Banda Mantiqueira
Formed in 1991, by initiative of the clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and arranger – Nailor Azevedo, the “Proveta” – and integrated by other musicians, which were always very close to him and also desired a language that expressed the brasility when playing our music.
From the universe of Brazilian popular music composers, the band selected the most famous plays - Pixinguinha, Tom Jobim, Jacob do Bandolim, Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho, Ernesto Nazareth, João Bosco, Guinga, Luiz Gonzaga, Dorival Caymmi, Joyce, Léa Freire, among others. Compositions of Edson Alves and of the own band were joined to this repertory, which was brilliantly arranged for the big-band formation. Although it counts with excellent soloists, it gave more value to the group than to the individuality.
BANDA MANTIQUEIRA started playing in bars. Firstly, for some months, it played in the late “Sanja”, a musical temple that received the best instrumentalists of São Paulo. After that, it crowded the “Vou Vivendo” every Mondays for four years. From March 1997 to 2004, it played every Tuesdays at “Supremo Musical”, always crowding the house.
The band has shows recorded in several units of Sesc-São Paulo; at Kaiser Bock Winter Fertival, in 1997, having the singer Gal Costa as a guest and other singers like Guinga and Sergio Santos; in Lisboa - Portugal, at Expo-98 and in the City of Porto, at the "Palácio do Jardim de Cristal"; in the Free Jazz Festival – 1998 Edition in the States of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Invited by Maestro John Neschling, the band performed four concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of the State of São Paulo at “Sala São Paulo”, in December 2000.
In a tour to the United States in October 2002, the band made a show with OSESP at “Costa Mesa” in California and at "Ann Arbor" in Michigan. In the same tour, individually, it played in the Jazz Festival of San Francisco, California and at the Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, and deservedly received complimentary critics published at The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.
As a guest of Maestro Yeruhan Scharovsky, in June 2003, the band presented in concert with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra at the Municipal Theater of the City of Rio de Janeiro.
The Band recorded 3 CDs: Aldeia (1996) and Bixiga (2000) both through "Pau Brasil” seal and with OSESP, the concert presented at “Sala São Paulo” in December 2000.
The CD “Aldeia” was nominated to Grammy in 1998.
The new CD, "Terra Amantiquira", which is the name in tupi-guarany for the mountain chain that gives its name to the band, will be released in December 2005 by Maritaca.
www.bandamantiqueira.com.br
