a physical purchase.

Shout-out to friend of the show, Pedro Segundo.

Iúri talks about the audience involvement in the live show.