The VII Festival of Instrumental Music runs May 16 through 26 at the three Banco do Nordeste cultural centers (Fortaleza and Cariri in Ceará, and Sousa in Paraíba). The free festival includes 55 concerts featuring musicians from nine northeastern states, the Federal District and Argentina, plus workshops and opportunities for the public to interact with the musicians. Many of the musicians use recycled materials, such as bottles and cans, to create the music along with the accordion, which has a prominent role – especially in honor of the centenary of the birth of Luiz Gonzaga, the King of Baião.

Bassist Adriano Giffoni In addition, the first three days of the festival coincides with the most important festival of bass players in Brazil, the III IB&T Bass Festival of Fortaleza founded by bassist Celso Pixinga. The bass festival will involve 19 bass players from Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

For more information about the Festivals and a daily schedule of concerts and events, visit the Banco do Nordeste website: www.bnb.gov.br/content/aplicacao/centro_cultural/musica/gerados/musica.asp.

© Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel
Dendê Former Timbalada percussionist Dendê and his band will tour several U.S. cities from May 27 to June 16. The multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer fronts the band whose music melds traditional Afro-Brazilian rhythms with reggae, funk, rumba, afrobeat and jazz. (To hear a sample from their CD, visit our New Releases section.)

Here are the tour dates and locations: May 27 – Barnes Museum, Philadelphia, PA; June 2 – Boi na Brasa, Newark, NJ; June 4 – Ideya, New York, NY; June 8 – Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL; June 9 – Marquette Waterfront Festival, Madison, WI; June 10 – The Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, MN; June 16 – Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, PA.

For more information, visit the band's website: mamadele.com/dende&band.php.

The Sons of Brasil The band The Sons of Brasil will perform May 26, 2:00-5:00 pm at Neptune Courtyard, 47th and Wornall Rd., Kansas City.

Members of the band are Stan Kessler (trumpet and flugelhorn), Roger Wilder (piano), Danny Embrey (guitar), Greg Whitfield (bass), Doug Auwarter (drums) and Gary Helm (percussion). The band's website is www.thesonsofbrasil.com.

The Evanston Escola de Samba is holding spring classes in Brazilian percussion and samba dancing at two Chicago-area venues.

The Levy Center (300 Dodge Ave., Evanston, Illinois), Wednesdays, April 11–May 30, 2–3 pm – Brazilian percussion with instructor Chris Hasselbring. Tuition is $65 for Levy members.

Music Institute of Chicago (2008 Dempster St., Evanston), Wednesdays, February 1–May 30, 6-7 pm (beginners) and 7-8 pm (advanced) – Brazilian percussion with instructor Chris Hasselbring and dance with instructor Christina Trumbach. Tuition is $155 ($75 for additional family members). Also offered is a Samba Sampler – try any four sessions for $50.

For more details about the classes and information about Evanston Escola de Samba, visit the group's website at www.evanstonescola.org.

For a schedule of Brazilian music and dance concerts and classes in the San Francisco Bay area, visit the website of BrasArte at www.brasarte.com. BrasArte is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the traditional dance and music of Brazil and to developing opportunities for cultural exchange between dancers and musicians of all ages from Brazil and the United States. One of the many events sponsored by BrasArte is a Choro Roda (jam session) with Grupo Falso Baiano on the first and third Sundays of every month.

Brazilian singer songwriter Fabiana Passoni has released her debut English language single. It's a bossa nova cover of the 1975 Minnie Riperton hit Lovin' You featuring Fabiana Passoni Fabiania's velvety vocals backed by Kleber Jorge (acoustic guitar), Bill Cantos (piano and keyboard), Mike Shapiro (drums & percussion), Hussain Jiffry (bass), Gibi (percussion), Scott Mago (flutes & tenor sax), Jamelle Williams (flugelhorn), and Catina DeLuna and Dawn Bishop (background vocals).

The single, which is available for download on both www.iTunes.com and www.CDBaby.com, is the first track of what will be Fabiana's first-ever English language album, to be released in late 2012 or early 2013. Her American fans often request songs in English, so the album will feature covers using samba, baião, bossa nova and other Brazilian rhythms.

Fabiana's other albums are É Minha Vez (2007) and Naturalmente Brasil (2011). She also appeared as a guest artist with Native Vibe on the 2008 album Across the Globe. For more information about Fabiana, her website is www.fabianapassoni.com

Bossa nova guitarist and singer songwriter Tony Lasley has released a new children's album called Twinkle, Twinkle. Individual songs or the entire album are available for download on www.CDBaby.com. Twinkle, Twinkle
Tony Lasley
The album was inspired by Tony's young sons Jack (who drew the cover art) and Luke, and it was – in fact – recorded in their room. It features Tony singing and playing the ukulele with his overdubs of children's percussion instruments. The 14 songs are all children's classics, including Skip to My Lou, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Tony has released 10 previous albums, most recently Beat Nova (2003), Fireheart (2004), Bossa Nova e Você (2008) and Getz/Gilberto (2009), his remake of what he calls ...the best Bossa Nova album ever created. Tony's website is www.tonylasley.com

The innovative band Fato from Curitiba, Paraná, is celebrating its 17th year with the publication of a book of the complete scores of 20 of their songs including full lyrics. The beautifully produced 254-page volume comes with a CD with all 20 songs.

Grupo Fato Producer and arranger Gilson Fukushima, the band's former guitarist, wrote the song transcriptions. They are fully annotated and incredibly exact down to the smallest details, such specifying each of several ways the drummer strikes a cymbal to create different sounds.

Introducing the book is a 26-page history of the band written by poet, musician and professor Marcelo Sandmann.

Current members of the band are Grace Torres (keyboards & vocals); Priscila Graciano (percussion, drums & vocals); Daniel Fagundes (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars); Fato da tamancalha ao sampler Sergio Monteiro Freire (electric guitar, saxophones, vocals & keyboards); Ulysses Galetti (bass, guitar & voice); and Zé Loureiro Neto (drums, percussion & programming).

The music of Fato defies classification. The one-of-a-kind band is noted for its eclectic sound, mixing all sorts of musical elements from throughout Brazil. Percussion plays a prominent role, especially the tamancos or wooden clogs worn by the musicians who tap out elaborate syncopated rhythms in unison. Tamancalha The clogs are a nod to the culture of Paraná, where they are worn in the traditional dancing of the fandango. The sound of the clogs is a hallmark of Fato's music.

The difficulty of playing instruments while simultaneously tapping intricate rhythms on the clogs led drummer Zé Loureiro Neto to invent a new percussion instrument, the tamancalha. Three or four pairs of clogs are fastened together over a wooden box with two levers that one person can move up and down to produce the sound of several dancers.

Grupo Fato's latest project is a DVD of a live performance of their show. Professionally recorded with six high-definition cameras, the production needs additional funding to complete. The band is soliciting contributions through this website: Catarse. Fato's website is www.fato.org, and the band's YouTube channel is at: www.youtube.com/user/fatogroup.