Romero Lubambo
In 1985, Romero Lubambo came to the United States, bringing with him a new sound in
Brazilian jazz guitar. His guitar-playing unites the styles and rhythms of his musical
heritage with his fluency in the American jazz tradition to form a distinctive new
sound.
From the cool, sophisticated rhythms of his native Brazil to hard bop, Lubambo is a
guitarist who is comfortable in any musical setting. He is an uncommonly gifted soloist and
musical improviser with a steady stream of unpredictably creative musical thoughts and the
virtuosity to deliver them ever so tastefully.
After arriving in New York City, Lubambo quickly established himself as a first-rate
session and touring guitarist, in demand not only for his authentic Brazilian sound, but
also for his command of multiple musical styles. He has gone on to perform and record with
many outstanding artists, including Dianne Reeves, Michael Brecker, Yo-Yo Ma, Kathleen
Battle, Diana Krall, Herbie Mann, Wynton Marsalis, Gal Costa, Kurt Elling, Kenny Barron,
Luciana Souza, Cyro Baptista, Sérgio and Odair Assad, Ivan Lins, Grover Washington Jr.,
Vernon Reid, Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, Paquito D'Rivera, Harry Belafonte, Larry
Coryell, Gato Barbieri, Leny Andrade, James Carter, Paula Robison, Dave Weckl, Jason Miles,
and Cesar Camargo Mariano, among many others.
Lubambo has also established himself as a composer and performer on his own critically
acclaimed recording projects, as well as on those of Trio da Paz.
Nilson Matta
Grammy nominee Nilson Matta has been a creative force in the evolution and popularity of
Brazilian jazz in the United States. It was not long after he came to New York in 1985 that
he began performing and recording with Grammy-winning Kenny Barron and Joe Henderson, as
well as Herbie Mann, Lee Konitz, Claudio Roditi, Paul Winter, Mark Murphy, Slide Hampton,
Paquito D'Rivera, Nancy Wilson, and many more. Drawing from these collaborations-and from
his work with Brazilian luminaries Hermeto Pascoal, João Gilberto, Luisa Bonfá, and Johnny
Alf-Matta has developed his own musical signature, making him a first-call bass player of
Brazilian music and jazz musicians. It's not surprising that when Yo-Yo Ma sought band
members for his Brazilian project, Matta was the obvious choice for bass. Their recording
of two Grammy-winning CDs-Obrigado Brazil and Obrigado Brazil: Live in
Concert-prompted a two-year tour to every corner of the globe.
A founding member of the internationally acclaimed Trio da Paz, Matta has emerged in
recent years as a bandleader, composer, arranger, and producer. In 2008, he released
Walking With My Bass (Blue Toucan), an autobiographical CD that included special
guests from his long and distinguished career. His next release, Nilson Matta's
Brazilian Voyage: Copacabana (Zoho) featured Matta's artful arranging of classic
masterpieces and his original compositions. In February 2013, Matta released his third CD
as a leader, Nilson Matta's Black Orpheus (Motéma).
Matta is committed to passing on his talents and experiences to the next generation of
bassists and musicians. He is a member of the International Society of Bassists, making
frequent appearances as a featured guest and performer at conventions. He has also taught
at NYC's Bass Collective and Litchfield Jazz Camp, and has conducted master classes
worldwide. As a music and artist director of Samba Meets Jazz Workshops in Bar Harbor
(Maine) and Rio de Janeiro, he has become a leading figure in promoting the music about
which he is passionate.
Duduka da Fonseca
Duduka da Fonseca was born in Rio de Janeiro. At that time, Rio was enjoying the embryonic
stages of bossa nova, which would eventually become a global phenomenon. Fonsesca was
brought up listening to Antônio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, Dorival Caymmi, Luiz Bonfá,
Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and many others. He began
playing the drums at 13. A year later, he formed his first samba jazz trio, Bossa Trio,
with his brother Miguel playing the bass.
In the early 1970s, Fonseca co-founded the samba jazz sextet Mandengo, with whom he
performed until 1975 when he moved to New York. Since then, he has also performed and
recorded with Haroldo Mauro Jr., Sergio Barrozo, Alfredo Cardim, Ion Muniz, Toninho Horta,
Victor Assis Brasil, Claudio Roditi, Francisco Tenório Júnior, Dom Salvador, Cesarius
Alvim, Edson Lobo, João Donato, Naná Vasconcelos, Mario Adnet, Nivaldo Ornelas, Paulo
Jobim, Jaques Morelenbaum, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Milton Nascimento, Dori Caymmi,
and Raul de Souza.
After moving to New York, Fonseca established numerous Brazilian jazz groups, including
Brazilian Express and New York Samba Band. In 1986, he formed the Brazilian Jazz All Stars,
featuring Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker, Eliane Elias, Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, and
Gilherme Franco. Most recently, Fonseca became a founding member and co-leader of Trio da
Paz, nominated for the "Indie" award as Best Latin Jazz Group in 1993 and winner of the
Jazz Journalists Association Awards for the Best Brazilian Jazz Album of 2002 (Partido
Out).
Fonseca has appeared on more than 200 albums and performed with artists such as Antônio
Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, Gerry Mulligan, John Scofield, Wayne Shorter, Tom Harrell,
Eddie Gomez, Rufus Reid, Lee Konitz, Herbie Mann, Jorge Dalto, Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron,
Emily Remler, Nancy Wilson, Slide Hampton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Gil Goldstein, Joanne
Brackeen, Marc Johnson, George Mraz, John Patitucci, Renee Rosnes, Bill Charlap, Maucha
Adnet, Phil Woods, and Steve Allee, among many others.
From 1984 to 1999, Fonseca was a member of the faculty at the Drummers Collective NYC,
conducting workshops and private lessons. He has also conducted workshops and master
classes in Brazil, Europe, and Asia. Fonseca is the author of the bestseller instructional
book and CD, Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset (Alfred Publishing Company). In 2002,
his first solo album, Samba Jazz Fantasia (Anzic) was nominated for a Grammy
Award. In 2009, his Brazilian Trio album, Forests (Zoho), was nominated for a
Latin Grammy.
Harry Allen
Swing Bros. recording artist Harry Allen has more than 30 recordings to his name. Three of
his CDs have won Gold Disc Awards from Japan's Swing Journal, and his CD
Tenors Anyone? won both the Gold Disc Award and the New Star Award. His
recordings have made the top-10 lists for favorite new releases in Swing Journal's
readers' poll and Jazz Journal International's critics' poll in 1997. Eu Nao
Quero Dancar-I Won't Dance-the third Gold Disc Award winner-was voted second for album
of the year in the 1998Swing Journal's readers' poll. The Harry Allen-Joe Cohn
Quartet won the New York Nightlife Award for Outstanding Jazz Combo Performance of 2006 and
was nominated for Best Jazz Combo by the Jazz Journalists Association the same year.
Allen has performed at jazz festivals and clubs worldwide, frequently touring the US,
Europe, and Asia. He has performed with Rosemary Clooney, Ray Brown, Hank Jones, Frank
Wess, Flip Phillips, Scott Hamilton, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Kenny Burrell, Herb Ellis, John
Pizzarelli, Bucky Pizzarelli, Gus Johnson, Jeff Hamilton, Terry Gibbs, and Warren Vaché. He
has recorded with Tony Bennett, Johnny Mandel, Ray Brown, Tommy Flanagan, James Taylor,
Sheryl Crow, Kenny Barron, Dave McKenna, Dori Caymmi, Larry Goldings, George Mraz, Jake
Hanna, and Al Foster, among others. Allen is featured on many of John Pizzarelli's
recordings, including the soundtrack and an on-screen cameo in the feature film The
Out-of-Towners starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. He has also done a series
of commercials for ESPN starring Robert Goulet.
Allen was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Los Angeles and Burrillville (Rhode
Island). He received his bachelor's degree from Rutgers University and currently resides in
New York City.
Joe Locke
Joe Locke is widely considered to be one of the major voices of his instrument. Long known
to be a soloist capable of stunning physical power and broad emotional range, it was not
until the last decade that he emerged as the composer, band leader, and conceptualist that
he is considered today. This is in no small part due to his recent solo projects, notably
4 Walls of Freedom (Sirocco), a six-movement suite that featured the late
tenor saxophonist Bob Berg; Live in Seattle (Origin) by The Joe Locke /
Geoffrey Keezer Group, which won the 2006 Earshot award for Concert of the Year; and his
eloquent and vibrant quartet Force of Four (Origin).
Since joining the Motéma Music label in 2011, Locke has released three intrinsically
different albums that bear witness to his immense stylistic versatility and ability to
create artistic depth in a variety of contexts. After Signing, the long-awaited
follow-up studio album of Live in Seattle, 2012 also saw the release of Locke's
first-ever symphonic project, Wish Upon a Star, featuring Locke's Quartet with
Lincoln Nebraska's Symphony Orchestra. The blues and ballads album Lay Down My
Heart marked Locke's third release on Motéma and quickly rose to the top of the
JazzWeek US radio charts.
Locke has won numerous awards and polls, including the 2006, 2008, and 2009 Mallet Player
of the Year award from the Jazz Journalists Association, and the 2013 Hot
House NYC Jazz Awards for Best Vibes Player. He is an active clinician and
educator in the US and Europe, and has been the International Vibraphone Consultant at the
Royal Academy of Music, London, on a visiting basis since 2008.
Maucha Adnet
Maucha Adnet was born in Rio de Janeiro and started her professional singing career at the
age of 15 as a member of vocal group Céu da Boca. From 1978 to 1984, Céu da Boca recorded
two albums that were released by Polygram. For 10 years thereafter, Adnet performed,
toured, and recorded with legendary composer Antônio Carlos Jobim and his band Banda Nova.
The recordings included four CDs: Passarim, the Grammy-winning Antonio
Brasileiro, Tom Jobim's Inédito, and Rio Revisited with Antônio
Carlos Jobim and Gal Costa. Adnet toured with Jobim throughout Brazil, the US, Japan,
Israel, and Europe.
Adnet has also recorded with such artists as Dorival Caymmi, Chico Buarque, Dori Caymmi,
Caetano Veloso, Toninho Horta, Mario Adnet, Joyce, Nara Leão, Cesar Camargo Mariano,
Charlie Byrd, Gil Goldstein, Emily Remler, Rob Mounsey, Othello Molineaux, Trio da Paz,
Harry Allen, Duduka da Fonseca, Slide Hampton, and many others. She was the guest vocalist
on Randy Brecker's Grammy-winning Into the Sun.
Residing in New York for many years, Adnet has been performing regularly with her own band
and in shows with Claudio Roditi, Herbie Mann, Trio da Paz, Oscar Castro-Neves, Eliane
Elias, Mark Johnson, Slide Hampton, Randy Brecker, and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. She has
also performed with Wynton Marsalis, Cyro Baptista, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra with at Alice Tully Hall.