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The UCLA Afro-Brazilian ensemble BatUCLAda performs Thursday at the Fowler Museum as part of the

Percussive elements can often be the driving force behind a piece of music, encompassing its energy and guiding the direction of the song. But they are often limited or underexplored in popular music, as the melody tends to dominate the listener’s attention.

Of course, that’s mostly with regard to what you hear on the radio. However, the “Fowler Out Loud” series at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, together with UCLA’s ethnomusicology department, works to expose the various styles brewing in other parts of the world. Thursday night at the Fowler Museum, the destination is Brazil.

UCLA’s Afro-Brazilian ensemble, led by ethnomusicology graduate student Beto Gonzalez, will explore both the new and already-established styles of music popular in Brazil, including samba and emergent funk. The group’s name,

BatUCLAda, plays off the name of a subdivision of samba music characterized by its fast-paced approach to percussion.

“I like to keep it entertaining, so we’re blending together the modernity of Brazilian music, as well as the traditional music of the country,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez developed the program for the show by first listening closely to the construction of songs performed by popular Brazilian bands, such as Olodum and Ile Aiye, and then transcribing the music for his performers.

The bands are most well-known for their African influence, both in lyrical subject and sound, and how their members integrate those qualities into the energetic and danceable aspect of Brazilian music.

Fusing together the sounds of reggae and samba, the music in Thursday’s program imposes a trancelike environment in which listeners become absorbed in the steady, complex rhythms of the drums on stage, all playing in concise syncopation with one another while the players engage in call-and-response vocal lines.

In other words, it drops the elevator-music element of bad bossa nova and adopts the fervor of a living room jam session.

The ensemble is made up of 20 people, which makes it difficult to synchronize drum beats because they are actively changing throughout the entirety of the song.

But the performers in the ensemble are far from new to this style of music. Most have been involved in the ensemble for several years, leading them to develop both individually and on a group level. The result allows for a unified, communal experience.

“It’s nice to have a group of people who come in and have been playing for a while. They’re the backbone of the class,” Gonzalez said.

While there will be some singing during the performance, the foundation lies in the percussion. The instruments used consist of Brazilian drums similar to the snare, bass and tenor drums often heard in popular music today.

It’s like breaking apart a basic drum kit, Gonzalez explained, and assigning each performer a role on a single instrument out of the kit. All of them range in tone and pitch so that, when combined later on, the individual roles grow into a full-bodied, melodic sound, like an “orchestra of drums.”

To create this harmony between the rhythmic and musical aspects of the piece, Gonzalez guided the students through the theoretical notation of each song. But the true essence of the music lies in the emotion within the performers themselves.

“The approach to the music is very much based on natural intuition. So how do you teach people who didn’t grow up with it or spend years listening to it what is intended to be natural?” Gonzalez said. “It’s definitely a challenge, but a fun challenge.”

The type of connection required between the musician and the song helps to reflect the convivial nature of the music overall.

In Brazil, the performances are closely associated with the highly musical Carnival festival, in which drum ensembles similar to UCLA’s play in the streets of Brazil’s cities as citizens enjoy various street fair activities throughout the city. Thus the music demands an interactive approach from both the position of the musician and the audience.

The program follows the essence of the “Fowler Out Loud” series by eliminating mediums like the radio or an MP3 player from the process of listening to music. It puts the band in direct contact with its audience, allowing the music to be experienced as it was originally intended.

“We share the space in the theater so we’re literally on the same floor as the audience,” Gonzalez said. “It’s always more fun when everyone in the theater is either playing or dancing or singing along, and the Fowler has the perfect setup for that.”