Caminhos do Jazz
Focusing on Brazilian music and musicians in and outside of Brazil, Caminhos do Jazz follows pathways that traverse the jazz landscape, conversing with creators and delving into recordings and performances (past and present) along the way.
Laura Dreyer: Dancing Through Time
by Katchie Cartwright
When something sparks her creativity, Laura Dreyer is the sort of person who jumps in with both feet and gets right down to business. A multi-hyphenate artist, saxophonist-flutist-composer-teacher-clinician, she has been serious about jazz since junior high school in El Cerrito, California, across the bay from San Francisco. “El Cerrito High had an award-winning--like state champion award-winning--jazz band that was really, really exciting," she explains. Flute was her first instrument, but she was happy to pick up a baritone saxophone ...
Continue ReadingDouglas Lora: Um Novo Caminho
by Katchie Cartwright
Double trajectory Award-winning seven-string guitarist Douglas Lora has long had two solid sides to his career, the popular and the classical, the improvisatory and the written. Jazz fans may know him from his recordings with Anat Cohen and Trio Brasileiro--featuring Dudu Maia on bandolim and Alexandre Lora on pandeiro--which highlight the improvisational prowess and empathy of that extraordinary group. Since 2011, they have been performing in the US and leading an annual choro workshop near Seattle. Their cred among choro ...
Continue ReadingDani Gurgel: Paulista Polymath
by Katchie Cartwright
Dani Gurgel is an acclaimed artist with a restless creative spirit. Born into a musical family in São Paulo, she took up music at age four and kept on going. Her mother, an accomplished pianist and arranger, and father, an amateur saxophonist, met while playing in a big band. She began studying photography in her early teens and has since pursued that realm as well, simultaneously and with equal vigor. Da Pá Virada, her company, is rooted in ...
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