MQS has created a form of music in which percussion instruments take on the melodic roles commonly associated with non-percussive instruments such as strings and wind instruments. In our arrangements, bass lines, keyboard parts, horn stabs and other melodic elements are creatively mapped to drums and other percussion. These mappings do not always involve a one-to-one correspondence between the original melodies and the resulting ones. Instead, the timbral characteristics of the drums used and the requirements of the song are paramount. In this fashion, we have adapted funk bass lines and hard-rock guitar riffs to surdos, keyboard licks to hand drums, horn stabs to cymbals and rhythm guitar parts to multiple samba bells. We also compose original pieces inspired by everything from Candomblé to Balkan folk dances. Our purpose in this is primarily to have as much fun as possible while creating new music, and secondly, to expose audiences to the riches of the percussion family of instruments. Finally, we sing a number of Brazilian songs, classic and recent, simply because we love them and we believe somebody must bring these sounds to our Portland audiences.