Mississippi Pizza Pub

HALFMANN (Los Angeles) returns to Portland Friday, November 6th for his newest 7″ vinyl release titled UNIVERSAL! At the forefront of the new Cumbia wave, HALFMANN treks new and fresh sounds while maintaining the foundation of what makes Cumbia the most infectious sound in the world!

PSYCHTRPK Chilean musical Shaman who hypnotizes the dance floor with heavy bass and unrelenting Latin beats!

DJ SONIDO DEAD STEADY Portland staple in the Cumbia Sonidera scene!

An all-star Portland group of musicians including Eric Stern and Michael Beach, the group performs music from the Middle East and features bellydancers.

The Front Porch Swingers are steeped in that good ole Kentucky bluegrass music and Appalachian fiddle tunes. We like to play that foot tapping, feel good music.

This will be a special night for all dance lovers!

Come at 8PM and get a Forró Dance class!

Josephina Del Norte: The Argentinian DJ, singer and multi-instrumentalist Josefina Del Norte will start the night playing a mix of Latin American Cumbia and Forró music from Brazil.

Forró Beleza: Led by Pyata Penedo, a Brazilian lead singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and owner of Figure 8 Sound Recording Studio, the band performs a variety of music from Northeastern Brazil known as forró.

Forró is a lively Brazilian music and partner-dance tradition rooted in Northeastern Brazil, where it developed through community gatherings centered around music, dancing, and social connection. Popularized nationally by legendary artists such as Luiz Gonzaga, its distinctive sound is traditionally created by the accordion, zabumba drum, and triangle, producing rhythms that feel both grounded and flowing.

The dance brings people together through a warm embrace, shared movement, playful turns, and a close connection to the music. Although it may remind newcomers of the intimacy of tango, the energy of salsa, or the grounded feeling of blues, forró has a joyful and welcoming character entirely its own.

More than simply a style of music or dance, forró is a celebration of Brazilian culture and community—and the best way to understand it is to come experience it for yourself!

Yankl Falk and the Carpathian-Pacific Express are neo-klezmer and beyond – which is to say, the music has a passport full of old-world Eastern European melodies and a tendency to miss the train on purpose. Klezmer and Yiddish song, mystical Hasidic chant, virtuosic Eastern European violin, and New Orleans roots all find their way aboard. There are dances, soulful turns, and musical moments that take a scenic detour in search of unexplored beauty.

At the front of this expedition, Jack “Yankl” Falk sings and plays clarinet with a lifetime of feeling in the sound. Andrew Ehrlich’s violin catches fire; Ralph Huntley’s piano draws on a wide range of musical styles; Ji Tanzer’s drums keep the whole enterprise on point with precision and uncommon interpretive invention; and Courtney Von Drehle’s accordion and saxophone thread through the music with a few detours of their own. Five excellent musicians, one unusually well-traveled bandstand, and no particular reason to arrive where you expected.