Brazilian Cyro Baptista is among the world's best known percussionists. He has played jazz, pop, rock, avant-garde, and standard classical performances in concert and on hundreds of recordings. He also leads his own ensembles. Baptista creates many of the percussion instruments he plays. He's worked with everyone from John Zorn to Yo Yo Ma. His debut, 1997's Vira Loucos: Cyro Baptista Plays the Music of Villa-Lobos, won global acclaim. 2005's Love the Donkey marked his Beat the Donkey band's debut. 2008's Banquet of the Spirits, titled for another of his ensembles, is widely regarded as a masterpiece. In 2011, Beat the Donkey issued Caym: Book of Angels, Vol. 17 from Zorn's second Masada composition book. Baptista issued Bluefly, a quartet date for bass, cello, drums, and percussion in 2016. In 2019 he joined Martin Philadelphy, Jamie Saft, and Dan Rieser on Arkitsa, and in 2023, he issued Chama on Ropeadope.