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About Jamile
Jamile and Vinicius Gomes: Acoustic Thrills With Brazilian Twist
by R.J. DeLuke
The music of Brazil made its way into the jazz lexicon in the late 1950s and early 1960s when the bossa nova style emerged and caught on in the U.S., its chords and harmonies ripe for combining with the sensuous side of jazz. It's been a popular style ever since, with people in North America discovering artists like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Sergio Mendes and many others. Over the years, the music of South America and Cuba ...
Continue ReadingJamile & Vinicius Gomes, feat. Joe Martin: Boundless Species
by Jerome Wilson
Vocalist Jamile and guitarist Vinicius Gomes bring their common backgrounds in Brazilian music to bear on a wide-ranging collection of songs here. It is expected that the two, assisted by bassist Joe Martin, would create an intimate atmosphere in their performances of songs by Ivan Lins and Milton Nascimento. The surprise is that they do the same thing to songs by American artists such as Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and Wayne Shorter. Jamile's voice is a powerful complement ...
Continue ReadingJamile and Vinicius Gomes: Endangered Species
by John Chacona
The musical exchange between Wayne Shorter and Brazil yielded some of the great man's most indelible compositions. Happily, the conversation happens in the other direction, as Jamile and guitarist Vinicius Gomes demonstrate on Endangered Species." With its wide intervallic leaps and skylarking melodic trajectory, the song is for virtuosos only; notably, only Esperanza Spalding seems to have attempted it. On Boundless Species (La Reserve Records, 2025), Jamile also takes on Herbie Hancock's Actual Proof" (wordlessly), and Guinga's Mingus Samba," sailing ...
Continue ReadingJamile with Miki Yamanaka and her trio plus Steve Wilson: Pursuit of a Pulse
by Katchie Cartwright
Jamile Staevie Ayres, who goes professionally by her first name, was born and raised in Cachoeira do Sul, a midsize city located a couple of hours from Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil, and the heart of its gaúcho culture. Growing up, she gravitated toward música popular brasileira (MPB) and Black popular music of the US. Gal Costa and Aretha Franklin were her two big vocal heroines. She took her undergraduate degree in Brazil ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober & Balancing Act: Don't Let Go
by Jack Bowers
With Don't Let Go, pianist Mike Holober and the octet Balancing Act seemed to have found an ideal way to cross-breed classical motifs and contemporary jazz to produce a pleasurable listening experience. Then he added lyrics. Granted, not all lyrics are superfluouseven those that are either nebulous or indecipherable, as is too often the case here. It's simply that some listeners may be more receptive to an alternative in the form of, say, Marvin Stamm's trumpet, Dick Oatts' or Jason ...
Continue ReadingJamile: If You Could See Me Now
by Martin McFie
Jamile grew up in Cachoeira do Sul (South Falls), a small town in Brazil towards the border with Uruguay. Her supportive family had no particular interest in music. Imagine her surprise, then, at finding her twenty-something self launching this debut album at Gianni Valenti's Birdland Theater in New York City. After completing her studies in Brazil, Jamile decided to do her masters in jazz in New York. When I came to New York City in 2017," she says, ...
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