Café

“Café” is Edson Aparecido da Silva, the Brazilian Percussionist, Singer, Composer, and Producer, whose over 40 year career has garnered international recognition and respect. As a prolific artist, powerful performer, sensitive musician, and consummate professional, Café has made an immeasurable contribution to Brazilian, Jazz, Popular and World Music. With his vast talent and unique perspective,  he has enhanced the work of countless artists and served the spirit of the music.

Café was born in Villa Maria, São Paulo, Brazil. He dedication to the drums began at the age of 8 when he became entranced by the Afro-Brazilian rhythms he heard and felt at the spiritual meetings he attended with his parents. In his late teens, his musical studies included classical training for the Municipal Symphonic Orchestra of São Paulo, but his passion for the rhythms of his heritage took him to night clubs where he began playing jazz and popular music. In his early 20’s, Café moved to Rio de Janeiro with a theatre troupe and began studying percussion technique at the Villa Lobos School. For three years he performed with the Ministry of Education and Culture of Brazil in their National Arts Programs Seis e Meia and Project Pixinguinha.  By 1980, he was performing and touring the world with such Brazilian greats as Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, Djavan and Simone.

Since relocating to the US in 1985, Café has recorded, performed and toured with innumerable artists all over the globe. His career and talents have spanned the musical genres of Brazilian, jazz, rock, pop, classical, latin, world, and folkloric forms. A brief list of these artists includes: Djavan, Gilberto Gil, Emilio Santiago, Sergio Mendes, Ivan Lins, Eliane Elias, Roberta Flack, Harry Belafonte, Herbie Mann, David Byrne, Steve Winwood, Chuck Mangione, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Sadao Watanbe, Ernie Watts, Paquito D’Rivera, Philippe Saisse, Batacoto, Joyce, Danny Gottlieb, Michael Franks, Pepeu Gomes, Dave Liebman, Baden Powell, Bob Baldwin, Andrei Kondakov & the Brasil All Stars, Neto Band, and with Randy Brecker on his Grammy Award winning Into the Sun. (See full Discography)

Café has recorded percussion improvisations for numerous television shows and commercials, such as ABC’s documentary series Turning Point, and for independent films and major motion picture soundtracks, including Beloved and Four Cops.  He has performed on video with Mick Jagger, David Byrne, Magareth Menezes, and in PBS’s Harry Belafonte and Friends. Café performed alongside many of the most renowned Brazilian artists in “A Tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim” at Carneige Hall, including Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Astrud Gilberto, João Bosco, and João Gilberto. He has also appeared on stage with Ashford & Simpson with Maya Angelo, Paul Winter, Marcos Valle, Emilio Santiago, Betty Buckley, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Vinicius Cantuaria, Al Jarreau, Branford Marsalis, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Claudio Roditi, Dianne Reeves, Arturo O’Farrill, Steely Dan, Tom Petty, Joan Osborne, Bonnie Raitt, the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, and many more.

As a Master Percussionist, the breadth of Cafe’s knowledge extends far beyond traditional Afro-Brazilian and contemporary Brazilian rhythms into Latin, African, and the African Diaspora. A dedicated educator, he has shared his knowledge in many settings, from universities and professional music academies, to cultural organizations and public schools. Café currently teaches workshops at the Julliard School in New York City, and is on faculty in the “Samba Meets Jazz” programs (Bar Harbor, ME/Rio de Janeiro).

Café founded his own label, Café Percussion Records, to expand his singular musical voice and bring it to a broader audience. He first released Ancestors, a collection of Afro-Brazilian songs, with Fôlia de Reis, the group he co-founded with Dom Salvador and Cidinho Teixeira. Then, in 2011, he released the first solo recording of his unique style of Afro-Brazilian Pop Jazz, Creation Child. That same year he collaborated with World Fusion composer Nana Simopoulos on the meditation soundscape CD, Meditations with the Orishas. Also, Café’s Brazilian Jazz instrumental “Three Express” was recorded by Nilson Matta, Roni Ben-Hur and Victor Lewis on Mojave (Motéma Music), and his original classical compositions have been performed by the Berklee School of Music. 

Café continues to mine his vast musical gifts in a myriad of ways, from exploring new possibilities in rhythm, reflecting on global human issues in song, broadening into classical composition, to creating new work in Brazil with his equally talented family of musicians. His musical journey is also a spiritual one. He is always seeking to enrich his spirit, honor the ancestors, and express gratitude to God the Creator for the beauty of life. “Music is the Art of expressing the many different feelings of our souls in the form of sound.” Café