Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
If you listen closely to the raucous, rhythmic music of Eugene samba-reggae drum group Samba Ja, you can start to pick out where individual drum beats form rapid dun-dun-duns when layered atop each other.
For the group, which specializes in Afro-Samba drum rhythms that draw from both West African and Brazilian traditions, keeping that rhythm has been all-important across its 25 years of existence.
They are staples at local events, drumming through Eugene Pride, Noche Cultural, the Oregon Country Fair and more with their signature, spirited style. Music director Steven White recalled playing in the Chela Mela meadow at Country Fair one year at night, thinking they would stop and hear a few claps. Instead, he said, they were surrounded by applause.
White said he spends the majority of his time just getting the musicians to listen to each other as they play. He compared the task to the Samba Ja logo: an octopus with musical instruments in hand.
“We spend a lot of time working on that to try to get the eight arms to work together,” he said. “If the eight arms aren’t listening to each other, good luck.”
As the group celebrates its 25th anniversary with the Axé Samba Festival this Saturday, ringing in a quarter-century of drumming with a six-hour festival featuring three other Pacific Northwest samba drum ensembles, we invited Samba Ja into the newsroom studio to explain how those rhythms stack atop each other to make a song.
See how Samba Ja’s music works
How to see Samba Ja this weekend
The Axé Samba Festival, with Samba Ja, fellow Eugene group Duck Samba, Portland Samba and the Seattle-based VamoLá, is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday, Aug 1., at the Eugene Downtown Riverfront Park at 500 Ferry St. It is free to attend.
