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| Adventure Music Signs Renowned Pianist Jovino Santos Neto Adventure Music has announced that the acclaimed Brazilian pianist Jovino Santos Neto has been formally signed to the label, and has just completed recording an as-yet untitled CD for release in early 2006. The new CD is Santos Neto’s first recording as a leader since 2003’s Canto de Rio, which was a Latin Grammyã nominee. The upcoming release captures Santos Neto in a trio setting, where he is joined by Roger Botter-Maio, who also contributed to Weber Iago’s recent Adventure Music release, On Filhos de Vento, on bass and Marcio Bahia, one of Brazil’s most in-demand session players, on drums. On the CD, which features a collection of never recorded, mostly original tunes, pianist Santos Neto also plays flute and melodica. Special guests on the project include vocalist Joyce, Hamilton de Holanda on mandolin, Marcos Amorim on guitar, and Gabriel Grossi on harmonica. Fabio Pacscoal, the son of acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, for whom Santo Neto has served as pianist and musical director for 15 years and counting, can be heard on percussion. Santo Neto first recorded for Adventure Music on Serenata, the 2003 collaboration with label co-founder mandolinist Mike Marshall. That CD, a collection of the music of Hermeto Pacsoal, also featured Pascoal on flute and melodica. Marshall and Santo Neto’s first actual recorded collaboration was on Brazil Duets, the long-out-of-print 1994 recording that has just been re-released by Adventure Music with three all new bonus tracks. Studying classical piano from the age of 12, Rio de Janeiro-born and now Seattle-based pianist, flutist, and composer Santos Neto moved to Beatles and Rolling Stones-influenced pop by his 15th birthday. He began to focus on jazz while studying biology at McGill University in Montreal. Invited to tour Brazil with Hermeto Pascoal in 1977, Santos Neto has remained an important part of the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist's band for 15 years, co-producing six albums, including Festa dos Deuses, which received a Sharp Prize as Best Instrumental Album in 1992, and archiving thousands of Pascoal's compositions. Santos Neto continues to expand on his world music-influenced vocabulary. He built on his knowledge of Brazilian music during a stint with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim's group, Fourth World, from 1993 until 1997. He also has worked with such artists as Mike Marshall, Richard Boukas, Celso Machado and Chitravina N. Ravikiran, has recorded several albums with flutist Gary Stroutsos, including the Native American-influenced People of the Willows in 2000. He toured Europe in 1994 with Swiss cellist David Pezzoti. Santos Neto's 1997 debut solo album, Caboclo, was followed by Ao Vivo em Olympia in 2000 and by Canto do Rio in 2003. Canto do Rio was commissioned by Chamber Music America's New Works program and was nominated for a 2004 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. He also received commissions by the IAJE and ASCAP, Jack Straw Foundation, Seattle Arts Commission, Artist Trust and Meet the Composer. Jovino was the recipient of a Golden Ear Award as the Best Jazz Instrumentalist of the Pacific Northwest in 2004. Relocating to the United States in 1993 after performing on Sergio Mendes's Grammy award-winning world music album, Brasileiro, Santos Neto studied conducting at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where he continues to teach piano, composition, and jazz ensemble. He gives lectures and workshops on Brazilian music worldwide and continues to collaborate with his long time mentor Hermeto Pascoal as the music director of the Hermeto Pascoal Big Band. He is a member of the IAJE, Chamber Music America, NARAS, LARAS and the Seattle Composers Alliance. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |