BARBATUQUES
July 25, 2008 - 8:00 pm

11 singers and dancers from Brazil deliver a spectacular and highly enjoyable family show, based on body percussions, a capella sambas and rhythmic dance.Since the 2006 “Joga Bonito” Nike ad with Ronaldinho, their music has been popular worldwide.
A colourful, interactive and entertaining show for all the family!

BIOGRAPHY

Barbatuques is a unique Human Beatbox ensemble, a vocal orchestra whose members strive to turn their respective bodies into real instruments; in-doing-so, the group has become an absolute reference of this particular genre. Handclaps, finger-claps, chest-beating, taps and peculiar vocal effects mingle expertly with singing and a few instruments (Jews’ harp, flute and guitar), to produce rhythms and melodies that are characteristic of Brazil: samba, baião, afoxé and maracatu.
The results are impressive, to the extent that the group creates a sensation whenever and wherever it performs, in South America and Europe as well.

Barbatuques have succeeded in impressing both the media and the public with their their talent, originality, and overall musical quality. Since its inception in 1996, the group has collaborated with numerous renowned artists, including Chico Cesar, Lenine, as well as prestigious institutions such as UNICEF, ONU, MIDEM, Cité de la Musique, La Caixa Foundation, and National Geographic. Advertising agencies have also developed a fondness for them, and the group has recorded ads for Nike and Heineken (Soccer World Cup 2006), as well as Microsoft (the ShadowRun video-game).

The work of body percussion performed by Barbatuques was initiated by musician Fernando Barba, through his interest in extracting sounds from his own body, a habit that was baptized with the term “barbatuques”.
Fernando had been developing this working method since 1988, initially as a mere amusement, and later on for the purpose of research. In 1991, when he was admitted to the course of Popular Music at UNICAMP, he deepened his studies on rhythm with the musician and professor José Eduardo Gramani. In 1993 Barba founded the school of music Auê Núcleo de Ensino Musical in São Paulo. Since 1995 Fernando has been teaching regular classes on body percussion at Auê. In the same year he learned of the work developed by musician and researcher of body music Stênio Mendes. From then on they started a musical and pedagogic interchange, and Stênio became a constant collaborator in Fernando’s work.

In 1996 Fernando founded the group Barbatuques, gathering students and partners in this incipient research. Initially, they contributed to shows by other artists, and went on to performing their own shows starting 1997. The group participated in various TV programs, between 1998 and 1999, and in-doing-so created the repertoire for its first CD release. At the end of 2000, Barbatuques was selected by Instituto Itaú Cultural to participate in shows and CDs by the project Musical Cartography, which selects representatives of new musical trends from the entire country.

In 2001, the group performed in Credicard Hall at the Award ceremony for the Itaú UNICEF prize, together with some two hundred children from various NGOs in São Paulo; their performance came as the result of workshops given by the group in collaboration with these entities. In July 2002 Barbatuques launched its first CD, Corpo do Som, thus laying down on record in a definitive manner the path of the group’s research on body percussion and spontaneous music. In 2003 the band performed in Midem, the largest worldwide event of the phonographic industry, in the city of Cannes, France. Barbatuques received rave critics from both the public and the press

Returning from France, Barbatuques opened Prata da Casa in SESC Pompéia, drawing a record audience with over one thousand people in the theater.
During the Carnival, Recife hosted the group for the eighth edition of the RecBeat Festival, which gathered an audience of 15 thousand. Later on during the year, in Curitiba, Barbatuques shared the stage with great Brazilian musicians in the show O Som do Refavela; it participated in the Festival Guiomar Novaes, in São João da Boa Vista, and in Sao Paulo gathered over two thousand people at SESC Pompéia for two days of shows. The band went on to perform in numerous Brazilian cities over the course of 2003..

In 2004, Barbatuques performed shows and gave workshops in major Brazilian cities such as Brasília, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Londrina, as well as towns in the São Paulo interior. In collaboration with singer Chico César, the group recorded the children’s CD Marias do Brasil, consisting of music from the play of the same name. During this same year Barbatuques performed shows with percussionist Robertinho Silva; in December, the group contributed to a recording by prizewinning English band One Giant Leap, which produces DVDs comprising sounds and images from all over the world, in partnership with
National Geographic.

In March 2005 Barbatuques went on a European tour, including Spain and
France. In Spain, the group performed in Barcelona and other Spanish cities in Catalonia, at the invitation of Fundació Cultural La Caixa. In France, the group performed at the illustrious Cité de La Musique, integrating the program of the Year of Brazil in France. In July of the same year, Fernando Barba returned to Barcelona to give workshops at Fundació Cultural La Caixa for musical educators from various parts of Spain. Later the same year, Barbatuques initiated the recording of a DVD documenting its performance during the celebration of the 40 years of Teatro Tuca in São Paulo. In November the group released its second CD, O Seguinte é Esse, and returned to Europe for further performances. O Seguinte é Esse was also the subject of several sold-out performances in Brazil, over the course of 2006.

Barbatuques’ new CD/DVD is scheduled for release in the spring of 2008, and will coincide with a new series of European concerts (Spain, Portugal and France, among others).