Samba Squad is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

group. The Squad was formed in 1999 by percussionist Rick Shadrach Lazar. The band incorporates world rhythms performed on Brazilian

Bateria The term ''bateria'' means “drum kit” in Portuguese and Spanish. In Brazil, the word is also used for a form of Brazilian samba band, the percussion band or rhythm section of a Samba School. ''Baterias'' are also used to accompany the B ...

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

. Their musical style combines

samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

with other styles such as

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (food), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: Arts and ent ...

soca Soca or SOCA may refer to: Government * Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), a former public body of the United Kingdom * Sexual Offences and Community Affairs (SOCA), a South African government unit established to combat gender-based violence ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

. Samba Squad was awarded the UMAC (Urban Music Association of Canada) Award for Best World Recording of 2001 for their self-titled debut album. They are a popular group well known for the energy of their live shows.

Appearances

Samba Squad has performed in the

Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival The Toronto Jazz Festival is a jazz event in Toronto which takes place for 10 days in late June through early July. Like the Beaches International Jazz Festival, most of the events are outdoors and located throughout the downtown core. The hub of th ...

, Roots & Blues Festival at Salmon Arms, B.C., London's Sun Fest, Ottawa Jazz Festival and Muhtadi's International Drum Fest in

Tobago Tobago, officially the Ward of Tobago, is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger islan ...

. It has also performed at sporting events such as the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), E ...

, Toronto Argos and Blue Jays half-time shows and has many television appearances such as the

Governor General's Awards The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

The Toronto Show ''The Toronto Show'' was a Canadian television variety show, which aired from 2003 to 2004 on Toronto's independent station Toronto 1. The show was taped live before a studio audience at Trinity Studio's in downtown Toronto's distillery district ...

Breakfast Television Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...

and

Open Mike with Mike Bullard ''Open Mike with Mike Bullard'' is a Canadian late-night talk show which was broadcast on The Comedy Network 1997 to 2003 and also aired on the full CTV Television Network beginning in 1998. For a time it overtook ''The Tonight Show with Jay Le ...

. The band is a frequent participant in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

-area community festivals such as

Caribana The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly and affectionately known as Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a pan-Caribbean Carnival event and has been billed ...

, the

Pride Parade A pride parade (also known as pride event, pride festival, pride march, or pride protest) is an event celebrating lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...

, the

Beaches International Jazz Festival The Beaches International Jazz Festival is a month-long music festival held each year in the lakeside Beaches community of Toronto in July. Originally started in 1989, it is now one of Canada's largest free jazz festivals with nearly 1,000,000 att ...

, the Kensington Festival of Lights, AfroFest, Salsa on St. Clair and others. In 2004,

Vision TV VisionTV is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language Category A services, Category A specialty channel that broadcasts multi-faith, multicultural, and general entertainment programming aimed at the 45 and over demographic. VisionTV is ...

and Bravo! along with Riddle Films co-produced an hour documentary about the group. "Samba Squad: Drums We Love" was broadcast on both Vision TV and BRAVO on a second window. Samba Squad opened for

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

and

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods * ''Juno'' (film), the 2007 film Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, a character in the book ''Juno of ...

award-winning singer

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is ''Surfacing (album), Surfacing'' (1997), for which she won two G ...

and is a regular guest performer for Canadian Nuevo Flamenco guitarist

Jesse Cook Jesse Arnaud Cook (born November 28, 1964) is a Canadian guitarist. He is a Juno Award winner, ''Acoustic Guitar'' Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco Category, and a three-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guita ...

, appearing on two of his CDs as well as his recent DVD. The group has also performed with other international acts such as

Antibalas Antibalas (Spanish for "bulletproof") is an American, Brooklyn-based afrobeat band founded in 1998 by Martín Perna. Initially inspired by Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive Orchestra, the music generally follows ...

. In August 2007, Samba Squad performed at

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

Fest in

Kashechewan Kashechewan First Nation, locally known as Kash, is a Cree First Nation located on the northern shore of the Albany River in Northern Ontario, Canada, within territory covered by Treaty 9. The community is located on the west coast of James Bay ...

(James Bay),

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, in celebration of the Cree culture and the community’s 50th anniversary. Samba Squad is the first group of its kind to be honored with such an invitation. While there, Samba Squad participated in ground-breaking collaborations with the Shawanda dancers. Samba Squad performed in City TV's 2008/2009 New Year's Eve live TV gala at

Nathan Phillips Square Nathan Phillips Square is an city square, urban plaza in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It forms the forecourt to Toronto City Hall, or ''New City Hall'', at the intersection of Queen Street West and Bay Street, and is named after Nathan Phillips ( ...

, which included a collaboration with award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter

Leslie Feist Leslie Feist (born February 13, 1976), known mononymously as Feist, is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. Feist launched her solo ...

. An edited version of the track "Maracatu Funk", from the album Batuque, was used for a dance number during the Week 2 episode, which aired on November 3, 2009, of the 6th Season of the US version of

Fox Television Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an American commercial broadcast television network serving as the flagship property of Fox Corporation and operated through Fox Entertainment. Fox is based at Fo ...

So You Think You Can Dance ''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by '' Idols'' producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and has ...

, featuring dancers Channing Cooke & Phillip Attmore performing a

Samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

dance number.

Discography

Albums

*Samba Squad (2000) *Batuque (2006) *Mozambique (2012) * Que Beleza (2013)

DVD

*Samba Squad: Drums We Love (2007)

Awards and nominations

*Awarded the

Urban Music Association of Canada The Urban Music Association of Canada (UMAC) is a Canadian non-profit organization focused on showcasing and expanding Canadian urban music established in 1996. UMAC offers a variety of service such as workshops, tours and also hosts the ''Canadi ...

(UMAC) Award for Best World Recording of 2001 for their self-titled debut album

References

External links

Samba Squad official websiteSamba Squad's blog.
{{Authority control Canadian world music groups Percussion ensembles Samba ensembles Canadian reggae musical groups Soca musical groups Musical groups established in 1999 1999 establishments in Canada