Salvador, BR · axé · samba-reggae

Timbalada

1 upcoming festival

Carlinhos Brown's percussion collective, the painted drum corps that helped make samba-reggae a global sound.

Carlinhos Brown founded Timbalada in 1991 in Candeal Pequeno, the Salvador neighbourhood where he grew up, and built the group around the timbal, the hand drum that gives it its name. Dozens of percussionists play at once, their bodies and drums covered in white paint patterns, with lead vocals over the top.

Brown wrote and produced much of the early repertoire and used the project to fund the Pracatum music school in Candeal. The group's summer rehearsals in Salvador became events in their own right, drawing crowds well before Carnival itself.

axésamba-reggae