Aug 17

Aug 17 Episode 27 Mestre Curtis Pierre

Curtis Pierre “The Samba Man” of New Orleans.

He is the founder and director of Casa Samba, the first School of Samba in the Louisiana and the Southern Region. Born and raised in the carnival traditions of New Orleans for the first 20 years of his life. He was introduced to Brazilian percussion in 1979 by Airto Moreira, world renown Brazilian drummer for Miles Davis. He later studies percussion with Bill Summers, percussionist for Herbie Hancock; Munyungo Jackson, percussionist for Stevie Wonder; and Ron Powell, percussionist for Sergio Mendez & Kenney G. just to name a few.

Since 1988 he has studied with many Masters of Samba percussion, whom are known in Brazil as Mestre de Bateria (Maestro of the percussion band). He has studied at some of the top Samba Schools (carnival groups) in Brazil with Mestres like Mestre Marcoa of Salgueiro, Mestre Jonus of Mocidade and Mestre Ailton of Mangueira just a few of the ones a long list of the very best. He has studied exclusively with master Brazilian folkloric and percussionist, Jorge Alabe from Rio de Janeiro in self-supported residency endeavor for over 15 years. In the past five years, he has also studied with master percussionist Marcio Peters from the world famous Brazilian Samba School, Ile Aye in Salvador Bahia.

In 2004,  Curtis paraded with the percussion group for Salgueiro in Rio de Janeiro carnival,the biggest carnival performance in the world. In 2009, he gave a workshop to members of ILE AYE on Samba from Rio de Janeiro. In addition to all this, Curtis Pierre is a teacher of the Afro Brazilian martial arts Capoeira Angola for over 20 years.  He was taught by his master teacher of Capoeira Angola, Cobrinha Mansa of Salvador Bahia.

Since 1998, Curtis Pierre "The Samba Man" has conducted his interactive Brazilian drumming programs at workshops, schools, museums, performing arts centers, libraries, conventions, festivals, and team-building events from California, Oregon, Washington & Washington D.C., New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, Arizona, and internationally in Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Korea.

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