A native of Bahia, Brazil, versatile multi-instrumentalist ALMIR CÔRTES is equally at home on mandolin, acoustic & electric guitars, viola caipira (Brazilian ten-string guitar) and the rarely-seen Bahian guitar. His repertoire of styles is equally broad, including choro, frevo, samba, maxixe and Brazilian jazz among others. He has performed throughout Brazil as well as the United States, Europe and Cuba. Almir has performed with David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Nailor Proveta, Howard Alden, Armandinho Macêdo and many other luminaries, as well as leading his own Trio, featuring many of his original compositions....
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A native of Bahia, Brazil, versatile multi-instrumentalist ALMIR CÔRTES is equally at home on mandolin, acoustic & electric guitars, viola caipira (Brazilian ten-string guitar) and the rarely-seen Bahian guitar. His repertoire of styles is equally broad, including choro, frevo, samba, maxixe and Brazilian jazz among others. He has performed throughout Brazil as well as the United States, Europe and Cuba. Almir has performed with David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Nailor Proveta, Howard Alden, Armandinho Macêdo and many other luminaries, as well as leading his own Trio, featuring many of his original compositions.
Mandolin master Mike Marshall says Almir is a virtuoso instrumentalist who swings like mad in a variety of musical styles and improvises with great energy and creativity. He is a world class teacher and performer on mandolin and guitar.
NANDO DUARTE, a Rio de Janeiro native, started his musical career at a young age playing electric guitar on tour with pop bands in Brazil. Moving to the seven-string acoustic guitar he became one of the catalysts of Brazils popular music re-awakening with Dino 7 cordas as his mentor and Luiz Otávio Braga, Hélio Delmiro among others as his professors.
His career as a seven-string guitarist led him to play, record, and/or produce some of the biggest names in Brazilian music, including Elza Soares, Gal Costa, Zélia Duncan, João Bosco, Nicolas Krassik, Yamandú Costa, Martnália, Moska, Maria Gadú, Adriana Calcanhoto, Walter Alfaiate, Zeca Pagodinho, Soraya Ravenle, Ney Matogrosso, Moyses Marques, Diogo Nogueira, among others.
An acclaimed percussionist, performer, educator, recording artist and specialist in both Brazilian and Afro Cuban percussion, BRIAN RICE has performed and/or recorded with Mike Marshall, Jovino Santos Neto, Spok, Claudia Villela, Danilo Brito, Dudu Maia, Alessandro Penezzi, Jorge Alabe, and Rogerio Souza among others and his playing graces over 70 recordings. In April 2017 Brian performed at the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and the Savannah Music Festival with the Danilo Brito Quintet. Brian is the co-founder and artistic director of the Berkeley Festival of Choro and teaches Samba Bateria, and the Afro-Cuban Ensembles at UC Davis and Brazilian percussion at the California Jazz Conservatory.
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