Trio Da Paz With Guests Anat Cohen And Claudia Villela at Healdsburg Jazz Festival at Jackson Theater

Ever since the bossa nova began insinuating itself into the stereo systems of 1960s America, Brazilian music has exerted a powerful force on our culture. Sly, danceable and above all cool, it attracted numerous jazz musicians who then and now cherish its rhythmic and harmonic challenges. Brazilian musicians have found a welcome home in the States, and three who have become something like the go-to rhythm section for top-level artists who want to tackle samba, bossa nova, choro, fado, or other Brazilian styles will be buoying the Jackson Theater stage June 2 for an “Art of the Trio” night. These three, known as Trio da Paz, are Romero Lubambo on guitar and vocals, Nilson Matta on bass, and Duduka da Fonseca on drums....

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Ever since the bossa nova began insinuating itself into the stereo systems of 1960s America, Brazilian music has exerted a powerful force on our culture. Sly, danceable and above all cool, it attracted numerous jazz musicians who then and now cherish its rhythmic and harmonic challenges. Brazilian musicians have found a welcome home in the States, and three who have become something like the go-to rhythm section for top-level artists who want to tackle samba, bossa nova, choro, fado, or other Brazilian styles will be buoying the Jackson Theater stage June 2 for an “Art of the Trio” night. These three, known as Trio da Paz, are Romero Lubambo on guitar and vocals, Nilson Matta on bass, and Duduka da Fonseca on drums.

Together for more than 30 years, Trio da Paz’s members collectively and individually have enhanced the sounds of dozens of American and Brazilian musicians across multiple genres, from Diana Krall, Joe Henderson, and Larry Coryell to Kathleen Battle, Yo-Yo Ma, Astrud Gilberto, and Lee Konitz. Since Trio da Paz has a penchant for expanding its ranks, Saturday night will feature two guests – clarinetist Anat Cohen and singer Claudia Villela.

Anat, an Israeli who has been whipping New York clarinet fans into a frenzy for several years now, came to Brazilian music via choro, a late-19th century style with parallels to early New Orleans jazz, and she has recorded several acclaimed albums of Brazilian music. Clarinet is a featured instrument of choro, and Cohen’s approach to the horn is virtuosic and purely joyous – her playing is a direct infusion of love.

Claudia Villela, born and raised in Rio de Janiero, has been living near Santa Cruz for around 30 years, advancing and hybridizing her home country’s music in scintillating ways. Think of a cross between Flora Purim, Sarah Vaughn, and an African percussion instrument and you’ll have an idea of the arsenal of sound Claudia can produce.

Note that the phenomenal Fred Hersch Trio is opening this “Art of the Trio” night, and many of his fans as well as fans of Anat have likely heard their just-released duet album Live in Healdsburg, recorded at the 2016 Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Having recorded a solo-piano album of tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim some years back, Hersch also is no stranger to the music of Brazil, and his approach to it – like everything he does — is shockingly original. This truly could be a night full of surprises.

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