Global Union
Saturday, September 13, 2008, 4:00 p.m.
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It's a name, a description, and at the same time a question – which nation, and which beat? What makes this group of musicians special is that they offer no simple answers. Nation Beat plays American music…both North and South American music. They are rhythm gatherers, harvesting the fruit of 500 years of cultural cross-breeding, which is why the sounds of the northeast of Brazil and the southern United States blend together so seamlessly in their performance. Both nations are the colonial creations of Europe, fed by black African slave labor, and populated by immigrants from everywhere, creating syncretic, New World societies. Brazil, that vast nation, has nurtured its own rhythm 'nations', namely the nação of the maracatu musicians from the state of Pernambuco. This immense area culminates geographically in a horn that juts into the Atlantic, the eastern-most point in the Western Hemisphere. It was here, in the old city of Recife, that many of the travelers in our tale first landed in the Americas, bringing their culture, their rhythms – their nations- with them.
New York City perseveres as an incredible musical melting pot reining in artistic influences from all across the globe. Accompanying the surging amalgamation of diverse genres, cultures and rhythms, Nation Beat introduces an unprecedented mix of northeastern Brazil’s maracatu and the sounds of the deep American South. Nation Beat artistic director/founder Scott Kettner, a graduate of The New School University (NYC) and a 2006 Latin Jazz Ambassador, follows the path of such Brazilian luminaries as Lenine and Chico Science, offering yet another anomalous contemporary interpretation of the traditional 19th century Pernambuco-born rhythm.
At the heart of Nation Beat lies the mergence of maracatu with New Orleans second line rhythms, Appalachian-inspired bluegrass music, funk, rock, and country-blues. Rising Brazilian star Liliana Araujo fronts the ensemble with her soaring powerhouse vocals. A recent finalist on Brazil’s “American Idol” spin-off program FAMA (Rede Globo), Araujo is already garnering comparisons to the great Virginia Rodriguez.
Nation Beat distinctly embodies a flourishing cultural exchange between the favelas of Pernambuco and the boroughs of New York City. In 2001, Kettner met master maracatu percussionist Jorge Martins. A 2004 Latin Grammy nominee (w/ his group Cascabulho), the founder of the downtown Recife percussion school Corpos Percussivos, and a member of one of the oldest existing traditional maracatu groups Estrela Brihante (est. 1906), Jorge Martins educated Kettner in maracatu. After several years of extensive study, Martins invited him to join Estrela Brihante. Together, they observed the striking similarities between the music of the favelas and the rhythms of New Orleans second line. It sparked an unruly enthusiasm to bring maracatu to NYC classrooms and in return, to have stateside percussion students travel to Recife.
In 2003, Kettner launched Maracatu New York and Nation Beat. The Brooklyn Arts Council awarded him two grants for inaugurating these projects. The funding afforded Jorge Martins the opportunity to lead maracatu classes in NYC, and directly benefited the kids studying at Corpos Percussivos. With over 40 students currently enrolled in Maracatu New York, the arts company celebrates its 5-year anniversary this year.