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Marco Antonio Santos

Marco Antonio Santos is a guitarist, arranger, composer, and music educator. Originally from Minas Gerais, Brazil, he is currently based in Austin, Texas.

Throughout more than fifteen years as a professional musician, Santos has performed extensively in Brazil and the United States, navigating freely between jazz, funk, pop, and Brazilian music. His singular style blends traces from his multiple musical influences, ranging from Radiohead and Pat Metheny to Maria Schneider and Brazilian legend Milton Nascimento.

In spring 2023, ears&eyes Records will release Santos’s debut album, About: Silence, a conceptual work that combines music, visual art, improvisational dance, and poetry to explore the various meanings of silence—introspection, grief, oppression, absence of sound, and more. Conceived during the forced solitude of the COVID-19 pandemic, when live musical performances all but ceased, and amid times of social upheaval and racial violence, About: Silence is a full-throated embrace of artistic expression across multiple dimensions. The album’s eleven compositions are brought to life by a jazz trio of guitar, upright bass, and drums, joined by a woodwind quartet on four tracks and a string quartet on five.

Santos grew up in Betim, a blue-collar town on the outskirts of the Minas Gerais state capital, Belo Horizonte. The twelve-year-old boy who picked up an old guitar because he couldn't play soccer never imagined that his musical journey would take him thousands of miles from home. As a performer, arranger, and composer, Santos has recorded and toured with acclaimed artists from across the globe, including Grammy-nominated Brazilian drummer Nenê, Brazilian vocalists Di Melo and Hilda Maria, Brazilian jazz group Katchie Cartwright Trio, the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra, pop jazz group Live Jukebox Trio, and Austin-based elite big band CWBB. Santos has also played alongside renowned artists such as Jeff Hellmer, Dr. John Mills, Andre Hayward, Fernando Correa, Rafael dos Santos, Jurema Paes, and André “Limão” Queiroz. Behind the scenes, he has been producer and musical director on several albums, including Hilda Maria's Feita de Rendas and Realinhando by Selía Nask.

"I play with an arranger's approach, not only strumming guitar lines, but also creating textures and thinking about how the music resonates as a whole,” says Santos. “When playing in an ensemble, I like to guide the other musicians, suggesting ideas that lead us together down unexpected paths."

 Santos holds a doctorate in jazz composition and a master of music degree in jazz performance from The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). He was a member of UT Austin's elite jazz ensemble, A.I.M.E., in 2017, when it won Downbeat Magazine's Award for Best College Jazz Ensemble, performing several of his works. In 2022, he became chair of the guitar panel at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), where he has been a member of the jury since 2021.

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Album Review

Marco Antonio Santos: About: Silence

Read "About: Silence" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


Marco Antonio Santos grew up in Betim, an industrial city in southeastern Brazil. His father, an automotive tooling designer, listened to North American Top-40 radio (Bee Gees, John Denver). At family gatherings, Uncle Fabiano sang such Brazilian popular classics as Noel Rosa's “Com que Roupa?," accompanying himself on guitar and inspiring a twelve-year-old Marco Antonio to pick up the instrument. Music was not a popular career choice in Santos' blue-collar hometown, so he didn't consider it for himself, but his ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

New Music From Santos, Cassibba, Thompson, And More

Read "New Music From Santos, Cassibba, Thompson, And More" reviewed by Bob Osborne


On this show we feature brand new releases from Marco Antonio Santos, Hernán Cassibba, Barbara Thompson, Michael Feinberg, Helen Svoboda with Joe O'Connor and Tim Green, Taiko Saito, Igor Willcox Quartet, and Ralph Towner.Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Marco Antonio Santos “About Silence" from About : Silence (ears&eyes) 00:53 Hernán Cassibba “Nuevos Aires" from Nuevos Aires (ears&eyes) 11:15 Barbara Thompson “The Awakening--Daylight" from First Light (Jazz In Britain) 17:36 Michael Feinberg “Saqqara" from Blues Variant (Criss Cross) 22:43 Helen ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

About: Silence

Ears And Eyes Records
2023

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About: Silence

Ears And Eyes Records
2023

buy

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