Cyro Baptista

Brazilian percussionist in jazz and world music who creates many of the percussion instruments he plays. Baptista has performed on five Grammy award-winning albums: Yo-Yo Ma's Obrigado Brazil, Cassandra Wilson's Blue Light 'Til Dawn, The Chieftains' Santiago, Ivan Lins' A Love Affair, and Herbie Hancock's Gershwin's World.

Baptista arrived in the U.S. in 1980 with a scholarship to Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. During the 1980s, he worked on films with John Zorn and appeared on Zorn's albums in the 1990s. Also in the '90s, he appeared on albums by Marisa Monte, Holly Cole, and Cassandra Wilson. In 1997 he released his first solo album, Vira Loucos, with cover versions of music by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The album was recorded with Marc Ribot and Nana Vasconcelos and released by Avant, a label owned by Zorn. He was a member of Zorn's band Dreamers.

He recorded with pianist Herbie Hancock on his album Possibilities. He recorded and performed worldwide with Hancock's Grammy award-winning Gershwin's World. He toured with Yo-Yo Ma's Brazil Project and appeared on the Obrigado Brazil, which won two Grammy awards. He collaborated with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra for a Brazilian Carnival modern jazz concert. For over two years, he toured with Paul Simon and appeared on his Concert in Central Park album. He has toured worldwide with Sting.

Baptista has also worked with Paul Simon, Trey Anastasio, Laurie Anderson, Badi Assad, Derek Bailey, Gato Barbieri, Daniel Barenboim, Kathleen Battle, David Byrne, Dr. John, Brian Eno, Melissa Etheridge, Stephen Kent, Ivan Lins, Bobby McFerrin, Medeski Martin & Wood, Milton Nascimento, Robert Palmer, Carlos Santana, Tim Sparks, Spyro Gyra, James Taylor, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Caetano Veloso

Baptista formed Beat the Donkey, a percussion and dance ensemble. The name comes from a Portuguese expression for "let's do it" or "let's go". The band's personnel and genre are in flux.