Jorge Bezerra Alabê

Jorge Bezerra Alabê is one of the leading experts on Brazilian percussion in the United States. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was selected at ten years old to begin a musical apprenticeship into Candomblé, joining a lineage with direct roots to Casa Branca, the first and most important Candomblé house, where many sacred and secular rhythms were created. In addition to this position of high honor, Jorge has performed all over the world. He was a lead singer with the Filhos de Gandhi in Rio de Janeiro and later became the rhythm director (mestre de batera) of the Minas Gerais Samba School in Belo Horizonte. He recorded with Brazilian music stars such as Milton Nascimiento and Mirtinho da Vila and made regular appearances on the Globo TV program, Brasil Pandeiro from 1978-1980. In 1984, Jorge became the percussion director of the internationally touring Brazilian performing group, Oba Oba. Over a fifteen-year span, the group toured through Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, playing some of the most renowned theaters in the world. 

Since 1996, Jorge has lived in the United States, conducting samba groups and teaching workshops on Brazilian music and dance at universities and community organizations throughout the country. Currently based in Oakland, California, he has taught nearly everyone in the U.S. who specializes in Brazilian percussion and is largely responsible for the understanding of many aspects of Afro-Brazilian candomblé, samba, and other forms of music by a generation of professional performers and teachers in the U.S. and their students, including dozens of community music ensembles across the country.