Jazz Articles about Moacir Santos

About Moacir Santos

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Moacir Santos was a Brazilian composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator who never became as well known as his peers, including Bola Sete and Baden Powell. While he collaborated on songs with Nara Leão, Roberto Menescal and Sérgio Mendes among others, he privately taught artists who went on to become highly successful global bossa nova singers and songwriters. In 1965, he released Coisas (Things, in English), which combined the new Brazilian beat with big band jazz. The album didn't attract ...

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Album Review

Moacir Santos: Choros y Alegria

Read "Choros y Alegria" reviewed by Tomas Pena

by Tomas Pena
December 30, 2005

In 2002, music critic Ben Ratliff listed Coisas (2002) in the New York Times Essential Library's 100 Most Important Recordings. He posed this question: “Why is this man not famous? Ratliff was alluding to the fact that little was known about Santos' vast body of work, despite the fact that he is regarded by many critics and researchers as one of the most important and innovative artists in the history of Brazilian music. Thanks to the efforts of Adventure Music, ...

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Jazz From The Vinyl Junkyard

Moacir Santos: Maestro

by C. Andrew Hovan
May 31, 2005

Moacir Santos Maestro Blue Note Records 1972 Among a sizable number of Brazilian composers who are better known in their homeland than abroad, few can lay claim to a more substantive and varied catalog of music as that written by the great Moacir Santos. A prodigy of sorts, Santos mastered many wind instruments while still in his teens and toured Brazil for many years, studying and playing with a wide variety of ...

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Album Review

Moacir Santos: Ouro Negro

by Jim Luce
July 27, 2004

One of the reasons I love music so much is that even after 45+ years of listening, it is a continual source of delight and surprise. No boredom here! Over time, our listening habits change, but sometimes old friends return to visit. I hate to admit it, but over the years I've forgotten about a lot of music that at one time or another really stoked my passions.Such is the case for me with the music of Moacir ...

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Interview

Moacir Santos: Music in His Blood

by R.J. DeLuke
July 23, 2004

Moacir Santos speaks slowly, struggling from the after effects of a stroke suffered eight years ago. The 78 year-old also labors with his English, which doesn't come to him as easily these days as it did in the years after he arrived in Southern California from his native Brazil in 1967. He prefers to speak Portugese. The words are slow, but heartfelt. They describe music and Santos' feelings about the art form to which he dedicated his entire ...