Funk. Bop. Forró. Brass.
Pounded by calloused hands, blasted from tightened lips,
It calls across time and continents, uplifting hearts and moving hips and feet.
It’s the force that blew through Louis Armstrong in the twenties.
It’s the power that gets Brazilians dancing in the streets for Carnival.
It’s the freedom that sets the music on fire.

It’s Nation Beat.

When band leader Scott Kettner looks at a map, he sees a direct line that connects the rivers of northeastern Brazil to the parishes of New Orleans and the streets of NYC. It’s a connection that came to him in 1999 amid the swirling dancers, ecstatic musicians, and powerful percussionists parading in the streets during Carnival in Recife, Brazil. He was there at the urging of his mentor, NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart, to study maracatu, the region’s complex, dance-inducing rhythm. He came home with a vision, a vision that achieves its highest, funkiest, and most expansive expression to date with the release of Nation Beat’s latest offering, Archaic Humans (Ropeadope Records, May 30). It’s Nation Beat in overdrive.

Nation Beat will be joined by special guests South African vocalist Melanie Scholtz and DC-based, Grammy-nominated progressive hip-hop/go-go artist Christylez Bacon.

Photo Credit: Krystal Pagán

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