Hello!

Welcome new subscribers!

I noticed several new subscribers signing up in the last few days, so I think I should introduce myself again. I am Jovino Santos Neto, Brazilian pianist and composer. I became a professional musician back in 1977, when the amazing Hermeto Pascoal invited me to join his Grupo. I stayed as a member of his ensemble for 15 years, when I moved to Seattle, WA and continued to work with Hermeto’s music as his librarian and archivist, while developing my own career as a musician, composer, arranger, and educator. I have been nominated three times for a Latin Grammy, and have released several recordings, which you can find on my website and also on BandCamp.

I taught music at a college in Seattle for 26 years, and recently I started teaching private and group classes on Zoom, mostly focusing on Brazilian music.

Finding my stone relatives in the streets of Zürich. Photo by Luzia Grob dos Santos

Today I am writing to you from Zürich, Switzerland, where I am spending some days with my family as we celebrate my wife’s birthday with our Swiss friends and family. It feels great to be back in the “Old World”. In a few days I will be heading out to Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon in Brazil to participate in the Amazonas Green Festival. Last year I was invited to play with the Amazonas Big Band, and I composed a new piece for them based on Afro-Amazonian themes, telling the story of an indigenous shaman from the Amazon region and his hunt for a jaguar, who in turn is hunting for the shaman. This new piece, A Onça E O Pajé (The Jaguar and the Shaman) is the title track from our upcoming album, which will be released on a live concert at the historical Theatro Amazonas on August 6. The concert will probably be webcast live, and if so, I will let you know the details soon.

Here is a video recorded last year of my piece Crossfire with the Amazonas Band led by Maestro Rui Carvalho:

Here is a samba of mine, Gente Boa:

The new album will be available on all streaming platforms in August. I hope you will listen to it. The musicians in this big band are outstanding, and it will be a huge pleasure to return for a new collaboration with them.

After many years without releasing new music, I am happy to say that this year I have 3 new albums. Back in April the Audiophile Society released Retratos, a live duo with virtuoso bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann, recorded live in Tallinn, Estonia, with our unique interpretations of the music of several Brazilian composers, including Antonio Carlos Jobim, Pixinguinha, Radamés Gnattali, Hermeto Pascoal and others. You can find Retratos in your streaming platform, and you can also purchase it in super high quality audio here.

Here is a sample - Hermeto Pascoal’s beautiful ballad Montreux:

In September I have another live album being released on Origin Music, Mais Que Tudo. It is a historical recording of my Quarteto’s very first public performance at Kerry Hall in Seattle in 1995. I will tell you more about this new release in a future post.

Once I am back in Seattle, I will continue to post more of 99 Stories about Hermeto Pascoal, a first-person account of musical adventures from my years with the great albino Master around the world. If you are a paid subscriber to my Substack, you have access to the entire post archive, including all the previous HP stories I already published, including this, this and this.

I am very grateful for all of you for following me here on Substack, and I always welcome your comments and suggestions.

Obrigado!

Jovino