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Jazz Night: Musical Cannibalism With Cyro Baptista

“We’re all eating each other,” says Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista. He draws inspiration from a 1930s Brazilian art movement known called “Anthropofagia,” which is all about cannibalizing culture.

(Want to know how his Keys instrument sounds? Watch this NPR Video.)

Anthropofagia is a concept based on an essay published by the poet and father of Brazilian modernism, Oswald de Andrade. Baptista has applied this philosophy to create ingenious music for more than five decades.

"Everything that comes from outside," he says. "We eat and we digest and regurgitate and eat again and again and again. That's what happened in Brazil, and now that's what happened with all of us, no?.”

In the world of Brazilian percussion, few players have shared the stage with Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Trey Anastasio of Phish, and Sting. This Jazz Night In America concert showcases Baptista's experimental and funk undertones as he performs traditional Brazilian grooves like forro and samba. We'll also visit Home Depot and take a trip into the woods to see how he creates a new percussion instrument for his arsenal.