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Rosa Passos
In her native Brazil, Rosa Passos is known and loved as "a feminine João Gilberto." For a singer/songwriter who carries the soulful cool of bossa nova into a new age, there can be no higher compliment. Mingling the classics of Gilberto, Jobim, Barroso and other masters of Brazilian song with her own enchanting works, Passos sings in a sweet, warm, totally-in-tune voice that the Los Angeles Times has hailed as "sounding a bit like the legendary Elis Regina but with the rhythmic articulation of Ella Fitzgerald."
That voice and that style, which Brazilian fans have known for years, are pleasures international audiences are now getting to know a little better. Rosa Passos signed to record for Sony Classical/Odyssey in 2004, and her label debut Amorosa features songs included on João Gilberto's classic 1977 album Amoroso, along with other titles closely associated with him, as well as a Gershwin favorite ("'S Wonderful"), the sensuous Spanish classic "Besame Mucho" and her own tribute to Gilberto, "Essa é pr'o João." Plans are underway for an international tour, to follow the album's release.
The new collaboration with Sony Classical/Odyssey and the release of Amorosa come in the wake of two powerful collaborations Passos enjoyed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma for the label, on the double-Grammy-winning Obrigado Brazil and its sequel Yo-Yo Ma Obrigado Brazil Live in Concert. (Jazz clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera and percussionist Cyro Baptista, who also appeared on these recordings, join a gallery of stellar Brazilian jazz musicians as Passos's guest artists on Amorosa.) Following the release of Obrigado Brazil, the singer/songwriter joined Ma and the other musicians from the recording on a critically acclaimed world tour.
"Perhaps best of all, singer/guitarist Rosa Passos's sweet-voiced renderings of Jobim were marvelous updatings of classic bossa nova, superbly demonstrating the subtle interplay between the voice and guitar this is the foundation of this enduringly appealing genre," the Los Angeles Times wrote, when the Obrigado Brazil tour played the Hollywood Bowl.
Rosa Passos grew up surrounded by music in the city of Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Inspired by João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim - the godfathers of bossa nova - she switched from piano to guitar and began writing her own material as a teenager. Passos's songs (written with her longtime lyricist Fernando de Oliveira) appeared on her first recording in 1979. After taking several years off to devote herself to her husband and children, she returned to performing and recording in 1985, jump-starting a career that has been on the upswing ever since.
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New Releases: Rosa Passos, Lakecia Benjamin, Sinne Eeg Plus A Celebration of Court and Spark
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast includes new releases from TBone Paxton, Lakecia Benjamin, Rosa Passos and Sinne Eeg, with birthday shoutouts to Adi Myerson, Jeanne Lee||, {{m: Teri Roiger, Nancy Marano, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Kaisa Maensivu, Pureum Jin, Etta James and Lucy Yeghiazaryan, among others, plus a nod to the 49th anniversary of the release of the Joni Mitchell classic, Court and Spark. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and purchasing their music so they ...
read moreBarranquijazz 2013
by Mark Holston
BarranquijazzBarranquilla, ColombiaSeptember 4-8, 2013“Audiences in Latin America are totally different than in Europe," Italian clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi told me while we shared a bus ride from the international airport n Barranquilla, Colombia to our hotel. “Here, if you connect with them, people become passionate and emotionally expressive. In Europe, someone will come up after a concert and say something like, 'Oh, that was a very intellectual project you presented tonight.' They try to be cool. Here, it's ...
read moreRosa Passos: Romance
by Ernest Barteldes
On Rosa Passos' new release, the “female João Gilberto" emerges with a selection of tunes all having to do with the faces of love, from asserting one's feelings towards a significant other to dealing with the prospect of being alone. On “Preciso Aprender A Ser So," she sings about coming to terms with the end of a love affair with the resilience of a survivor and demonstrates courage by taking on Chico Buarque's “Atras Da Porta," a tune that few ...
read moreRosa Passos: Amorosa
by Elliott Simon
Recent projects with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bassist Ron Carter have given Brazilian vocalist/guitarist Rosa Passos wider and much deserved recognition. With the release of Amorosa, the long time queen of Brazilian bossa nova has offered up one of the most titillating CDs of the year.
Amorosa features new arrangements of songs associated with Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, two seminal figures in the creation of bossa nova from samba and jazz. But most importantly, it allows Passos to ...
read moreRosa Passos: Brazilian Guitarist, Composer, Vocalist
by Nick Catalano
It has been forty years since the extraordinary samba jazz of Brazil was first introduced to mass audiences in the United States. Great composer/instrumentalists like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, and Milton Nascimento have given way to another generation of spectacular talents like Ivan Lins, Dori Caymmi, Ary Barroso and Elis Regina. Leading American performers from Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett to Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan have carried the legacy of this legendary aesthetic achievement to audiences everywhere. Despite ...
read moreRosa Passos and Ron Carter: Entre Amigos
by Alexander M. Stern
The bossa nova's not so new anymore. It's been forty years since Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd brought its gentle pulse north of the border. Getz and Byrd's version of “Desafinado was a surprise hit, and a Grammy winner to boot. Getz and Joao Gilberto's recording of “The Girl From Ipanema was an even bigger hit, launching the singing career of Gilberto's (then-)wife Astrud. It wasn't long before the music industry smelled blood and began churning out an amazing profusion ...
read moreRosa Passos: The Bossa Whisperer
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
If João Gilberto is the male bossa-nova whisperer, Rosa Passos is certainly the female equivalent. There is little biographical material about her online other than she was born in 1952 in the Brazilian state of Bahia and, at 13, she was inspired to drop the piano for the guitar and a singing career after hearing Gilberto and the music of Dorival Caymmi. Still active today, Passos has recorded with jazz artists such as Kenny Baron and Ron Carter, and she ...
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Ivan Lins & Rosa Passos - Jazz at Lincoln Center
Source:
All About Jazz
WHAT: Brazilian Festival:
WHO: Ivan Lins & Trio da Paz with New York Voices
WHEN: May 23-24 - 8pm
WHERE: Rose Theater Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center Broadway at 60th St., New York City
TICKETS: Tickets are $30, $50, $75, $95, $120 and available at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office on Broadway at 60th St., ...
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Win Free Tickets to See Rosa Passos @ The Blue Note November 2-4
Source:
Jonathan Kantor - Blue Note Jazz Club
Want to win free tickets to see Brazilian star Rosa Passos in her Blue Note debut? Click this link to enter and follow the instructions. Since its inception in 1981, The Blue Note has become one of the premier jazz clubs in the world and a cultural institution in New York City. The Blue Note Blog gives an in depth and behind the scenes look at our world class artists through interviews, concert reviews, sound check reports, pictures, and other ...
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Brazil's Bossa Queen Rosa Passos in One of Only Two U.S. Appearances This Year on November 8th in Boston
Source:
All About Jazz
Boston, October 10, 2007 - The 2007-2008 Sovereign Bank Music Series at Berklee presents in concert the great Brazilian singer and songwriter Rosa Passos, known for keeping alive traditional Brazilian jazz with all of its mystery, rhythm, and romance intact. She'll perform songs from her internationally renowned catalog along with the music of other Brazilian ambassadors such as Gilberto Gil, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Djavan, and Joao Bosco. A group of Berklee students, faculty, and alumni under the direction of bass ...
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Emilia Vancini
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Estrella Acosta
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Ramiro Pinheiro
guitar
Angela Turone & Chris Platt
multi-instrumentalist
Karuna Shinsho
vocalsPhotos
Music
Flor de Lis
From: A Kiss for BrazilBy Rosa Passos
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Rosa Passos
Instrument: Guitar and vocals
Born: April 13, 1952
