Introduction
Origins

Surdos in Bahia
Surdos for Samba
Bass Drums for Maracatu

Surdo Preparation & Maintenance
Tips & Equipment
Making Mallets
Recommended Surdo Recordings
Surdo Supplier Links
A Surdo Glossary
A Surdo Photo Gallery
My Own Drums
How to Contact Me
Links to Other Sites
Disclaimer
Site Map

Why would anyone build a whole website dedicated to Brazilian bass drums? Brazilian percussion music is one of the few forms of popular music in which the bass drum plays a such major role. Like taiko in Japan, there is almost a cult surrounding the powerful surdos of Brazil, and many people who begin playing surdos find themselves drawn in, perfectly happy to be providing the low end pulse of batucada samba, samba-reggae, maracatu, and axê while others take the limelight. When they play with a 24" drum strapped to their waist, the power reverberates through their bodies. The effect is akin to the entrancing, heart-massaging power of the bass guitar in reggae music or the rumble of a rollercoaster thrilling their souls.

In Brazil, especially in the streets of Salvador, masses of surdo players, led by sharp tenor drums called repiques, pound the earth and heavens alike with hypnotic, erotic rhythms that wake up and stimulate the gods. Dancers and spectators sway and undulate in waves, driven by musical tremors. All of this from sheets of plastic stretched across large cylinders of galvanized steel.

Why did I build a whole website dedicated to surdos? Because no one else had done it. Did it need to be done? Probably not. But you're here, so why not get what you can out of it?

There is no particular audience for this website. It is for people who have been playing surdo or samba for years, for people just beginning, or for people who are researching Brazilian instruments and have no intention on touching a heavy, rusty steel drum.

There is a little of everything: tips, recommendations, opinions, photos stolen from the Internet (most were taken by me, though), and bad links. I'm very much open to new information or corrections. I made this website for increasing my knowledge as well as passing on what I have learned. I usually respond very quickly to e-mails I receive (which was difficult until a week ago because the e-mail address at the bottom of this page was wrong).

As with many of my web pages, I have tried to make this an information source about something for which I have a strong interest. I love bass and I love drumming, so it seemed I'd found my calling when I began playing surdo.

Being the "info-nut" I am, I have searched the Web for info about surdos. What I found was excellent, but scattered all over cyberspace. With this page, I have tried to centralize what I have learned from the Internet, books, and personal experience with sambistas from Brazil, Europe, and California.

Surdos derive from urban centers, and are traditionally made of leftover industrial materials, like sheetmetal, bolts, and steel rods. As the need arose, different sizes developed, each drum with its own name and role in the bateria. From one basic design came the repinique, repique de mão, and the surdo.

The name surdo has been used as a general term for all drums of this type, but more recently specifies the large, cylindrical  bass drum in Brazilian music. It literally means "deaf" of "deaf man" in Brazilian Portuguese, because of huge sound wave it can produce and propel down your ear canal.  

My Own Involvement

I first saw Olodum about 1991, when Paul Simon guest-hosted the American late-night TV show, Saturday Night Live. They were promoting the Rhythm of the Saints album. I didn't know who they were, but I remember looking at those drums, though, especially the red, yellow, black, and green surdos.

Years later, I encountered a samba band, the Super Sonic Samba School. After playing the timbal for a while, I tried the surdo. My preference for the low, bass parts in music (I had played bass guitar for 15 years) and for drumming came together. It was an obsession in the making.

I searched the internet and books and saw pictures of young people on the streets of Brazil, playing ad hoc percussion instruments. In some shots there were surdos -- dull, gray, rusted, and dented; they were beautiful. Those photos conjured up romantic visions of musicians in soccer shirts and shorts gathering in the streets, playing infectious rhythms for a gathering of grinning, dancing revelers.

Still more inspiration came from some wonderful CDs I had picked up. Most important were Ilê Aiyê and live recordings of Timbalada and Olodum. I love the blocos afros of Bahia, and I always look forward to playing samba reggae, samba duro, and other bloco afro rhythms.

I'm working hard, now, to improve my abilities and learn a variety of rhythms. It's pure pleasure, and sometimes blisters. This website is the best way for me to express my passion for surdos without shaking the neighbors out of bed.

This is a great site by a guy in the Netherlands who made his own 20" surdo. He chronicled its construction, and included diagrams and technical data. He also did a followup to report how well it worked out. 

Part way down this page is some info on the place of the surdo in a Carnaval bateria. The text is taken from the book, The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha, which I recommend. There is a new addition, published in the last year.

Dionysus Rites

Surdo Site Map