THE NAME
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-- Latin Jazz-Funk --

"What does Cruzao mean?
And why name the band this?"

Brownman is often asked this.
In an interview with NOW Magazine in Toronto he responded thusly:
" ... in South America the term "Cruzao" is street-slang for "Cruzado"... which means "crossed" or "the crossing"... the cubans use it in reference to playing on the wrong side of the ultra-present and vital 'clave', which gringos are often guilty of.  Like  coming in on the 2-side when they should have been on the 3-side... this is often followed by angry shrieks of "oye idiota - tu esta cruzao!!" since they "crossed" the clave.  That's why I named my group that - the double edged sword is that the term is used in reference to rule-breaking (in terms of clave)... and translated directly it means "the crossing".  Since with this band I'm writing tunes that dispense with the montuno* and crossing over into the realm of urban tenements such as funk, hip-hop and drum'n'bass ... it seemed apt."
*CRUZAO is the first chordless (no piano, no guitar, no chordal instrument) latin-jazz-urban group in history

 and is currently included in the NYU latin-jazz cirriculum as an example of "modern professive latin-jazz"

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Visit the Brownman.com website
Visit the CRUZAO website
Visit the MARRÓN MATIZADO website
Visit the BROWNMAN AKOUSTIC QUARTET website
Visit the GRUVASYLUM website
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