Jazz Articles about Lula Galvão

About Lula Galvão

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo draws a parallel between balaios, the baskets that African Brazilian women have carried on their heads for centuries, and musical albums. “Each piece is placed carefully inside, shaped by the moment in which it was born, yet carried into the present with renewed meaning," he says. He speaks of Balaios as a gathering of “what he has cultivated over time--ideas, memories, and melodies." The project, a retrospective of sorts, has a particular focus on the composer-pianist's long association ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Carnaval - The Songs Were So Beautiful

Read "Carnaval - The Songs Were So Beautiful" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
August 10, 2025

Veteran pianist, composer, and arranger Antonio Adolfo has long been a master at capturing the essence of Brazilian music through a jazz perspective. On Carnaval (The Songs Were So Beautiful), Adolfo draws on a wide range of traditional Brazilian carnival styles-- sambas, marchinas, marchas-rancho, and frevos--to create a vibrant and richly textured album that bursts with celebration while leaving space for nuance and reflection. This is not a jazz adaptation of Brazilian music; it's Brazilian music elevated with jazz sophistication ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Carnaval - The Songs Were So Beautiful

Read "Carnaval - The Songs Were So Beautiful" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
July 14, 2025

What prompted pianist and composer Antonio Adolfo to record, in 2025, an album of songs from the 'golden age' of Brazilian carnaval music, circa 1920-1950? He has known and loved this music since he was a child, growing up in Rio de Janeiro. “All these songs are very alive in my memory," he told All About Jazz. They were “everywhere--on the radio, in the streets, in social clubs." At the time, he saw that “there was some magic in the ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Love Cole Porter

Read "Love Cole Porter" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
August 1, 2024

Love Cole Porter is pianist Antonio Adolfo's masterful tribute to the genius of Cole Porter, capturing his musical essence while infusing it with a Brazilian flair. This release is not just a tribute but a careful reimagining, bringing his timeless melodies, intricate lyrics, and sophisticated harmonies into a new light. Accompanying Adolfo is a coterie of seasoned Brazilian musicians who have been on several of his releases, including guitarist Lula Galvao, bassist Jorge Helder, drummer Rafael Barata, percussionist Dada Costa, ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Bossa 65

Read "Bossa 65" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
June 28, 2023

In 1963, a seventeen-year-old Antonio Adolfo was already gigging professionally on the exploding bossa nova scene in Rio de Janeiro, his hometown. His career has continued unabated. For decades, he has been putting out a steady stream of admirable albums, earning critical praise and multiple Grammy nominations. His releases have often focused on the work of great Brazilian composers (Chiquinha com Jazz, BruMa, Jobim Forever), sometimes on a particular style or genre (Chora Baião, Rio Choro Jazz), on connections between ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Bossa 65

Read "Bossa 65" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
June 23, 2023

Composer, arranger and pianist Antonio Adolfo has a discography which extends to the very early days of the Bossa Nova craze that swept through Brazil and into North America. With his deep roots in the Bossa tradition, Adolfo is an internationally recognized Brazilian jazz personage. Many of his original compositions have been covered by artists such as Sergio Mendes, Herb Alpert and Stevie Wonder among many others. He has also helped to celebrate the work of well-known Bossa players such ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Bossa 65

by Chris May
June 12, 2023

A decade or more younger than the composer / musicians in the first wave of bossa nova artists, Antonio Adolfo began recording under his own name towards the end of the 1960s. Better known as a pianist and arranger than as a composer, though he has written some notable tunes, in recent years Adolfo has carved out a niche celebrating the work of belle epoque bossa songwriters. In 2017, Adolfo sidestepped with Hybrido: From Rio To Wayne ...