Timbalada

Timbalada
Timbalada
	Axé music
Years active	1991- present
Website	timbalada.com

Timbalada is an

African music

. They are a highly popular group which regularly performs sold-out concerts throughout Brazil.

The group is mostly known for its participation in the

social activism by working with needy children, providing education and drumming courses to help them with social integration.^[1]

They have performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Holland Festival, and the Montreal International Jazz Festival, as well as tours of Europe and Japan.^[2] Their 1996 album, Mineral (Timbalada album), won a Prêmio Sharp award.^[2]

Musical innovation

Musically, Timbalada is credited with two major innovations in the instrumentation of Afro-Brazilian music: the revival of the

timbal (a tall, high-pitched hand drum), and the development of a rack of 3 surdos (bass drums) that can be played by a single player. The timbal, which had been nearly extinct before Timbalada began featuring it, has since become widespread in many Afro-Brazilian genres, including axé and samba-reggae.^[2]

The rack of surdos, also called a bateria-de-surdo (surdo drumset), is now widely used by many groups for stage performances when not parading. Because the bateria-de-surdo can only hold 3 surdos within arm's reach of a single player, the traditional four-surdo arrangement of many samba-reggae rhythms is often trimmed down to three.