About

Forró. Funk. Brass. Pounded by calloused hands; blasted by tight grooves. It calls across time and continents - with a response from hips and feet. It’s the force that blew through Louis Armstrong in the twenties. It’s the power that gets Brazilians swinging in the streets for carnival.

Nation Beat singularly conjures up this elemental musical mojo, drawing on the wellsprings of rhythm that lit up jazz and got maracatu thundering. Nation Beat takes off with be-bop-via-Brazil drumming; propelled by percussive bursts of New Orleans-flavored brass. But forget the musical history; this is music to make you dance.

-Martin Lipp, 2018

Nation Beat’s live shows have taken on an almost mythological aura for their ability to lift the souls, and the feet, of their growing cross-cultural audience. Band leader, drummer/percussionist Scott Kettner has long been at the forefront of merging different musical elements together, from the earliest days of Nation Beat's Brazil meets North American music.   

In 2017, Scott connected with arranger Paul Carlon (tenor sax) and the band  entered a new phase in their cross-cultural explorations where brass band and percussion explode in a jazz-infused, funkified New Orleans-meets-Brazil carnival sound. 

“Past albums have leaned heavily on Brazilian music,” Kettner says. "While that is ever present in Nation Beat's sound, our latest groove is jazz-tinged. This is a beat that moves your feet!"

Nation Beat is

Scott Kettner: Drums 

Paul Carlon: Tenor Sax/Arrangements

Mark Collins: Trumpet 

Mariel Bildsten: Trombone 

Joe Correia: Sousaphone