“…Many fans of the São Paulo native have been tapping their feet in anticipation of his debut album, Luz…”
-Rob Watson, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Though he currently resides in Philly, Xande Cruz delivers energetic music like he was performing on the streets of Brazil. He's backed by a boisterous rhythm section filled with percussion and rocking guitars.”
-Editor, www.download.com
"...Cruz's performances are also quite visual: Xande feverishly pounding the surdo, a bass drum, or the congas, while getting his body and his dreadlocks into the rhythm...”
-Regina Medina, Daily News Philadelphia
“An exciting eclectic Brazilian band that fuses traditional Brazilian rhythms with modern soul popping energy that gets the crowd chanting to the sounds of Brazil. The band’s leader Xande Cruz is an amazingly talented all-around musician who brings into Batukis his impeccable Brazilian musicality.”
- Rubi Pacheco-Rivera, Organizer (Penn’s Landing Puerto Rican Fiesta, Philadelphia)
PRESS RELEASE
XANDE (pr. shan-ji) CRUZ and the BATUKIS BAND debut with a sound that's fresh off the streets, rooted in Afro-Brazilian tradition, and steeped in pop melodies and flavors. Mixing Brazilian percussion with turntables and samples, funk guitars, bass, drums, horns and rich vocals, Cruz's soulful sound is like none other. With subtle nuances of Brazilian legend, Gilberto Gil, as well as Jamaican legend, Bob Marley, Xande pays tribute to their great influences while redefining "world music". Xande Cruz is a true showman, playing over twenty different percussion instruments, he blesses audiences with magical rhythms with energizing vocals.
XANDE CRUZ BIO
A descendant of an indigenous Brazilian father and a Bahian mother, Xande was born and raised in the largest city in South America, Sao Paulo. Cruz was profoundly inspired by Popular Brazilian Music (MPB), traditional Afro-Brazilian music and listening to his father’s vinyl records as a child. Later, after moving to New York, Cruz drew from his exposure to the 80’s hip-hop movement and electronica. As a percussionist, Cruz toured with samba schools in Japan and South Korea, and performed with various Brazilian pop bands, African drum ensembles, dance troupes and theatrical productions.
Xande Cruz's debut solo project, LUZ, approaches an atypical sound from his rhythmic, percussive roots perspective and from there creates memorable harmonies woven into the fabric of his art and his identity. Cruz’s lyrics are inspired by experiences of social inequality, love, and the cultural peculiarities of Brazil and the US. Following no one particular genre, his appeal is to an extensive audience, moving every listener. LUZ, defines Xande Cruz’s commitment to folklore, urban and melodic sounds. The mix of percussion and electronics, horns, vocals, and guitars surpasses genre boundaries, redefines Brazilian music and is fed by a pure and constant passion for his art, Cruz’s homeland, and "the light at the beginning of the tunnel" (luz no começo do tunel).
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