EUGENE’S OWN BATERIA
Samba Ja is a 15+ member percussion ensemble specializing in samba-reggae. We bring the wild, funky, infectious, and incredibly danceable street music from Salvador, Bahia in Brazil to the streets of Eugene Oregon
Drumming is how we share our friendship
We are a local nonprofit that has been fostering community through drumming and cultural exchange for over 20 years. Since 2001 Samba Ja has had people of all walks of life pass through our group.
We are part of a worldwide network of percussionists who play samba and other Brazilian genres and love to play with our bateria friends in Portland, Seattle and Arcata. We also host and attend workshops by master percussionists.
We are indebted to Dudu Fuentes, Nininho de Olinda, Jorge Martins, Jorge Alabe, Marcus Santos, and other artists for our repertoire and education as well as all who play this music worldwide.
Through our drumming we strive to show our appreciation to the wonderful people of Eugene that always show their passion for music and art.
For general questions contact us here
Or use our class form or our hire form
Drums of Samba Ja
Three types of drums cover four voices
Surdo
SUR-dew
18 - 20 - 22”
The two largest surdos keep a driving danceable beat while the smallest surdo adds additional rhythms. We play surdos with a waist strap using aluminum mallets with firm fabric heads.
Caixa
KYE-shuh
14”
The caixa or snare keeps a steady rhythm so everybody can stay locked into the groove. We play caixa with a waist strap using standard wooden drum sticks.
Repinique
hep-eh-NEE-kee
12”
The repinique or repique sets rhythms and adds fills and call-ins that keep the energy high. We play repique with a waist or shoulder strap using thin flexible plastic sticks.
What is samba-reggae?
Samba-reggae is a music genre from Bahia, Brazil. Samba reggae, as its name suggests, was originally derived as a blend of Brazilian samba with Jamaican reggae as typified by Bob Marley.
Samba-reggae is played in medium tempo around 90-120 beats per minute. The surdos (bass drums) play a 2/4 rhythm with swing time while other instruments provide contrasting rhythms in straight and syncopated time. On the whole, samba-reggae is straighter (less syncopated), slower, and less swung than Rio-style samba.
There are typical 3 or 4 surdo (bass drum) parts in samba-reggae. The first (largest-diameter) and second (next largest) surdos keep the beat, typically with the lowest drum hitting beat 2 and the higher drum hitting beat 1. Together, the first and second surdos of samba-reggae are known as the "fundos", the back, presumably because they always stand in the back row of the samba-reggae band. The third surdo plays the classic third-surdo part of samba.
The rest of a samba-reggae band is usually composed primarily of snare drums (caixas), and repiniques (a slightly longer, high-pitched drum with no snare/strings; also called "repique"). These may play a reggae backbeat, son clave, bossa clave, "Brazilian clave" (Mocidade/merengue style), or a variety of other clave patterns, depending on the particular piece of music being played.
Typically only 1 lead repinique player does these fills and calls; other players do not alter their parts outside of their set arrangement. A drum leader, or mestre, leads the entire band with hand cues and/or a whistle.
This description and more on Wikipedia