Cyro Baptista at CODA in New York City by ModaFoto where Art Fashion & Entertainment happen

ModaFoto™ is where Art Fashion & Entertainment happen	US: 917.520.1717
HOME ART FASHION ENTERTAINMENT PEOPLE ABOUT GET A MODAFOTO

ARTIST Cyro Baptista AT CODA in New York City STORY Pau na mula DATE 17 March 2006 PHOTO STORY BY Keith Widyolar

   Oi, Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey filled the house at CODA, a club one block from the Empire State Building in New York City on this St. Patrick’s Day night. While Paddy’s Day celebrants spilled their green insides on the streets outside (on St. Paddy’s Day, everyone in New York is Irish), the mostly young crowd in CODA swayed to Cyro’s Brazilian beats. It was almost like watching the ripples of the wave in a sports stadium. You could see the crowd turning and swaying to the music like a school of fish.
   Cyro came to the US from Brazil in 1980 and has been breaking out in the last decade or so. He was nominated for a 2006 Grammy in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category for Gelo Na Montanha which he wrote with Herbie Hancock and Trey Anastasio from Phish.
   Even if you don’t recognize Cyro’s name, you’ve probably heard his music on recordings with David Byrne, Kathleen Battle, Gato Barbieri, Dr. John, Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Palmer, Melissa Etheridge, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Barenboin, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo-Ma, Medeski Martin & Wood, Spyro Gyra, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Santana and Sting. You get the picture.
   Cyro charmed the dancers by beating an amazing range of percussion instruments, both familiar and some never before seen including an old Coca-Cola® sign. For one song, he played melodies on an instrument that he made out of PVC piping left over from remodeling the bathroom in his house. That’s Brazilian ingenuity.

It was sort of a PVC pipe xylophone. He played it with a pair of Brazilian flip-flop sandals and complained that since he was not as pretty as Giselle, he did not get any endorsement money from the maker of the sandals. How do you make melodies out of percussion, Cyro? This is your chance sandal companies.
Speaking of Giselle and sandals, I wondered if Washington Olivetto, the president of W/Brasil, one of Brazil’s leading ad agencies, knew Cyro. He knows all the top Brazilian musicians because he uses their music in his ad campaigns and has become a music producer in his own right.
Washington also put together Giselle Bundchen’s Ipanema line of Brazilian sandals and the sexy ad campaign that has raised eyebrows and other things around the world. Washington commented from Sao Paulo, "Of course I know Cyro. He was always with Suba and Bebel Gilberto. Oddly his work, which is fantastic, is more known around the US and Europe than in Brazil."
Suba was a music producer in Brazil who loved electronic music and died tragically when his apartment and studio caught fire and he ran back inside the burning building to retrieve original tapes of his work with Bebel. Bebel Gilberto is a world-class Brazilian singer and daughter of Brazilian music giant Joao Gilberto, the Brazilian singer and guitarist who developed the Bossa Nova sound with Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes.

Cyro Baptista :: Beat the Donkey :: CODA :: New York City

One thing for sure...

Cyro shakes it.

Oh ya.

   It was fun watching Cyro direct the band. It’s controlled pandemonium. Clay Ross on guitar made funny faces as he communicated with the other musicians. Key player, Brian Marsalla, wore all green and even played a green Melody Horn, sort of a harmonica with a keyboard that he powered by blowing into a tube. Where did you get a green Melody Horn? Marsalla must be Irish ;-). At one point, Tim Keiper on drum kit, actually picked up his high hat and used it to beat the other drums. I thought for sure he was destroying his kit.
   Lisette Santiago on percussion looked gorgeous in her Xena-esque costume and her sweet voice added counterpoint to all the pounding. Ze Mouricio gave a masculine Rio beat to the percussion. Chikako Iwahori on tap also danced in Asian influenced costumes and even with swords. With all the metal pipes, the show takes on the sheeen of a circus, sort of a Calder’s Circus come alive.
Jen Sellers, who usually attends rock n’ roll shows said, "I’m having such a good time, I had no idea Brazilian music was so cool" and winked from under her red boa as she danced away into the crowd. That’s what Brazilian influence does to gringos (what Brazilians call everyone who is not Brazilian).
   Marie-Theres Franke, the general manager of hot NY fashion designers, Three As Four was in the house. Three As Four seem to be everywhere the action is.

Photographer Eleonora Alberto said to me in Portuguese, "Pau na mula!," which translates roughly as "Stick in the mule." That made me laugh because if you put a stick in a mule, he will dance for sure. It seemed quite appropriate for all the sweating and dancing that was going on in the club and a sly double entendre, sort of an, "up yours," to everyone. Brazilian Portuguese is so colorful.
If you have a chance to see this Brazilian jazz legend and his amazing band, do it. It doesn’t matter whether you like jazz or not. This music is transcendent. Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey won’t make your heart skip a beat, they’ll make it beat twice as fast.
Oh that poor donkey.

Beijos, Keith Widyolar, March 17, 2006, New York City

CyroBaptista.com CODA34.com
ClayRoss.com ZeMauricio.com
WBrasil.com.br Ipanema Sandals
BebelGilberto.com ThreeAsFour.com