Bio:
Gabriel Grossi is one of the greatest harmonica players in the world. A virtuoso musician with remarkable personality, delving into the rich universe of Brazilian and world music.
Although young, Gabriel has had quite a trajectory. In addition to his well established solo career he is, since 2005, member of the Hamilton de Holanda Quintet, winner of the 2007 best Brazilian group prize in Brasil and Latin Grammy Awards finalist for three consecutive times. He has been collaborated in important projects like touring with the late clarinetist Paulo Moura, with whom he played from 2003 until his death, and the singers Zelia Duncan and Beth Carvalho, with whom he recorded CDs and DVDs in 2004.
His debut album, “Diz Que Fui Por Aí” received praises for musical composition and arrangements. The second, “Afinidade” (a duet with the great guitarist Marco Pereira), and the third, “Arapuca” (inspired by the universe of forró) also won critical and audience acclaim, showing that it is possible to combine the tradition of instrumental music with popular taste.
In 2009 he formed his trio with Guilherme Ribeiro (piano) and Sergio Machado (drums). With this lineup Gabriel recorded “Horizonte”, an album composed during the tour that he performed with the renowned trombonist Raul de Souza. In 2011 he released the CD “Zibididi” with award-winning guitarist Diego Figueiredo, album composed exclusively of new material.
In 2012, Gabriel released two more works: the CD “Villa Lobos Popular”, a duo with pianist Amilton Godoy (Zimbo Trio), and the album “Realejo” with accordionist Bebê Kramer. In 2013 he released an album entitled “Urbano”, with original themes and a very modern approach within the universe of the harmonica and the jazz rock.
In the beginning of 2015, Gabriel was called for the great French producer and journalist Remy Kopakopul to do the music direction, production and arrangements for the piece “Krio K” in Paris, a musical theatre having to do with the relation between Rio and Paris in the 20s. In September of 2015 he recorded “Nascente”, released in 2016.
In 2016 Gabriel released “Nascente”, a cd recorded in duo with the great acoustic guitarist Felix Júnior. In this project the duo pays tribute to Hermeto Pascoal and Guinga. Grossi, also plays his works “Urbano”, “Realejo” (with Bebe Kramer), “Villa Lobos Popular”(with Amilton Godoy paying tribute to Villa Lobos) and “Fole de Boca” (a project that searches new possibilities for the forró).
In 2016 he also produced two cds paying tribute to his Masters: Toots Thielemans and Maurício Einhorn.
Gabriel put together and organized several important harmonica players from all over the world . “We do it out of love”, a tribute to Toots Thielemans he produced along with his friend Alex Rossi and gave to Toots personally on his last birthday. “Viva Mauricio Einhorn” he produced with his friend Pablo Fagundes. They invited 26 harmonica players to be part of this project. Recently, also recorded his fifth album with Hamilton de Holanda Quintet paying tribute to Milton Nascimento and celebrating 10 years together. He also recorded in Barcelona for the label Temps Records a cd in duo with his old friend and great guitarist Jurandir Santana.
His 11th album is called: ”Motion“. It is a DVD and CD recorded live with his quintet.
In this project, Grossi composed seven songs dedicated to his Masters and also had as special guests; Hermeto Pascoal and Mauricio Einhorn.
His 12th album, the latest release is called “Plural“. This project highlights not only his virtuosity but mainly his composer, lyricist and producer’s side. On this journey Grossi invites amazing national and international artists to interpret his compositions: Lenine, Jacob Collier, Ed Motta, Seamus Blake, Anat Cohen, Hermeto Pascoal, Omar Sosa, Leila Pinheiro, Zelia Duncan, Yamandu Costa among others.
Gabriel Grossi has more than twenty years of trajectory recording, touring all over the world and playing with big names from Brazilian and worldwide music such as: Ivan Lins, Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, Jacob Collier, Snarky Puppy, Winton Marsalis, Djavan, Hermeto Pascoal, Ed Motta, João Donato, Guinga, Lenine , Dominguinhos, Dave Mathews among many others. With this extensive curriculum Grossi redefined the role of the harmonica. Gabriel is also considered one of the most creative composer’s and one of the most important instrumentalists of the new Brazilian instrumental Music receiving accolades from the general public and from the ones who really knows what they are talking about.
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).