On Friday and Saturday night at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Cyro Baptista celebrated his 75th birthday with extensive collaboration, a wild array of percussion amid a ‘Banquet for the Spirits.’
The November 7 and 8 shows featured guests whom Baptista has collaborated with across his extensive and distinguished career. Among them were Trey Anastasio of Phish on Friday evening, and on Saturday night, vocalist Cassandra Wilson.
Baptista was joined each night by Hassan Hakmoun, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, Jason Fratticelli, John Lee, Felipe Hostins, Carlos Eduardo da Costa, Zé Luis, John Altieri, Junior Karegato, Scott Kettner, Brian Marsella and dancers Max Pollak and Chikako Iwahori.
On Friday night, the São Paulo-born Baptista was at times rendered speechless by an overpouring of emotion while speaking of the musicians and special guests joining him. A nearly sold out show, attendees became imbued with an extensive amount of percussion instruments, with four drummers in addition to Baptista and his array of objects that were hit (flip flops on tubes), spun (funnel tube), plucked (jaw harp), strummed (washboard), or just hit on the dozens of drums, cymbals and other percussive creations.
Early arrivals were treated to a performance in the Ertegun Atrium by the High School Jazz Academy Vocal Combos, part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Education Program.
The performance featured some of Cyro Baptista’s best known works including “Mr. Bugaloo,” the anti-smoking “Parar de Fumar,” “Trenzinho,” “Chama” and “Maracatu Estrella Brilhante,” the latter of which leads off the first Beat the Donkey album and closed the show in just as grand fashion on Friday.
Anastasio joined for a trio of songs, including the Phish original “Blaze On” which Baptista is familiar with as a TAB song, the acoustic duet of “Ray Dawn Balloon” and the rich Brazilian sounds of “Olivia.”
For the encore, 16 musicians united on the stage, including Anastasio and Hakmoun, for the original “Forro for All” which featured a light-hearted segue into a minute or so of Phish’s “Tweezer Reprise” with the whole stage and audience taking part in the cacophony.
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