Without a word of English, Brazilian rhythm master Bob Silva continually brought the house down during his highly anticipated clinic in the Performance Hall. Armed with a drum kit, an array of percussive odds and ends, a Portuguese tongue and an interpreter through whom Silva's infectious sense of humor remained impressively intact, the audience of students was treated to a cultural revelation. Sure, we’re all familiar enough with the Bossa Nova feel, but this presentation added so much more dimension to the Brazilian rhythmic standard that has defined itself throughout the world.

Silva guided the clinic through a series of notated rudiments projected on a screen as a visual aid, clapping the figures along with the students and even singing melodies over them sometimes. As he alternated demonstrations between the drum kit and a tambourine, a fundamental concept of typical Bossa Nova rhythmic motifs became clearer than ever: every beat is played, and the certain accented beats are what create the phrases. There are no rests, which is part of what makes these grooves so danceable. One drum keeping the basic pulse is also standard, like a bass drum playing four-on-the-floor underneath the flurry of rhythmic sophistication that gives this music its character. Silva moved through a variety of different Brazilian rhythms, like Jongo, Congada Mineira, and Maracatu, which is essentially a rock beat (or vice versa).

One of the clinic's most fascinating features was Silva's performance on the various "drums" flanking him onstage. We've all at some point or another dreamed of becoming mind-boggling virtuosos of the saucepan. Watching this legendary trap drummer take spoon to cookware at breakneck speeds was worthy of an entire concert. A dancer with bells and shakers around her ankles joined him to demonstrate the percussive body movements that compliment the dance rhythms he played on Agogo bells, plates, tambourines and even a cookie tin used as a shaker. As he described the use of cat skins on the homemade tambourines of his youth, he mimed the tried and true technique of tuning up the skins over a fire while looking up the women's skirts. Duly noted.

In an autobiographical context, Silva described the significance of music in a typical Brazilian home and family. In his case, a five-year-old, emulating the inundation of rhythms he heard by tapping them on a wooden stool, grew into one of Brazil's finest musicians, playing with the highest echelon of Bossa Nova pioneers. He described the 1950's rhythmic and instrumental innovations of musicians like Jon Gilberto and Edson Machado, whose styles are still fundamental influences on Brazilian music. Radio enabled American jazz to infiltrate Brazil and evolve the music further still. Especially relevant were drummers like Max Roach, Philly Jo Jones, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, and most profoundly for Silva, Tony Williams. This combination of bop and exploratory jazz drumming embedded in a Bossa Nova-based musical heritage has opened a floodgate of Brazilian rhythmic experimentations. Silva's work on groundbreaking projects like Wayne Shorter's famous album Native Dancer have kept him at the forefront of Brazil's vast musical culture. Silva's own band, Robertinho Silva e Familia, best represents his continued evolution.