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Pedro Branco

Pedro Branco is a Portuguese guitar player now residing in Amsterdam. Born in Lisbon, he has studied with some of the finest jazz musicians on the Portuguese scene (André Fernandes, Afonso Pais, Mário Delgado, Demian Cabaud, Gonçalo Marques, Desidério Lázaro) and participated in several workshops and masterclasses (Kurt Rosenwinkel, Aaron Goldberg, Dave Holland, Matt Renzi, David Doruzka, Peter Bernstein).

Graduated from the Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa in 2013, he has participated in many projects, not only in jazz (Pedro Branco Quartet, Reflections Trio, Jorge Moniz, Then They Flew, Oh! Calcutta!), and has played in such venues as the Hot Club of Lisbon, Café Tati, Fábrica Braço de Prata, Bacalhoeiro and many others. In 2013 he received a distinction during “Festa do Jazz São Luiz” for “Best Instrumentalist”. In the following year he was asked to join the “Jacob Sacks Ensemble” led by the renowned pianist from New York for a concert in the same festival, “Festa do Jazz São Luiz 2014”, where he returns now in 2015 with his own group, “Pedro Branco Trio”, formed by two of the best portuguese jazz musicians (Demian Cabaud and Marcos Cavaleiro).

Now studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, he could study with people like Maarten van der Grinten, Martijn Van Iterson or Rob van Bavel, have masterclasses with names like Miguel Zenon, Gilad Hekselman, Mark Turner, Lage Lund, Branford Marsalis, Avishai Cohen or Ambrose Akinmusire and started new projects such as the new post-rock/noise band called Oh! Calcutta!, featuring Dario Trapani (guitar), Valdimar Olgeirsson (bass) and Tristan Renfrow (drums). Their debut EP "The Greatess Story Ever Told" is going to be released still in the 23th of February of 2016.

​ In 2015 he puts together his own project as a leader - Pedro Branco Quartet - with Allison Philips (trumpet), João Hasselberg (doublebass) and Luís Candeias (drums). They toured in Portugal in the summer of 2015 where they played in some of the most prestigious jazz clubs in Lisbon and recorded what is going to be the first record of the group. Also in 2015 he records three new records with different projects, all of them coming out in 2016. BRANCO | CUSTÓDIO | MONIZ is a trio formed by Branco with João Custódio on the doublebass and Jorge Moniz on the drums. Their first record is coming out with the portuguese label Sintoma Records. Also in 2016 is coming the first record of the duo BRANCO | LENCASTRE, a duo of improvised music with the drummer João Lencastre that explores all the musical possibilities of a power duo. They also perform in trio with the prestigious guitar player André Fernandes.

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