It's a quintessential Toronto experience: you're walking down the street in summertime, when out of nowhere there appears a small army of percussionists, pounding out an infectious Latin rhythm.

Say hello to the Samba Squad, an award-winning multi-ethnic ensemble led by one of Canada's unsung musical heroes: Rick Shadrach Lazar.

The music of this remarkable rhythmic collective is the subject of Samba Squad: Drums We Love, a Riddle Films documentary scheduled to make its world television premiere on VisionTV. The hour-long film airs on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 10 pm ET and repeats on Saturday, Sept. 30 at 10 pm ET.

The broadcast coincides with the launch of Samba Squad's long-awaited new CD, Batuque, which is slated for release on Sept. 20. The album, a “dance till you drop tour of global grooves,” melds Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and West African rhythms with a distinctively North American urban intensity.

Lazar, a highly sought-after professional percussionist and musical educator, founded Samba Squad with a tiny handful of members. Over time, it grew to include nearly 40 performers. Small local gigs and street busking led eventually to the studio, and to an Urban Music Association of Canada Award for Best World Recording of 2001.

Samba Squad: Drums We Love is an engaging portrait of the ensemble and its music. It's also a lighthearted biography of Lazar: a musical prodigy from Thunder Bay, Ont. who grew up to work with artists as diverse as Barry White and Bruce Cockburn.

The film features interviews with Lazar's musical peers, including Cockburn, Loreena McKennitt and Jesse Cook , as well as lifelong friend and fellow Thunder Bay boy Paul Shaffer, now the musical director and bandleader for CBS's Late Show with David Letterman. To this day, Shaffer counts jamming with Lazar and poring over back issues of Down Beat Magazine in his friend's basement as formative teenage influences.

A natural musician and teacher with an instinctive affinity for the rhythms of the world, Lazar has made Samba Squad a laboratory for the blending of global genres. Brazilian samba is the heart of the group's sound, but Lazar also incorporates influences from his own Middle Eastern background, along with African and Afro-Cuban beats, and elements of funk and hip-hop.

Lazar's open-door philosophy means that Samba Squad has become a microcosm of multicultural Toronto, featuring members of all ages and backgrounds. Remarkably, most are non-professional musicians whose raw talents Lazar has encouraged and shaped. “The joy that they bring to it, that's what you can't buy,” he says. “That's infectious.”

For many of its members, like Layah Davis, being part of Samba Squad has been the experience of a lifetime. Says Davis: “This music transforms my life, it transforms my heart in some way that I find magical.”

Samba Squad: Drums We Love features full-length performances of the ensemble's most thrilling pieces, from the lilting Afro-Caribbean number “Alagados” to the James-Brown-goes-to-Rio workout “All The Honeys in Da House.”

The film is directed by Juno Award winner Joel Goldberg, who has helmed music videos for the likes of Maestro Fresh Wes, the Dream Warriors and Michie Mee, and produced MuchMusic's Electric Circus. The producers are Jason Charters and Liam Romalis, the Gemini Award-winning team behind VisionTV's Gospel Challenge and Carry Me Home: The Story & Music of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale.

Samba Squad: Drums We Love was produced by Toronto-based Riddle Films in association with VisionTV. Alberta Nokes is Executive Producer for VisionTV.

For more information on Samba Squad, visit www.sambasquad.com .

About Rick Shadrach Lazar

Rick Shadrach Lazar has been voted Percussionist of the Year five times by Canada's Jazz Report magazine.

Raised in Thunder Bay, Ont., Lazar received his earliest musical instruction from his father, who gave him lessons on piano and woodwinds. In high school, he branched into drums and percussion, and soon led a popular local band with his close friend Paul Shaffer (Late Show with David Letterman).

After earning his BA from Lakehead University, Lazar studied percussion at Indiana University's school of music, and performed in its famed University Jazz Band, which featured Peter Erskine on drums. He went on to play with a number of funk and fusion groups in the U.S. Midwest, and toured with Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra.

When he returned to Canada, Lazar began performing with Toronto's popular jazz-fusion band Manteca, and founded Coconut Groove, a dance band whose blend of world beat and jazz rap would prove a pivotal influence on the Toronto music scene of the early 1980s.

In 1987, Lazar formed the Montuno Police, a six-piece instrumental band playing “global jazz from the cutting edge.” Montuno Police has recorded several albums, including the 1995 Juno Award nominee Touch.

In 1990, Lazar began his musical association with Loreena McKennitt. He has collaborated with her on five CDs, including the Juno Award-winning album The Visit, and has been an integral part of her touring band. Lazar has also worked with a wide variety of other Canadian and international artists, including Bruce Cockburn, the Blues Brothers, Moe Koffman, Jesse Cook, Jane Bunnett, Jeff Healy and Great Big Sea.

Lazar became a musical educator in 1996, joining the faculty at Toronto's Humber College of Music as an instructor. In 2002 he began teaching at York University.

A uniquely versatile musician, Lazar continues to be involved in a wide variety of innovative projects. In addition to leading Montuno Police, he is the creator and artistic director of Samba Squad, an-award-winning percussion ensemble charting new directions in Brazilian “batucada.” Lazar also performs alternative Arabic music with Mernie Orchestra, Medina and Levon Ichkhanian, and Afro-Cuban bata and rumba with Ire Omo and Sarita Leyva.