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Departmental scholar Beto Gonzalez (right) leads members of the UCLA Brazilian Ensemble during a practice. Gonzalez formed the group to promote the music of his homeland.

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Beto Gonzalez plays a traditional Brazilian percussion instrument last Thursday at Schoenberg.

Walking through Schoenberg Music Building on a Thursday night you might hear Brazilian drums grooving. What you’d be hearing is the Brazilian Percussion Workshop and Ensemble organized by Beto Gonzalez, departmental scholar in the Latin American Studies department.

“It’s fascinating how just playing Brazilian drums alone can create so much groove and so much melody,” Gonzalez said.

Organized by the group Brazil to promote the music Gonzalez grew up hearing in Sao Paulo, Gonzalez says the intricacies of learning the musical form hasn’t discouraged students from coming in to practice with him. The first meeting of the quarter drew around 25 people, and he hopes that many students will be committed and ready to perform by spring.

“I knew I wanted a group on campus because I spend so much time here,” Gonzalez said. “But I knew there wouldn’t be enough people who knew the music. By teaching the basics I hope people will get inspired.”

Gonzalez’s career as a musician began when he picked up a guitar and played his part in a few blues and rock bands. Soon after, he rediscovered Brazilian music, which felt more natural to him.

Most of the drums the Brazilian Ensemble plays were brought from Brazil by Gonzalez while the rest were donated by Tara Browner, a professor in the ethnomusicology department. Most students he teaches are either Brazilian or are interested in Brazilian culture, having studied abroad or been part of a capoeira (Brazilian martial arts) group.

Gonzalez invites all people interested to join the ensemble but warns that it requires a drive to learn and dedication to practice outside of class. The ability to learn Brazilian percussion music, though, may come more easily for those familiar with Brazilian culture.

“A very important element of Brazilian music is the groove, the missing element that tends to come naturally to people born into the culture,” Gonzalez said. “Growing up and listening to Samba music being played on the streets, the intricacies of the rhythm and groove sound very natural to me.”

Gonzalez, who is planning to finish his Master’s degree in Latin American Studies and get his doctorate in ethnomusicology at UCLA, teaches the basics in percussions found in traditional Brazilian music, not the more recent styles that incorporate electronic elements. The Brazilian Ensemble uses the pandeiro, tanta, repinique (the lead calling drum) and the surdo (the huge bass drum) among other percussion instruments traditional to Brazilian samba reggae and samba afro music.

“Deciding to be a musician is not a career choice, it’s just what I do. If I have any career that allows me the time to play my music I’m happy,” Gonzalez said.

“Uma Pequena Memoria Para um Tempo Sem Memoria...” by Luiz Gonzaga Jr. (Gonzaguinha), a famous Brazilian singer-songwriter who made veiled protest music in a samba style, is Gonzalez’s favorite song.

“It is one of the most intense and powerful songs I’ve heard in my life. I remember listening to it, and even today I’m fascinated by the infectious rhythms. I listen to those songs over and over again.”

The group Brazil at UCLA was just established this year, and the ensemble is a part of the program’s goal to maintain a forum for Brazilians and people interested in Brazilian culture.

“It is important that every culture keeps some form of traditional music alive,” Gonzalez said. “Music is that conduit that ties us back to our cultural heritage.