Introducing Moses Patrou CD - Import

The story of singer / songwriter / percussionist Moses Patrou is the story of the push and pull of the blues, traveling around the world, covering thousands of miles, from the mid-west to the jungles of Brazil, from the barrios of Cuba to the legendary sixth ward of New Orleans, and finally, to New York City.As a child young Moses (named for jazz / blues legend Mose Allison) loved hitting pots and pans and imagining himself on stage. Even then, he was interested in the music of Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters, and the swamp rhythms of pianist Professor Longhair, and he began carrying drum sticks with him even before he was old enough to go to school. The son of New Orleans style pianist John Chimes, he played percussion with Clyde Stubblefield (the funky drummer of James Brown fame) while still in high school, and after leaving, he formed a samba school of his own with several likeminded friends, called The Handphibians.This free floating groove collective became a back-up rhythm section for international percussion players as they passed through town, and, in 1996, they supported Brazilian drum master Giba Conceicao. When Giba left to return to Brazil, Moses followed, living in Conceicao's house and studying with the master himself. "It was a life-changing experience, we would wake up and the first thing we would do is practice. You could play really loud in his studio and his family was cool with it. Its a different kind of culture there where everybody on the block was a master of something. One guy would spend his whole time playing just a calabash shaker. You could walk around the neighborhood and find somebody to show you anything. And the house was great because everybody in the neighborhood would come by and hang out. Nobody speaks English there at all, so I had to learn Portuguese. I didnt know Portuguese, I just knew some Spanish. But by the time I left there, I spoke Portuguese."Back in the States, he hooked up with old friends from The Handphibians and the recently formed Mama Digdowns Brass Band, a swinging marching ensemble with an ear for authentic parade music infused by Thelonious Monk and other jazz greats. Naturally, they headed for New Orleans. There, they worked Mardi Gras, the French Market and the Jazz and heritage Fest. "I did Mardi Grass for three years," Moses remembers. "And we went deep into where the brass band culture started and they let us in. We were in Treme, the home of parade music. And boy, you got to play it there or they will step up and show you how to do it."Eventually, Moses and two other musicians from Digdown broke off to form what became the Youngblood Brass Band, a high-energy band fusing Jazz and Hip-HopMoses also began working with musician / producer Leo Sidran, son of jazz pianist Ben Sidran and soon-to-be producer of the Academy Award winning music from Motorcycle Diaries. Leo, who was working with Clyde Stubblefield and other local notables at the time, included Moses in his circle of recording partners. It would be a musical connection that would come home for Moses a few years later.At the same time, Moses studied and worked with Grammy Award winning Cuban percussionist Roberto Viscaino of the Chucho Valdez Quartet. Eventually, he followed Viscaino to Cuba, where, in 2001, he found an entirely different kind of latin music scene. "In Cuba, everybody's a musician", he remembers, "like in Brazil or New Orleans, but the overall vibe is different. Its more refined. The guys can read music so easy. They come out of the womb clapping Rumba Clave. Its really the next level there."Instead of returning to the mid-west following his stay in Cuba, Moses moved to New York City. There, he became an instructor of West African and Brazilian Drums & Percussion at the charter school Future Leaders Institute in Harlem."I arrived right before September 11. When that went down it was really stifling and I just didnt want to be in New York. But I was teaching four days a week in Harlem and I felt