Boteco Reviews

"This San Francisco trio takes Latin fusion back to the edge, reinventing Brazil minute-by-minute and injecting samba with rock and funk experimentalism..."

- Nate Seltenrich, East Bay Express (Jan 13, 2009)

"Bat Makumba have found a way to fuse different forms of Brasilian music whilst maintaining a traditional flavour. Their second CD, Boteco, launched in the US, is full of chewed-up melodies and rhythms, coloured by a range of different beats and arrangements..."

- Lucas Berti, Jungle Drums (Jan 01, 2009)

"Brazil Gone Batty: San Francisco-based Bat Makumba follow up their debut with another disc of music based around the samba rhythms of Brazil and pumped up with a rocking, funky sense of abandon... "

- World Music Central (Dec 24, 2008)

Some Q&A about 'Boteco':

How would you describe the sound of this CD?
‘Boteco’ is an artful mixture of neo-futuristic traditional Brazilian rhythms with the right quantity of the best North American spices. It is funk and rock boiling and baking with samba, maracatu, frevo and baiao.

What are the main influences for this CD?
Chico Science, Samba Schools (from the warm sunny street Carnivals of Brazil), Lenine, Brazilian Modernism and Tropicalism, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Zappa, Serge Gainsbourg, Chico Buarque among many others.

What is the significance of ‘Boteco’?
Think about the French Cafés where all the intellectuals would meet, the PUB (Public Houses) in England and Ireland or a San Francisco, North Beach Beatnik café or bar.
A boteco is a small bar or pub in Brazil were you can find dealers and philosophers, pimps and doctors talking about life, writing poems or theatre plays, sharing ideas about soccer and politics or simply celebrating or lamenting their lives.  They are usually the last bars you find open (if they ever close), so it is where a bohemian can finish the night or start the day.

What makes Bat Makumba unique?
Put Pele and Mohammed Ali in a fictional mix machine. Now add Frank Zappa, Sergio Mendes, Tom Jobim and Roger Waters and fuse into one. What a mix eh?
Bat Makumba is this fusion, multiplied by 2.