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 Multi-percussionist and LP artist Chris “Fatoye” Theberge just returned from a debut performance in Mexico with his NYC-based band, “Groove Collective” (who play “live funk, hip hop, jazz, jamming, Afro-Cuban, soul, dancers, DJs, tapers, jazzheads, club remixers – Jam Band Music”). The band played to a sold-out crowd of 800 people at the “Hard Rock Live” in Guadalajara as well as at Mexico City’s the “Lunario.” At the “Lunario,” Chris joined local musicians – out on their night off – for jam sessions. “The warm-hearted Mexicans treated us incredibly well, and we were surprised by a full press conference with television, print, and radio – apparently we were one of the first foreign Jazz/Funk groups ever to play in Guadalajara,” Chris reports.
Multicultural performance is nothing new to Chris or “Groove Collective.” For example, his band received this fan e-mail: “Hi everybody! Maybe it’s hard to believe, but some Russians are listening to GC. We live in the Ural [Mountains] (it’s so cold here!) and we love the groovy funk/jazz/hiphop/latino/disco that GC plays ... Jazz forever!” Meanwhile, Chris – an avid performer on LP Giovanni Series Congas and LP bata drums – has just returned from a trip to Nigeria where he is studying the roots of Cuban Bata and Yoruba drumming. Chris has visited Nigeria before – he’s researching the traditional Yoruba Bata and the families that preserve these ancient percussion traditions, which are the ancestors of Cuban Bata drumming.
To hear Chris’s “Introduction to Bata Drumming,” click here!
 Chris “Fatoye” ThebergeAnd for Chris’s webpage: www.groovecollective.com/band.html.
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