Damasceno, who died in April, organized near-constant festivals and parties at West Berkeley’s Casa De Cultura and beyond. BrasArte’s Lavagem festival this Sunday is dedicated to her memory.
Casa de Cultura Berkeley
The vibrant SF Brazilian Day and Lavagem at Berkeley’s BrasArte moves online
The Sept. 6 event features Bay Area acts like SambaDá and the forró combo Dona Francisca and some of Brazil’s greatest musicians performing from the northeastern states of Pernambuco and Bahia.
30 years of cutting-edge music with Machete Records
John Santos: playing Berkeley’s Casa de Cultura on Saturday. Photo: John Ehrlich John Santos: playing Berkeley’s Casa de Cultura on Saturday. Photo: John Ehrlich Complete artistic freedom often comes with a cost. For Oakland percussion maestro John Santos, the price of running his own musical realm to pursue a sweeping pan-Caribbean musical vision means accepting […]
Cuba’s Ernesto Oviedo makes U.S. debut in Berkeley
Ernesto Oviedo, the 77-year-old maestro of boleros, performs at the Brazilian Cultural Center on San Pablo Avenue on Sunday. Oakland percussion master John Santos has spent the past three decades introducing Bay Area audiences to Caribbean musical treasures, but he’s got something unprecedented in store for Berkeley this weekend. Havana’s Ernesto Oviedo, the 77-year-old maestro […]
The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
JEWISH MUSIC MASH-UP How often do you get the chance to see a concert featuring a rabbi and a Christian gospel choir? Sunday sees the kick-off for the fourth Netivot Shalom Music Festival. Previously an annual event, the festival now hosts five monthly Sunday concerts featuring local artists performing a diverse array of Jewish music. It is […]
It’s a Berkeley world after all as music hits streets, park
The "ferociously grooving" Cuban dance music of Fito Reynoso y su Ritmo y Armonia will be part of the 9th Annual World Music Festival in Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue neighborhood on Saturday June 2 Just as Berkeley starts settling into its pleasingly sleepy summer rhythm, the 9th Annual World Music Festival takes over Telegraph on Saturday, […]
Out in Berkeley: From Brazil, a street party, a songstress
A Brazilian street party on Sunday at BrasArte on San Pablo Avenue will celebrate the Lavagem No one is likely to mistake Berkeley for Salvador de Bahia, the northeastern Brazilian city famous as the heartland of Afro-Brazilian culture. But on Sunday, at least for a day, San Pablo Avenue will resound to the thundering pulse […]
Out in Berkeley: Grupo Falso Baiano’s infectious grooves
Grupo Falso Baiano perform twice-monthly informal jam sessions in Berkeley's Casa de Cultura on San Pablo Avenue By Andrew Gilbert If the unseasonable weather has you longing for a tropical respite, the quickest route from Berkeley to Brazil runs right through Casa de Cultura on San Pablo Avenue. For the past few months the stellar […]