Bio:
Brazilian pianist Cesar Camargo Mariano compiled an international career of the highest caliber as a soloist, composer, producer and arranger.A product of his own instincts, tenacity and raw talent; Cesar Camargo Mariano is today one of the most renowned artists to come out of his home country, Brazil. During the 60s, the young Brazilian pianist very quickly became famous for his ability to swing, and for his now legendary left hand.
Among many Grammy nominations and further awards, Cesar was also the recipient of the prestigious “Lifetime Achievement Latin Grammy® Award” in 2006, awarded to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance.
Cesar has been invited to perform in some of the world’s major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall (USA), Bunkamura Orchard Hall (Japan), Sala São Paulo (Brazil), as well as renowned Jazz venues and Festivals around the world such as Lincoln Center, Blue Note and Birdland (USA), Montreux JazzFest (Switzerland), Tanglewood JazzFest (USA), Kirin JazzFest (Japan), and Salamanca JazzFest (Spain). Among the orchestras he has collaborated with are the London Royal Philharmonic and Tokyo Symphony Chamber.
As arranger and producer, Cesar’s collaboration with great artists from his homeland of Brazil such as Elis Regina, Ivan Lins, Wilson Simonal and Gal Costa and, have brought him worldwide acclaim. The historic 1973 album Elis & Tom, (Elis Regina and Tom Jobim), features Cesar as arranger, pianist and musical director. His world wide acclaim has also led him to collaborate with international artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Sadao Watanabe, Al Jarreau, James Ingram, Dianne Reeves, Sadao Watanabe, Michael Brecker, Blossom Dearie, to name a few.
His early instrumental ensembles, notably “Sambalanço Trio” and “Som Três”, are regarded as high points of Brazilian jazz; so are his albums “Samambaia” and “Sao Paulo – Brasil”, two of his thirty-plus instrumental albums, considered classic landmarks by musicians and listeners worldwide.
Cesar’s compositions such as “Cristal”, “Samambaia”, “Curumim” and “Don Quixote” have been recorded worldwide by other artists such as Yo Yo Ma, Paquito D’Rivera, Ettore Stratta & The London Royal Philharmonic, Milton Nascimento & Herbie Hancock and Clare Fisher. He has also composed a wealth of soundtracks for film and TV in Brazil, United States and Japan.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).