SambaDá: Gente!

By David Honigmann

Published: February 6 2010

SambaDá
Gente!
www.sambada.com

In full swing, eight out of SambaDá’s nine musicians work as percussionists. They sound like a Brazilian bloco, but in fact the band are based in Santa Cruz and throw assorted Californian music into the mix, from surf rock to Red Hot Chili Peppers-style funk.

Listen carefully and you can hear further-flung influences: “Sangue Africano” has a relentless Afrobeat expansiveness, and saxophonist Anne Stafford revels in Klezmer flourishes. But the band’s Brazilian expatriates, capoeira masters, remain the centre of gravity.