Sounds of Brazil fill Mathers Museum

The bouncing beats of traditional Brazilian music flooded out of the Mathers Museum Friday night as Valeria DeCastro played a blend of bossa nova, contemporary Brazilian music and jazz. DeCastro is a Brazilian vocalist, guitarist and composer who currently lives in Bloomington. \nShe was accompanied by Colleen Haas, Rodrigo Pederosa and Alfredo Minetti for the Sounds of Brazil performance Friday night. Each of them played different Brazilian instruments, ranging from a surdo, a traditional drum; to reco reco, wooden eggs filled with beans. Other instruments used were the agogo bells – instruments with two metal sides that are struck with a drumstick – a tambourine and maracas. \nMinetti said he enjoys playing in Bloomington. \n“It has a huge diversity of people from all over the world,” he said. “It’s a small town with a cosmopolitan feeling.”\nHaas said she learned how to play by studying with Brazilian teachers and came to the ethnomusicology department at IU in 2003. \nThe small room in the Mathers Museum was overflowing with people. Students, community members and families sat around the floor listening to the tranquil sounds of Brazil. In the middle of the performance, reco reco eggs were passed out so the audience could interact with the band. DeCastro also taught the audience Brazilian lyrics to sing along at certain parts in her compositions. \nDeCastro teaches Brazilian music and movement to young children. \n“I love jazz, I love blues and I wish one day I will have enough feeling that I can sing them all and I feel like I have the right to sing Brazilian music,” DeCastro said. “I love when I go to Brazil that they can feel the music much more than I can feel it.”\nThis event, sponsored by the IU Brazilian Association, La Casa Latino Cultural Center, the Mathers Museum of World Cultures and the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, attracted a diverse crowd that appreciated the traditional music of South American countries.\n“I have been playing music ever since I realized I was a human being,” Pederosa said. “I’m Brazilian, it’s what we do.”