Leo Gandelman - Ventos do Norte (2013)

Ventos do Norte (North Winds) is a new CD release by Brazilian saxophonist Leo Gandelman. According to the release notes, the CD "(...)summarizes the contribution of saxophonists from the Northeast region of Brazil in the consolidation of a Brazilian style of saxophone playing through the recreation of music specifically composed by them for the instrument throughout the twentieth century". Saxophonists like Luiz Americano, Ratinho, Severino Araújo, K-Ximbinho, Netinho, Moacir Santos, Zumba and Duda came to Rio de Janeiro through a strong wind of jazz from North America and helped popularize the saxophone in Brazil.- Together with Henrique Cazes Leo Gandelman has produced this project, the CD has new arrangements of thirteen significant compositions reflecting the span of musical inspiration from choro and related styles originally written by the mentioned Brazilian masters of the saxophone. In a video uploaded at YouTube Gandelman and Cazes explain the background more detailed, inserted below (- with subtitles in English)

The CD features Gandelman as a soloist on various saxophones in all thriteen tracks, he is accompanied by various musicians - you have the opportunity to see the list of personnel for each track in the CD booklet that is free available as a download from Gandelman's official website, here - The music played at the CD is also available in streaming audio and full length at the official website, here, and you can buy and download it as mp3 files from Amazon, here

Leo Gandelman (b 1956) is considered one of the most influential musicians in Brazil. Son of a classical pianist and of a teacher, by the age of 15 he was already a soloist for the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Combined with a solid classical foundation, Gandelman set off to study at Berklee College of Music, in the United States, returning to Brazil in 1979 for the beginning of his professional career. Ever since then, he has dedicated himself intensely to his career, having participated to this day in over 800 recordings. He launched his solo career in 87' taking inspiration mainly from Brazilian music and Jazz. - Leo Gandelman has recorded ten albums along the course of his solo career, having sold over 500,000 copies. In later years he has carried out workshops and has participated in various festivals around Brazil. With the album “Radamés e o Sax” (2006) he earned two TIM awards in 2007 for “Best Instrumental Album” and “Best Producer”. Moreover, for 15 consecutive years he was elected as “the Best Brazilian Musician” in the “Diretas Já” contest, run yearly by Jornal do Brasil. His work was also received with big success in the United States, where he developed a noticeable career with right to six seasons of a full house at the Blue Note in New York. -  In 2009 he participated in the “Moscow City Jazz Festival”and was also in Caracas where he

was a soloist for the “Young Orchestra of Caracas”. In 2010 he travelled around Spain with Pianist Maria Teresa Madeira and around Russia and Italy with his quartet, besides participating in various jazz festivals around Brazil.[excerpt of career profile at official website, here ]

To give you an impression of the span of music recorded at the Ventos do Norte CD, I'll insert two officially uploaded videos at YouTube by Gandelman. Here is first the audio-track of Gandelman's arrangement of Ratinho's famous "Saxofone Porque Choras"

To end this small presentation of Ventos do Norte, here is Gandelman's arrangement of "Triste De Quem", a composition by Moacir Santos and Vinícius de Moraes

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Jo