Nation Beat, the brainchild of artistic director and founder Scott Kettner, is front woman Fabiana Masili, raucous guitarist Mark Marshall, fluid bassist Zê Grey, and Aaron Shafer-Haiss and Fernanco Saci—two pulse-pounding maracatu drummers. This American/Brazilian collective fuses folkloric Brazilian maracatu and traditional New Orleans roots rhythms by gathering 500 years of cultural crossbreeding for its explosive live shows.