Celso Alberti

Born in Curitiba, Southern Brazil, the driving rhythms of his country’s music led Celso Alberti to develop an early interest in the drums and by the age of 17, he was performing regularly as a professional. In 1982, Celso moved to New York City and performed with numerous artists including singer Clarice Taylor, guitarist Toninho Horta and The New York Samba Band, to name a few. Celso relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1984, where he joined Terra Sul, a Brazilian band based in San Francisco. Two years later, Celso joined Batucaje, which won that year’s “Jammies” Music Award for “Best Brazilian Band” in the Bay Area. He also embarked on his first major international tour with world-renowned percussionist Airto Moreira and singer Flora Purim. In 1989, Celso toured with jazz flautist Herbie Mann and formed an original instrumental power trio called No Man’s Land. From 1990 to 2004, he toured and recorded with many established musicians, including world-renowned recording artist Steve Winwood, guitarists Craig Chaquico (Starship) and Joyce Cooling, singer John Lucien, bassist Michael Manring, keyboardists Kit Walker (Kitaro) and Frank Martin (Narada Michael Walden) and many others. Since 2006, Celso has toured Russia and the Ukraine with Russian keyboardist Andrei Kondakov and has also performed with guitarist Stef Burns (Alice Cooper, Huey Lewis and the News), legendary Brazilian singer Emilio Santiago, guitarist Chico Pinheiro, singer/multi-instrumentalist Claudia Villela, singer/songwriter Tim Hockenberry, bassoonist Paul Hanson, saxophonist George Brooks, bassist Kai Eckhardt and numerous others. Throughout the years, Celso has also provided expert live and studio engineering, remote recording and Pro Tools consulting to a fast-growing list of clients, including Airto Moreira, Jose Neto, Steve Winwood, Frank Martin, Ronnie Ray Padilla, Kai Eckhardt and most recently Narada Michael Walden, Dave Weckl and Mike Stern.