More than 100 performers come together for this Brazilian percussion party

Miami Herald

20-05-2025

Music is a social art. How music is played and how it's shared is informed by the community in which it's created. In turn, in ways obvious and subtle, music reflects and shapes the community that produces it.
It's a process that goes as far back as humanity has been creating sound, and it's at the heart of the work of Miamibloco, a Miami-based samba drumming ensemble comprising professional musicians and community music enthusiasts. In sound and spirit, it is modeled after the blocos de carnaval that parade through the streets during the Brazilian Carnival.
Reflecting the diversity of South Florida, Miamibloco often blends Afro-Brazilian samba grooves and rhythms from next-door-neighbor sources such as Dominican merengue or Puerto Rican plena but also traditions as far afield as Moroccan Gnawa.
Miamibloco's 80-member strong percussion ensemble Bateria Saideira, augmented by more than 20 guests, will be performing in its fifth annual 'Saideira Social' at the Miami Beach Bandshell at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 24.
Bateria is a percussion band or the rhythm section of a Samba School. Saideira is a casual term that translates as 'nightcap' (much akin to a drumming nightcap).
Guests for the performance include Tato Marenco, a Colombian percussionist and gaita player (a traditional double-reed wind instrument), who brings into the mix the irresistible groove of Afro-Colombian bullerengue.
Meanwhile, the samba drumming will be pushed up a notch by the presence of Brazilian master percussionists Boka Reis, from Salvador, Bahia; and Gustavo and Guilherme Oliveira, members of the rhythm section of the storied samba school Gremio Recreativo Escola de Samba Academicos de Salgueiro, which in 2023 was declared intangible cultural patrimony of Rio de Janeiro. A strong lineup of Miami-based musicians including Gilmar Gomes, Rose Max, Ramatis Moraes, and Afrobeta, round out the program.
'This show is a continuation of the idea of using the bateria as an orchestra to support different artists throughout the night and create the feeling of a mini festival,' says Brian Potts, founder, percussionist, CEO, and music director of Miamibloco. With a Ph.D. in Musical Arts from the University of Miami, Potts became passionate about Brazilian music and has been traveling to Brazil to study and perform for more than fifteen years. Having Reis and the Oliveira brothers in this performance 'means a lot to me personally,' he says.
'The way we play the drums is inspired by the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro, but in particular, it's inspired by the Salgueiro samba school,' he says. 'I've learned from Guilherme and Gustavo. I paraded with Salgueiro this year. Having them here and getting a chance to play with them is incredible for us. You are learning from masters, and it's the kind of thing that you can't learn from the books. It's experiential.'
The chance to experience the samba schools' work in their home neighborhoods gave Potts insights that went beyond the music, arriving at the experience 'from a musician's perspective,' he says.
'I studied music all my life and was a classical percussionist, and then I went to Brazil and saw this incredible musical tradition. But the other thing that was very striking was its social aspect. You have 300 people playing in the bateria [the drumming ensemble, the engine room of the samba school], but when the samba school marches, you have 4,000 people in the parade.
Potts say there is a rehearsal every week and different events.
'From having feijoadas (a bean and meat stew) to bringing in doctors and doing health events sponsored by the samba school for the community. They do a lot of good in terms of holding the community together and creating bonds between people. People grow up in these schools. Think of the bloco and all that it involves as a community-building technology.'
He credits his partner SuOm Francis, a designer and urban planner who became Miamibloco's co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, for putting that technology to good use.
'She has a background in community building that has been huge in terms of constructing the community that we have now,' says Potts.
He says when he began in 2017, he was inviting people to come and drum, mostly posting on Facebook to get interest.
'I never got more than like five to 10 people to show up at a time. I was working as a freelance musician, and it was hard for me to put too much time into the project.' After the disruptions caused by COVID-19, Miamibloco 'started for real in 2021, after the pandemic.'
Francis says that she wanted to turn 'what was a small hangout thing into something by which you feel a sense of true belonging to a community. Something that's very special to me is that we have begun to have an impact on the other work that makes a bloco a bloco besides the music, which is community participation and not necessarily playing.'
As for Miamibloco's going musically outside samba and incorporating other traditions, Potts credits Batuquebato, a group from Rio de Janeiro with which he has also performed.
'They are always experimenting with a bunch of different influences from all over the world,' he says. He adds that while most samba schools prepare during the year for fierce competition during carnival, Batuquebato is not competitive. 'They're focused on teaching people how to play drums, how to play with each other, and creating a community where there wasn't one before.'
Music offers many lessons, from learning to play your part and understanding that no matter how seemingly small, it's necessary to the overall sound, to listening, a lost art these days.
'Creating musically interesting ideas by fusing other cultures with the sound of the bateria is amplified by the fact that you're bringing all these people together and creating community,' says Potts. 'That's the big inspiration for what we do.'
If you go:
WHAT: Miamibloco 5th Saideira Social with guests including Colombian gaita player and percussionist Tato Marenco, Brazilian master percussionists Bóka Reis, Gustavo & Guilherme Oliveira, and Gilmar Gomes, Rose Max & Ramatis Moraes, and Afrobeta.
WHERE: Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach
WHEN: 7 p.m., Saturday, May 24
COST: $47 at dice.fm/event (Discount code VISITMIAMI )
INFORMATION: [phone] and miamibeachbandshell.com
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