Photo Credits: Image Courtesy Of Calabash Music
Zezo Ribeiro
Zezo Ribeiro is a young guitar-player and composer from Sâo Paulo, Brazil, with an impressive artistic trace. Favorite student of John Scofield, and Zezo himself a teacher at the Sâo Paulo State University, he stands out for what is called "universal regionalism" in his music. As an instrumentalist and a virtuoso guitar-player he is always attentive to what is going on in the world of jazz and flamenco. As a composer he seems to embody the whole variety of rhythms of his homeland, from the ease of a samba to the intimacy of a bossa.
"I started out as a professional musician at the age of 24, though I've been playing guitar since I was a little boy. One day when I was about to finish my studies of economy I realized that music for me was a way of life and that I needed it to feel complete. I owe my identity to the music.
"I left my girlfriend, my studies and my friends and dedicated myself to the profound and professional study of guitar playing. Those were difficult years, but I had found the place where I could feel free: music. I love to mix different kinds of music and improve harmonies."
Always searching for his roots, Zezo Ribeiro immerses deeply in traditional music to adopt different rhythms and influences. It took him only two years to define his personal style and be invited, together with Alemâo (Olmir Stocker), to the famous Montreal Jazz Festival. From that moment on they tour around the world for ten years, visit 23 countries from Angola to Canada and do no less than 160 concerts. Zezo appears on almost every album that Alemâo recorded. At the same time he meets Rafael Rabelo and starts to work with him. Rafael Rabelo is now gone, but in some way Zezo continues his work.
Zezo's interest in playing the flamenco guitar brings him to Spain, where he dedicates himself to its study for two years. In Spain he also releases his first album, Gandaia, together with well known musicians like North-American bass player John Patitucci, Brazilian drummer Cristiano Rocha, flamenco-guitar player José Luis Montón and singer Uxía from Galicia.
Gandaia opens the doors to Europe for his career as a solo artist and in a minor measure to North America as well. Important moments in this artistic period are the Festival de la Guitarra de Córdoba, the beginning of his sessions in the Café Central de Madrid - a week of festivities that comes up every year - and some adventures, like the one that took him to play together with the German clan of Gypsies The Reinhardts and to the ardent sands of the Sahara.
His second solo album, Flamencando, is a particular vision of the Brazilian universe. On this album appear, among others, Elba Ramalho, Paulinho da Costa, Dori Caymmi, Dominguinhos, Ze Renato and Simone Guimarâes from Brazil, saxophone player Eric Marienthal and the flamencos Manolete and Carles Benavent. But this CD is much more than a collection of songs by important guest musicians. Watch how Elba Ramalho and Simone Guimarâes are led to unknown territories by Zezo's guitar. Listen to the masterly whispers of Dori Caymmi accompanying the coming and going of a sensual tide. Enjoy the dialogues with Eric Marienthal, and witness the way Zezo defends himself on foreign ground against Manolete and Carles Benavent.
Brincadeira, his third album, coincides with Zezo Ribeiro's getting over an especially delicate period in his artistic career in which an injury in one arm kept him away from the stage for more than a year. Brincadeira, recorded together with Chico César, shows us a Zezo Ribeiro who is much more sovereign, complete and inspired than ever. Together they create beautiful songs with rhythms and tunes easily merging into each other.
In opposition to the abundance on Flamencando, Brincadeira is recorded with an economy of resources. Only three musicians, Zezo and Chico with the help of Guello on percussions, create songs like precious stones just waiting to shine. Time will find the appropriate place for the value of Brincadeira in the careers of Zezo Ribeiro and Chico César. —Courtesy Calabash Music