Cool music!

hey all!
I have been listening to a couple of great brazilian drummers, and I want to share their wonderful talent and music with you all.

One of them is Cuca Teixeira,a prolific drummer/percussionist who has performed with A LOT of great names, both in the pop, jazz, fusion and latin/brazilian scenes. His new project is a trio called Neural Code with Thiago do Espírito Santo and Kiko Loureiro. The CD is great, and showcases the trio very well, with their unique and interesting mixture of rock, jazz, fusion - creating a contemporary brazilian sound. Check it out!
Neural Code's myspace page

The next guy is another incredible musician and educator: Christiano Rocha, a highly creative and proficient drummer and percussionist. His new release "Ritmismo" is a super cool record, done with the help of some of the best musicians around. Christiano plays very fluently through many different styles, time signatures and intricate passages - all of that with tremendous musicality and some very tasteful drumming. Christiano also has a book out, "Bateria Brasileira" (Brazilian Drums), which is the most comprehensive (and perhaps the most complete!) drum book on Brazilian music I have seen. Check him out at:
Christiano's myspace page

Besides this two amazing guys, I have been checking out some other cool stuff - another killer record is Brian Blade Fellowship's "Perceptual". Beautiful music, and beautiful playing from everyone! Check it out ASAP!

happy listening!!
mz

Lesson on Modern Drummer Brazil - July 2009

Hello friends!

On the past month of July the Brazilian edition of Modern Drummer magazine published an article of mine, a warm up exercise for drumset involving hands and feet. This is something I have been using to some extent before gigs, recording sessions, and/or to get the body and limbs going before practice sessions.
The article is in portuguese, but here is the basic idea for all of you English speakers out there!

"D" means right hand - "E" means left hand.
Lines 1 through 5 go over the exercise, which covers 16th notes, quintuplets, 16th triplets, septuplets, and 32nd notes. Do use a metronome to make sure that all the groupings are being played correctly, specially the 5's and 7's. Be careful no to rush, and start slow and increase your speed gradually.

Lines 6 and 7 are examples of other ideas that can be used to practice the exercise. Using the left foot in the place of the right foot is certainly an option. Another idea is to use the left foot to play quarter notes, eight notes and or different ostinatos while playing the exercise as written. Lastly, you can alternate where the bass drum starts - play BD-RH-BD-RH, instead of RH-BD-RH-BD. (line 6)

Enjoy!

for any questions, please contact me through www.mzdrums.com

Article on Modern Drummer Brazil - June 2009

The Modern Drummer Magazine - Brazilian Edition interviewed me for their June 2009 edition. It was amazing to be featured along great other drummers/musicians, including one of the most important Brazilian musicians ever, the incredible Rubinho Barsotti, from the Zimbo Trio. Rubinho was and still is, a huge inspiration for myself, and pretty much everybody else!
Here is the cover, and following is my interview, if you can read portuguese and/or are curious to check it out.
A big thank you goes to all my friends at MD Brazil, most importantly Vlad Rocha, Christiano Rocha and Dudu Portes. Thanks for the support guys!

Zottarelli's new book

Hello friends!

In the last few years I have been in touch with a journalist from Milan, Italy. His name is Maurizio Zottarelli. We were both very happy and excited to meet each other online, because we do have the same name! (Except that I have a "c" on my first name.)
I just got his new book in the mail this week, and I am thrilled. I want to share the link with you all, so you can check it out. It's very curious to have the book in my hands and look at the author's name(!).... also, this will be my first read in Italian. So it will take me a little while....but it's great! I'm looking forward to reading it.



Maurizio is a journalist based in Milan, and a prolific writer. He writes for the Italian newspaper "Libero", theater, and in 2001 he was a finalist with the Marlboro Lights NIAF Prize in New York, a competition for new plays in English.
"L' Undicesimo dito" is his first narrative.
here's the link to the book on the web.

Newport Jazz Festival

Last saturday, August 8th, I played at the 55th edition of the Newport Jazz Festival with Hiromi. It was a total blast! Getting there was another story though.... Traffic was crazy, and it took us a lot more than we had planned..... but we made it there safe and sound, and on time for the show! While we were getting settled, we heard the amazing Branford Marsalis quartet perform. And I got a chance to meet two of my idols, Christian McBride and Brian Blade! Below are some photos of the show. Also, our set was broadcasted live by WBGO, and it can be heard at the NPR (National Public Radio) address below:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11165698