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A Jazz Holiday In Rio
A sojourn to Rio to enjoy nightly jazz and Brazilian music presentations will be a true revelation to those who have not experienced this city’s vibrant music culture up close.
A sojourn to Rio to enjoy nightly jazz and Brazilian music presentations will be a true revelation to those who have not experienced this city's vibrant music culture up close. A growing number of clubs today feature well known jazz artists, and virtually every gig affords the possibility of seeing one of the nation's true living legends. Among those still actively performing are pianists
João Donato
piano1934 - 2023
Pascoal Meirelles
drumsCatching sets in various clubs also affords the visitor to explore some of Rio's more interesting neighborhoods, from historic Copacabana to funky Lapa, a so-called Bohemian district that was once the center of Rio's nightlife, boasting casinos, resident stars like Carmen Miranda, and raucous bordellos.
One of the city's best places to enjoy jazz and Brazilian music is TribOz, an old two story mansion in Lapa that's been converted into a welcoming venue for many of Brazil's best musicians. The club also hosts visiting artists. Recently, two New Yorkers, harmonica wizard
Hendrik Meurkens
harmonicab.1957
Mike Ryan, the owner, is an Australian trumpeter and educator who has lived in Brazil for over two decades. A PhD with degrees in ethnomusicology and philosophy, he calls his venue, somewhat jokingly, The Brazilian-Australian Cultural Centre. An affable host who addresses audiences in softly Aussie-accented Portuguese, he sees TribOz as a place where musicians are treated with respect. Don't expect to hear a blender whining away as a bartender makes someone a cocktail. Before every set, he informs club goers that "TribOz has a restaurant, but it is not a restaurant, and it has a bar, but is not a bar." Although the finger food is scrumptious and the drinks are first class, his point is well made: People come to TribOz first and foremost to experience great music in an atmosphere where the artists on stage are truly respected. Blabbermouths will quickly be asked to leave.
An unheralded space for great music is the second floor bar of the Hotel Novo Mundo, an older but still elegant hotel in the Flamenco neighborhood, close to the Carmen Miranda Museum and the Catete Palace, the former residence of Brazil's presidents when Rio was the national capital. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, the Osmar Milito Trio entertains, offering low-key but rhythmically-vivacious covers of bossa and jazz standards, featuring a rotating cast of female vocalists. Milito is a historic figure in Brazilian music since he began his professional career in the mid '60s backing such famed artists as
Elis Regina
vocalsb.1945
Gilberto Gil
guitarb.1942
Leny Andrade
b.1943
Sergio Mendes
piano1941 - 2024
In the heart of downtown Rio, just a block from the Municipal Theater, the city's ornate opera house, Rival is a historic nightclub that features a broad range of Brazilian music idioms, from jazz and bossa nova to samba and up-to-the moment contemporary styles. You might be lucky and catch a set by singer
Ivan Lins
piano and vocalsb.1945
Victor Biglione
guitarThe music scene in Copacabana has been enlivened recently with the opening of a club with a legendary name—Beco das Garrafas (Bottles Alley). It was in this small alley near the famed Copacabana Palace Hotel were jam sessions that went on until sunrise in the early '60s. The live music provoked the residents of the surrounding apartment buildings to pitch beer bottles into the alley in hopes of sending such jazz musicians as saxophonist
Paulo Moura
clarinet1929 - 2010
Dom Um Romao
drums1925 - 2005
The reborn club features several small performance spaces and artists who might not be well known but nonetheless reflect Brazil's seemingly endless supply of promising talent. Of note, Beco das Garrafas recently featured noted bassist Yuri Popoff and his quartet, so there are always pleasant surprises in the line-up.
Claudio Olivera, co-owner of the Guanabara Records label, keeps a close eye on music happenings in Rio and also suggests Vizta, a club in the Marina Hotel, and Miranda, another new venue that's starting to attract attention. Further, many of the city's busiest young jazz musicians are constantly on the move, and Olivera advises checking the Facebook pages of such artists as pianists Hamleto Stamato and
Kiko Continentino
pianoMauro Senise
saxophonePhoto credit: Marcelo Calvet
Tags
Jo?o Donato
From Far and Wide
Mark Holston
Brazil
Rio de Janeiro
Pascoal Meirelles
Hendrik Meurkens
Cliff Korman
Elis Regina
Gilberto Gil
Leny Andrade
Sergio Mendes
Ivan Lins
Victor Biglione
Paulo Moura
Dom Um Romao
Kiko Continentino
Mauro Senise
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