Mauricio Pessoa
NYC resident and Rio de Janeiro native Mauricio Pessoa is a classically trained (graduated in Orchestration at Juilliard Music School) guitarist and singer-songwriter emanating from the current crop of young Brazilian music artists that are keeping the great Brazilian musical tradition alive and well. Mauricio’s original compositions are influenced by the classic Bossa Nova and MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) music of composers such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque, João Gilberto, Paulinho da Viola and other Brazilian greats. After releasing his debut self-titled record in 2007, the long awaited follow-up disc, Habitat, was released digitally on June 19th 2012, on RED/Sony Music Entertainment through iTunes and on CD on August, on Sony Brasil.
The ten songs on Habitat reflect the Brazilian landscape drawing inspiration from Pessoa’s experiences travelling back and forth to Brazil. Mainly influenced by Bossa Nova, Samba and Jazz, the new CD is a transcontinental trip through diverse rhythms, sounds and themes.
The NYC release shows were at:
JULY 8TH – ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL JULY 12TH – MoMA JULY 23RD – STANDARD EAST HOTEL PENTHOUSE (this show is for the week long celebration of contemporary Brazilian Music at Brazil Summerfest) Produced by arranger and reeds player Zé Luis Oliveira and producer/A&R Béco Dranoff (who he first met in NYC in 2008), Habitat was recorded at Spin Recording Studios in New York and the album is the materialization of Pessoa’s long-standing dream to record an album in the US, where Bossa Nova and Brazilian music first got worldwide attention.
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Rio-born, classically trained acoustic guitarist Pessoa recalls Caetano Veloso’s light-fingered bossa nova sway.” Jim Farber, TOP 10 List NY Daily News
Pessoa plays guitar and sings, sometimes in a trio, other times quartet, often a small semi- symphonic ensemble of six, seven, or more, not classical really but just full, atmospheric, seeming to hold more players than it does, stretching out to pencil in quietly exotic panoramas