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CYRO BAPTISTA (Brazil / USA)
"…The man the stars call when they want that otherworldly flavor in the mix…"
Time Out New York
Since arriving in the U.S. in 1980 from his native country Brazil, Cyro Baptista has emerged as one of the premier percussionists in the country. Coinciding with the rise in the public’s interest of world music, Cyro has managed to record and tour with some of music’s most popular names. His mastery of Brazilian percussion and the many instruments he creates himself, have catapulted him into world renown.
With his own project, the percussion and dance ensemble known as "Beat the Donkey" Cyro gives free reign to his imagination, mixing his tremendous musical skills, his natural humor and theatrical ways with instruments from Brazil, Middle East, Indonesia, Africa and US.
Cyro's credits read like a "Who’s Who" of modern music. He toured extensively with Yo-Yo Ma's Brazil Project, Trey Anastasio's Band (of Phish), John Zorn's Electric Masada, Herbie Hancock's Grammy award winning "Gershwin’s World", Sting and Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints".
The wide range of artists Cyro Baptista has performed and recorded with include: David Byrne, Kathleen Battle, Gato Barbieri, Dr.John, Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Palmer, Melissa Etheridge, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Barenboin, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo-Ma, Medeski Martin & Wood, Spyro Gyra, Trey Anastasio from Phish, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Santana and Sting. He has also played with many respected Brazilian artists such as Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Ivan Lins, Marisa Monte, and Nana Vasconcelos.
Cyro has performed on five Grammy award winning albums: Yo-Yo-Ma’s "Obrigado Brasil", Cassandra Wilson's "Blue Light 'Til Dawn", The Chieftains' "Santiago", Ivan Lins' "A Love Affair", and Herbie Hancock’s highly-acclaimed "Gershwin's World".
A documentary on Cyro's main project, Beat the Donkey, was recorded for the prestigious WGBH-TV Boston program 'La Plaza' and won 3 New England EMMY Awards in 2002, and continues to air on PBS stations nationwide. Cyro collaborated with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra for a Brazilian Carnaval modern jazz concert.
The first Beat the Donkey album, (TZADIK) was picked by The New York Times as one of the ten best alternative albums of 2002. Readers of JAZZIZ and DRUM magazine voted it as "Best Brazilian CD of the Year" and named Cyro "Best Percussionist of 2002". Downbeat Magazine's 51st annual critics' poll selected Cyro as "Rising Star" in percussion.
Cyro' first solo recording, Villa Lobos/Vira Loucos, a heady mix of his own compositions with the work of the brilliant Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos, has been acclaimed as "the most courageous, bright, funny, dramatic, and imaginative work in recent memory."
Blue Note Records released Supergenerous, a duo CD recorded with guitarist Kevin Breit (KD Lang, Cassandra Wilson). Billboard called Supergenerous "pure aural pleasure" and the Washington Post noted it "a marvelous debut that manages to feel outside and intimate at the same time."
Cyro has also been composing music for the children's television Nickelodeon.
"Banquet of the Spirits" Project
Recording for John Zorn's Tzadik label, features the tight new quartet led by maestro Cyro Baptista. Cyro's endless sonic curiosity and intense rhythmic drive has never been stronger in these imaginative original songs. Featuring three of the best young musicians out of the downtown scene and some very special guests, the music jumps from a whisper to a scream and never misses a beat.
The quartet embodies the philosophy of Anthropofagia, a Brazilian cultural movement from the 1920s. The band, is a musical manifestation of the process of eating, swallowing, and digesting all the tendencies that are part of the sonic landscape and our environment. The music is the product of all sounds that they have collectively consumed over the years; some of them they've digested and others they have rejected. After that, it has been difficult to identify what belongs to what country, culture, or religion.
Cyro Baptista Banquet of the Spirits (Tzadik)
In the late 1970s, and eaxly ‘80s, trumpeter Don Cherry began absorbing elements of Middle Eastern, African, and Indian music into his particular style of free jazz. Now, Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista pays homage to Cherry with the release of Banquet of the Spirits, an adventurous disc that features three Cherry compositions and eight Baptista originals...
The album was released in May on John Zorn’s Tzadik label and features guest appearances by Zorn and Gnawan vocalist Hassan Ben Jaffar.
The CD's title alludes to the Brazilian concept of "anthropofagia", the Greek, roots of which roughly translate to "cannibalism" But in the context of Banquet of the Spirits, the word refers to the idea of examining elements from various cultures and absorbing them into one's own. First introduced in Oswald de Andrade’s The Anthropophagite Manifesto in 1928, the concept greatly affected the development of Brazilian culture. Clearly it's affected Baptista's art, which here he raises to a new level.
With two of the four main musicians playing percussion, the focus is cearly on rhythm over a wide range of styles, “Tutubole” leads off with a mellow and predominately Brazilian sound, but after that the album wanders all over the map. Most of the tracks are buoyed by Baptista’s smooth and varied percussion, over which Blumenkranz's sparse ethereal oud works surprisingly well. "Nana & Tom" begins with laid-back drums and oud before building up to a crescendo led by Marsella's jazzy keyboard playing, while "Lamento" provides a short percussion-free interlude with a beautiful duet between Marsella's piano and Blurnenkranz's bowed bass. Ben Jaffar’s African vocals spice several tracks, and the CD wraps up with the very tongue-in-cheek “Anthropofagia” a spokenword piece in which Baptista recounts the apocryphal consumption of the first Portuguese settlers by Brazilian natives before sugueing into an instrumental jam.
Banquet of the Spirits is an example of superior contemporary world music, featuring a kaleidoscopic array of talent creating something completely new and thoroughly fun.
JAZZIZ
REVIEWS
Downbeat Magazine - Aug. 2003
Cyro Baptista
"RISING STAR PERCUSSIONIST"
New York Times
Cyro Baptista's Beat The Donkey
Top 10 Alternative CD of 2002
Wire Magazine
Cyro Baptista's Beat The Donkey
Top 10 Global Music CD of 2002
PBS-WGBH Boston
Beat The Donkey
Emmy Award Winning Special
JamBase.com
Cyro Baptista
Top 10 instrumentalists
Drum Magazine
Cyro Baptista
Best Jazz Percussionist (2002)
Best World Beat Percussionist (2003)
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