Articles by Joao Moreira dos Santos

Kurt Rosenwinkel, Charles Lloyd and Chucho Valdes at the Barcelona Jazz Festival

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
November 29, 2010

Translated from Portuguese. Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio42 Barcelona Voll-Damm Internacional Jazz FestivalLuz de GasNovember 14, 2010 Every year, from October to December, the city of Barcelona, in the north of Spain, becomes a true European jazz center. Musicians and journalists from all over the world converge to the Barcelona International Jazz Festival (founded in 1966), where several fine performances proudly support this cultural event, sponsored mainly by a Catalan beer ...

Jim McNeely: On the Up and Up

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
May 5, 2008

If you own some of the best records of the Stan Getz quartet or you dig the great jazz orchestras, then there is a good chance that you have heard--or better still--felt Jim McNeely's touch before. Either way, if you want to learn more about some of the jazz giants that McNeely has backed on piano, including Getz, Chet Baker, Ted Curson, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and Joe Henderson, as well as the jazz composing and arranging process, then you ...

Tord Gustavsen: Being There

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
April 2, 2008

It's no surprise to fans of pianist Tord Gustavsen's trio that its most recent release, Being There (ECM, 2007), was selected as 2007 Album of the Year by the critics of UK's Jazz Review. Born in Norway, this jazz Viking may well be on a world crusade for soulful and meaningful music, armed only with his meditative piano and lyrical compositions.

AAJ contributor João Moreira dos Santos spoke with Gustavsen recently, about his background, how he ...

Chris McNulty: A Global Voice

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
March 28, 2008

Chris McNulty may well be regarded not only as a fine jazz singer but also as the epitome of jazz globalization these days. Born in remote Australia, she made her career in the USA and in 2003 performed in Russia at the White Night's Jazz Festival to celebrate St. Petersburg's 300th Anniversary. How far McNulty wants to go seems to be the million dollar question to ask the author of one of the finest vocal recordings of 2006: Whispers the ...

Calabria Foti: A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
November 28, 2007

When someone like Sammy Nestico, famous for his arrangements for the Count Basie Orchestra and Sarah Vaughan, says a lady can sing, you had better listen to her because he knows his business well: producing great songs for great singers. The truth is that Nestico could hardly be more positive about Calabria Foti--who has just released, A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening (MoCo, 2007)--saying, “Calabria is the complete artist."

Over and over, critics remark how ...

Luciana Souza: The Voice of the New Bossa Nova

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
October 25, 2007

Is Luciana Souza on the verge of reinventing bossa nova? A careful look at The New Bossa Nova (Verve, 2007), may well provide the answer to this question, as the Brazilian-born singer aims to present classic pop tunes with a bossa nova feeling. It's a kind of whispering, Luciana says; a whispering in a loud world.

AAJ: What is The New Bossa Nova? Is it imposing the bossa nova rhythm and feeling to major pop songs? ...

Aaron Goldberg: Growing as a Band Leader

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
August 7, 2007

Listening to Worlds (Sunnyside, 2006) makes one want to talk to the man behind the music. That's why AAJ contributor João Moreira dos Santos decided to meet Aaron Goldberg at the Hot Clube de Portugal, in Lisbon, determined to both find out more about this talented young pianist/composer/arranger and to hear his music live. His show drove the audience crazy, particularly aspiring young jazzmen, who reacted instantaneously to the song “Lambada de Serpente, an original ballad by Djavan that Goldberg ...

Sheila Jordan: A Life of Honest Expression

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
March 12, 2007

Her voice really cooks but what is the recipe for the way Sheila Jordan picks songs and transforms them into something special and swinging? Well, you take a quarter Cherokee child raised in poverty in Pennsylvania's coal-mining country, you add to it the definitive influence of a genius, Charlie Parker, and mix it all with a hard life, a great and creative voice able to express the soul through melodies and lyrics and... Sheila is ready to serve you plenty ...

Helen Merrill: 60 Years of Warm Sweet Songs

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
November 6, 2006

One of the most distinctive jazz singers ever, Helen Merrill started singing professionally sixty years ago when her warm voice paired with the Reggie Childs Orchestra in 1946. But that was just the start of a long and vivid story which would lead the talented young daughter of Croatian immigrants to make history in jazz by recording with [trumpeter] Clifford Brown and [arranger/bandleader] Gil Evans in the 1950s. A story which includes the opportunity of sharing the stage with luminaries ...

Benny Lackner: Evolving the Piano Trio Tradition

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
July 4, 2006

At 29, pianist Benny Lackner has just released Sign of the Times, his second album for the prestigious Nagel Heyer label, touring Europe and paving way for his dream--playing at the Village Vanguard in NYC and the main jazz festivals around the world. I caught up with him at the Hot Club de Portugal, in Lisbon, one of the oldest jazz clubs in the world, whose stage has hosted musicians from Bill Coleman and Dexter Gordon to Mark ...