Jazz Articles about Rafael Rocha

About Rafael Rocha

Album Review

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 ...

Album Review

Gaia Wilmer Large Ensemble: Folia: The Music of Egberto Gismonti

Read "Folia: The Music of Egberto Gismonti" reviewed by Mario Calvitti

by Mario Calvitti
January 30, 2023

L'importanza di Egberto Gismonti come compositore di musica contemporanea ha da tempo travalicato i confini del Brasile, suo paese natale (ma lui è discendente da madre siciliana e padre libanese), dove si è imposto subito come uno degli autori più influenti. La sua musica è un riuscito amalgama di tradizione folkloristica, canzone popolare e classica contemporanea, fin qui proseguendo nella scia di Heitor Villa-Lobos, con in più un deciso allargamento verso il jazz. Da tempo il chitarrista/pianista non ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Octet And Originals

Read "Octet And Originals" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
September 5, 2022

Some people can probably say what they were doing the first time they heard modern Brazilian music. The first wave hit in the early '60s with Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos Jobim, but there has been a great deal of water over the dam since then. Stylistic variety, regional variations, new composers, two generations of players, technical advances in both recording and instrumental technique have all played a part in establishing Brazilian as some of the most listenable music. ...

Album Review

Antonio Adolfo: Octet And Originals

Read "Octet And Originals" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
August 12, 2022

Antonio Adolfo is a pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader in the Latin jazz tradition, but his music is informed by Brazilian musical styles of the samba, bossa, quadrilha and toada. This latest Adolfo release entitled Octet And Originals features all his original compositions and are played by a stellar band of musicians who have been connected with him for many years. This ten track outing starts with “Heart Of Brazil," which is a tribute to the ...

Album Review

Dave Zinno: Fetish

by Rob Rosenblum
November 29, 2021

While it is obvious that bassist Dave Zinno put a lot of thought into the writing and arrangements here, it is the quality of solo performances that gives this album its worthy distinction. Some may be familiar with pianist Tim Ray from his inclusion in the trio backing one of altoist Greg Abate's albums and his own trio outing on Whaling City Sound label. But trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom and most impressively, the tenor mastery of Mike Tucker, were previously ...

Album Review

Dave Zinno Unisphere: Fetish

by Jack Bowers
September 26, 2021

Dave Zinno's New York-based Unisphere is a quintet/sometime sextet that is rhythmically sound, melodically smooth and anchored by his assertive bass lines. The group employs a splendid two-horn front line (tenor saxophonist Mike Tucker, trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom) and adds a third, trombonist/arranger Rafael Rocha, on the freewheeling closer, “Meu Fraco e Cafe Forte" (in English, “My Weakness Is Strong Coffee") but Rocha doesn't solo. The quintet morphs to sextet on five other numbers wherein keyboardist Leo Genovese joins the ...