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El Taller Latino Americano The Latin American Workshop Saturday, September 28 - 8 pm INDEPENDENCE IN BRAZIL: TICO DA COSTA Come help celebrate Brazil's independence day. Brazil is the Latin American country where all cultures meet yet each hold on to their own identity. In the US, it is the music from Rio that people know - the bossa nova, the samba, etc.. But there is a whole treasure to be discovered in Frevo, Baiao, Xaxado, Forro, and Choro. These genres have increasing been important in Brazilian music as they have mixed with contemporary music to create a whole new sound. In the northeast, it is still possible to hear Pre-Columbian music mixed with the intricate European counterpoint and the frantic percussive rhythm of Africa. Born in Areia Branca (Natal), in the Northeast of Brazil, Tico da Costa grew up listening to all the rhythms of the "nordeste" as well as those from Rio de Janeiro, eventually combining them all into his own inimitable style. An extremely prolific singer/song writer (he writes two to three songs a day), he is also a guitar virtuoso, a composer of instrumental music and a born-showman that can magnetize any audience whether as a solo performer - voice and guitar, or accompanied by his band, comprising drums, percussionists, bass, accordion/piano, saxophone/flute and backup vocals. He has performed in more than 300 concerts across many countries, including Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, North Africa, Canada, USA, Costa Rica, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, etc. In New York he has performed in Town Hall sharing the stage with Joao Bosco, Paquito DīRivera, Jonh Patitucci, Toninho Horta and Artur Maya, and in The World Trade Center, Symphony Space, The Knitting Factory, side by side with the great American composer Philip Glass and the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger. He has also performed at the Newport Folk Festival; Brazil New York Jazz Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn Festival and Clearwater Revival Festival; International Jazz Festival of Córdoba, Bariloche (Grand Marshall Award), Mar del Plata (Argentina), Jazz Festival of Asuncion and others. Mr. da Costa is a knockabout folk troubadour and message-spreader... his light, easy tenor adorned polyrhythmic guitar lines that could always go fast enough to suit his needs, sometimes striking the band into a precarious double time. He had the crowd chanting a percussive chorus... ...this was where Mr. Da Costa showed himself to be a superb artisan: skillfully recreating a few minutes of a beatific locomotion that in its proper context could have stretched into hours. - Ben Ratliff, NEW YORK TIMES Back to Schedule