Brasil Jazz Fest Returns to Rio de Janeiro April 1st – 3rd

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Friday, April 1st through April 3rd, Vivo Rio will host the 27th edition of the Brasil Jazz Fest music festival. This year’s lineup includes jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter; Mexican jazz drummer, Antonio Sánchez; and Brazilian bandolinist, Hamiltion de Holanda.

To open the festival on Friday, American pianist/keyboardist and composer Herbie Hancock will perform live with American jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. Both Hancock and Shorter are considered icons of modern jazz. During the 1960s, the two performed together as part of Miles Davis’ legendary “Second Great Quintet”.

Hancock would go on to release over forty studio albums, a dozen live albums, and multiple other complications, soundtracks and singles. Hancock earned the reputation of a pioneer, as he was one of the first jazz musicians to use synthesizers and throughout his career has innovatively blended modern jazz with various genres including funk, hip hop, pop, soul, and modern classical music. Hancock is well known for songs and compositions that include “Rockit”, “Chameleon”, “Cantaloupe Island”, and “Watermelon Man.”

Shorter, during his career, co-founded the band Weather Report, a jazz fusion band; released dozens of albums both with the band, as a solo artist and with his quartet; and won international praise and multiple awards, including 10 Grammy Awards.

On Saturday, April 2nd, Mexican drummer Antonio Sanchez will headline the night with the band Migration. Kneebody and Daedelus will perform to open then night.

On Sunday, April 3rd, the Anouar Brahem Quartet will open the night followed by a performance by bandolinist Hamiltion de Holanda with his quintet to close out the festival.

Hamilton, who is known to perform regularly at Lapa’s Circo Voador, is internationally recognized for his creative blends of contemporary jazz and Brazilian rhythms and styles including choro.

The Brazil Jazz Fest originally debuted in 1985 as the Free Jazz Festival. In the thirty years that followed it has also been know as the TIM Festival and the BMW Jazz Festival.

This year, as in previous years, the festival will also take place in São Paulo. Shows in that city will take place from March 30th through April 2nd. Tickets for those events are currently sold out but, at the time of this report, tickets remain available for the upcoming shows in Rio de Janeiro.

For more information this year’s Brasil Jazz Fest, see the official website.

What: Brasil Jazz Fest 2016
When: April 1st, 2nd and 3rd
Where: Vivo Rio, Av. Infante Dom Henrique, 85 – Parque do Flamengo
Entrance: R$50 – R$250