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Felipe Salles
Brazilian jazz saxophonist, composer and conductor
About Me
Felipe Salles
A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Dr. Felipe Salles has served as an Associate Professor of Jazz
and African-American Music Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst since
2010. An active musician in the US since 1995, he has worked and recorded with prominent
jazz artists, including Randy Brecker, David Liebman, Lionel Loueke, Jerry Bergonzi, Chico
Pinheiro, Jovino Santos Neto, Oscar Stagnaro, Duduka Da Fonseca, Maucha Adnet, Tony
Lujan, Luciana Souza, and Bob Moses. He has toured extensively in Europe, North and
South America, India and Australia, as a sideman and as a leader of his own group.
Salles is a 2018 Guggenheim Foundation Composition Fellow, a 2015 NALAC Fund for the
Arts Grant winner, a 2009-2010 winner of the French American Jazz Exchange Grant, and a
2005-2006 winner of the Chamber Music America New Works: Creation and Presentation
Grant Program, grants sponsored by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. He was
awarded First Place in the 2001 Concurso SGAE de Jazz TETE MONTOLIU, 2001, with his
composition The Return of The Chromo Sapiens.
His arrangements and compositions have been performed by some of the top groups in the
world including The Metropole Orchestra, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber
Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Violas, Meta4 String Quartet, Manhattan School of Music
Jazz Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra, New England
Conservatory Jazz Orchestra, and New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble, among
others.
Salles has released seven critically acclaimed recordings as a leader. Departure (Tapestry,
2012) received 4-stars from DownBeat and a place on their best albums of the year list in
2013. They noted that Salles is adept at “crafting pieces that juggle intriguing complexity
with buoyant rhythms and lush colors.” JazzTimes Magazine noted that “Felipe Salles
blends the visceral and the cerebral on his fascinating fifth album, infusing classical
modernist strains with the buoyant rhythms of his Brazilian homeland.” Ugandan Suite
(Tapestry, 2014) also earned a place on DownBeat’s best albums of the year list in 2014 and
was praised by jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke: “This is one of the best progressive works I
have heard in a long time. What a great blend of classical, African and Jazz music.” Varanda
(Tapestry, 2017) with the Brazilian jazz collective titled The Reunion Project, also earned
critical acclaim including 4.5 stars in DownBeat Magazine.
The Lullaby Project and Other Works for Large Jazz Ensemble (Tapestry, 2018) is Salles’ first
large jazz ensemble recording, and was composed for and recorded by his own
Interconnections Ensemble. He is in the process for preparing his second large ensemble
recording, the ambitious The New Immigrant Experience, for release as a CD/DVD set, in
early 2020.
Dr. Salles is a D’Addario Woodwinds Select Reeds Artist/Clinician. He currently leads both
The Felipe Salles Group and The Felipe Salles’ Interconnections Ensemble, and works as a
member of the New World Jazz Composers Octet, Kyle Saulnier's Awakening Orchestra, Alex
Alvear's Mango Blue and Gonzalo Grau's (Grammy Nominated) La Clave Secreta.