Brazil Music Club at Winter Jazzfest 2026

Hamilton de Holanda Trio,  Flávio Silva, Jamile & Vinicius Gomes 
Brazil Music Club at Winter JazzFest 
Nublu 151 
January 8, 2026

Nublu, which sits on the corner of Avenue C and 10th Street on the Lower East Side of New York City, was overflowing for Brazil Music Club night at the 2026 Winter Jazzfest, with fans in the aisles, on the steps, and up on the catwalk. The early evening performance on Thursday, January 8, presented three Brazilian groups, closing big with the virtuosic Hamilton de Holanda and his top-flight trio. The NYC-based Brazilian duo of singer Jamile and guitarist Vinicius Gomes opened the show, with guitarist Flávio Silva's group taking the middle spot.

Jamile's 2025 album Pursuit of a Pulse (Cellar Live) was well received, earning her a spot on several best-of-year critics' lists. Read our review here. But by January, she was already deep into her next project, Boundless Species, which releases on April 3, 2026 (La Reserve Records). Her set with Soares was comprised solely of material from that album, including "Someplace Called Where" (Wayne Shorter and Dianne Reeves), "Essa Maré" (Ivan Lins and Ronaldo Monteiro), "Outubro" (Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brant), and "Mingus Samba" (Guinga and Aldir Blanc). As she explained at the start, the tunes on the project are "all masterpieces," with "no original material." The duo's sound is well honed, and their rapport is strong, with Gomes' enveloping guitar serving as a perfect foil for Jamile's fleet and airy vocal precision. The pair were ably backed by (Joe Martin on bass and Jimmy Macbride on drums. Closing with an affecting rendition of Shorter, Joseph Vitarelli and Esperanza Spalding's intricate "Endangered Species," they left the crowd eager for the new project to drop.



Silva underlined the fact that, as he put it, "Not all of us play samba." His set luxuriated in improvisatory explorations by the guitarist and the other members of the ensemble, North American pianist-drummer Luther S Allison on keys, Israeli American bassist-composer Adi Meyerson, and drummer Zack O'Farrill (son of Arturo O'Farrill and grandson of Chico O'Farrill), who describes himself as "a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-musical artist who doesn't believe in the walls that separate us." The tune list featured energetic originals and selections from esteemed past projects, including Break Free (Self-Produced, 2018) and EKO (Break Free, 2024).   



Anyone expecting to hear a salon version of De Holanda's choro mastery was on the wrong path that steamy-cold winter night at Nublu, although he did play at least one choro, albeit in turbo-charged fashion. He was more in what you might call his Jimi Hendrix-of-the-mandolin persona and did not disappoint in that capacity. The Hamilton De Holanda Trio was fresh off the plane, beginning a whirlwind tour of the US, with stops the next night in Cambridge, followed by three in California in rapid succession, then on to Phoenix and Minneapolis, among other North American hot spots. The trio features Paulista powerhouse drummer Thiago Big Rabello and lightning-fueled multi-keyboardist Salomão Soares. They were taking no prisoners in a high-energy program that relied heavily on selections from their Live in NYC project, which won the 2025 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album. These included "Tamanduá," "Vai Firme," "Afro Choro," "Todo Dia é um Recomeço," "Sol e Luz," and "Flying Chicken."  



The sold-out evening was a solid success and a fine opportunity to hear the GOAT along with some noteworthy up-and-comers on the New York scene.

Comments