Vitor Gonçalves/Harvey Wainapel ~ An Intimate Evening of music from Brazil

Friday September 12, 7 p.m.
Music In The Mountains, The Old Siskiyou Barn
Tickets $25/$20 for SMP Members, $10 for full time students
This Show is Now SOLD OUT!

Siskiyou Music Project kicks off its fall season of music with and evening of intimate music from Brazil featuring pianst Vitor Gonçalves and multi reeds player Harvey Wainapel on Friday, September 12 at the Old Siskiyou Barn in Ashland.

California-based saxophonist/clarinetist Harvey Wainapel has performed with some of the great masters of jazz, such as Ray Charles, Joe Lovano, and McCoy Tyner. A long-time devotee of Brazilian music, Wainapel has spent 3-4 months per year in that country since 2000. He has gone on to perform with many of Brazil’s top artists since then: he has toured the world with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim; was a member of pianist Jovino Santos Neto’s group for more than a decade, recording 3 CDs with the group (one of which was nominated for a Latin Grammy).

Rio de Janeiro’s daily newspaper O Globo, reviewing Wainapel in a duo concert with guitar virtuoso Paulo Bellinati, wrote “Wainapel displayed incredible intimacy with the language of Brazilian music and great stage presence.” Composer/vocalist Ivan Lins says “Harvey understands Brazilian music in a way that’s very unusual; he’s got the spirit, he’s a great musician!”

Vitor Gonçalves (piano, accordion and alto saxophone) has long been an in-demand performer on the Brazilian music scene, in his native city of Rio de Janeiro as well as throughout Brazil. He has worked with such luminaries as Hermeto Pascoal, Elza Soares and Emílio Santiago. For three years he collaborated with the acclaimed Brazilian singer Maria Bethânia, touring Europe, Brazil and the USA; he can be heard on her live CD/DVD “Amor, Festa e Devoção” as well as her CD “Oasis de Bethânia.”

During Wainapel’s first visit to Brazil, he met young pianist Vitor Gonçalves, at that time in his early twenties and a member of the innovative Orquestra Família led by Hermeto Pascoal bassist Itiberê Zwarg. This intensive training has led Vitor to perform with Hermeto’s own group as piano sub, as well as international tours with vocal icon Maria Bethânia. In the USA, Vitor has performed with star clarinetist Anat Cohen. Hermeto Pascoal says Vitor is “one of the best pianists in the world!”

Vitor and Harvey have been performing regularly in Brazil since 2003, and are playing together for the first time in the USA this September in support of Wainapel’s new CD “Amigos Brasilerios vol 2.” The repertoire will include sambas, bossa novas, and choros, as well as many Brazilian rhythms and genres that are less known.