There’s a beach where one sunny afternoon you may witness an offering to an Afro-Brazilian Orixa spirit of the ocean, the next day watch master capoeristas practicing Brazil’s martial art dance form, and still another day join a gathering of thousands of surfers-cum-dancers rocking out to hybrid musical sounds informed by bloco afro (Afro-Brazilian percussion music), samba-reggae, surf-rock, and California funk. No, these are not the shores of Bahia, Brazil. This is Santa Cruz, California, home of the surf-and-skate, capoeira-kicking, scene-busting phenomenon known as SambaDa. This smoldering and soldering band is a magnet of unexpected particles shaved from Brazilian and American sources. This community of people—their local fanbase and their Brazilian ancestors, their people—are honored in the title of SambaDa’s new album Gente! (February 23, 2010).

“La Colectiva” if translated, would be The collective. This best describes the south-bay based group of musicians. The embracement of all Latin American culture as its own, is what enables the group to have such a rich, and colorful combination of traditional latin sounds. Streetwize Salsa Dura/Cumbia and Vallenato of Colombia/Son Jarocho of Veracruz Mexico/Cuban Son/Guaracha/Afro-Peruvian Festejo/Lando rythyms are just some of the genres covered by La Colectiva’s member base. The groups cultural background spans over all the Americas; Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico. For the past 7 years, La Colectiva has been known to turn a get-together into a rumba; a party into a fieston, an “after-party” into an all night fandango, but to the musicians, each performance is viewed as an opportunity to expose people to the roots of modern latin music, which unfortunately is a long forgotten art form in today’s music scene…