Streetwise Samba Band

The Streetwise Samba Band have been beating their drums for 15 years now and have had several line up changes over that time as old members go on to pastures new. The current line up led by Mike Sampson is our most accomplished line up yet with the band getting rave reviews all over the place.

we use samba instruments to play tunes. and we walk on stilts too. that bit explains itself...

instruments we play are
surdoes - big bass drums.
caixas - snare drums.
tambourims - high pitched drum, 6" across, hold in one hand and hit with a bendy plastic stick.
agogo bells - brazilian cowbells.
shakers - the ganza which is a hollow cylinder with shakey bits inside, and chocalho which is the jangley noisy one.

all these drums are led by a repinique.

we practice on the ground and on stilts. non stiltwalkers play on the ground until they are comfortable enough to try playing on stilts. stiltwalking and playing at the same time takes practice, and especially for the surdo players, this can take time!

not everyone who practices is obliged to gig, you can come and play just for the craic! generally for gigs we perform with 10 players - 7 stiltwalkers and 3 samba dwarves (not on stilts)