CURATION
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from this page:
by Augmented Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Kiko Freitas
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City/Place:
Rio de Janeiro
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Country:
Brazil
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Hometown:
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
Life & Work
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Bio:
Kiko Freitas was born in Porto Alegre, Brasil, into a family of musicians, poets and artists, on August 16th,1969. A professional drummer since 1987, he's performed with artists including Michel Legrand, Nico Assumpção, João Bosco, Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque, Frank Gambale, Lee Ritenour, John Patitucci, John Beasley, Magnus Lindgren, Peter Asplund, Jeff Richman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Jeff Andrews, Hubert Laws, John Leftwich, Wolf Kerschek, Lars Jansson, Nils Landgren, Lars Jansson, James Genus, Ivan Lins, Hamilton de Holanda, Leila Pinheiro, Armando Marçal, Luiz Eça, Francis Hime, Vladyslav Sendecki, NDR Big Band, Matosinhos Jazz Orchestra, Junge Norddeutsche Phillarmonie, Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, Thomas Törnhaden, Peter Knudsen, and many others.
As an educator, Kiko has been carrying out many clinics in Brazil and around the world, participating as a teacher in events like: National Brazilian Drummers Festival, Curso Internacional de Verão-EMB, Masters of the Drums Workshop, Salão Internacional da Bateria, Encontro Latino Americano de Percussão (UFSM), Curitiba Memorial, Conservatório de MPB, Göteborg Music University, Malmö Music University and Stockholm Royal Achademy of Music (Sweden), Hochschule Für Music und Theater- Hamburg, Conservatorium Von Amsterdam, University from Rotherdam, California Jazz Conservatory (USA), Columbus University (OH-USA), University of Louisville (KY-USA).
Kiko Freitas has been playing with João Bosco since 1999, touring extensively in Brazil, USA and Europe, performing in many international jazz festivals, such as: Schleswig-Holstein-Musik-Festival, Salzau Jazz Festival, Montreaux Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Malta Jazz Festival, Eldena Jazz Festival, Jazz Baltica, Internacionales Jazz Festival Bingen Swingt, Hamburg Jazz Open, Festival Internacional de Jazz de Granada, Ludwigshafen Enjoy Jazz, Jazz Classics Basel, Jazz Fest Sarajevo, Las Palmas Rrincón Jazz, Madrid Jazz Festival, Gijón Festival, All Blues Jazz Recitals, Istanbul Caz Jazz Festival, Kaunas Jazz Festival, Musiques Sur L’ile, Jazz Stars in Krakow, Skopje Jazz Festival, Toulouse Jazz Sur Son, Red Sea Jazz Festival.
Kiko was elected Best Drummer in World Music by the Modern Drummer Magazine, in 2019.
He endorses Vic Firth Drumsticks, Paiste Cymbals, Pearl Drums, Urban Boards Drum Shoes and Gavazzi Cases.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
“Kiko is an artist of the highest caliber. His knowledge, discipline and technique, second to none, but higher than the knowledge and technique is his magnificent and loving soul, intuition, creativity and musical benevolence – all of which are paramount in his artistry every time I hear this beautiful musician play.”
- Gary Husband
“I met Kiko Freitas in 1994 while on tour with the Frank Gambale band. I was playing keyboards with Frank, Alfonso Johnson on bass and Enzo Tedesco on drums. Kiko was playing on stage at the same venue as our band, and I was immediately stunned by this young maestro. We spoke and quickly became good friends and kept in touch. Kiko has the great passion of the rare artist who seeks the pinnacle of achievement in his or her chosen field. He called me to come visit the USA and meet Dave Weckl who I have played with and know pretty well. He wanted to take a lesson with Dave and see Los Angeles. Kiko stayed with me and my wife and two cats and it was a very special visit for all of us. To me, Kiko is quite a bit more than one of the greatest drummers/musicians on the planet. He is one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever had the honor of knowing for which I am deeply grateful.”
- David Goldblatt
“I met Kiko in Hamburg for the rehearsals with NDR Bigband and the program with Joao Bosco that we were to perform during our Brasil-Tour of 200?? ( Cant remeber what year). He came straight from the flight from Rio, sat down behind the drums and just kicked the shit out of everybody in the room from beat one. What a Drummer! We just looked at each othere and smiled from ear to ear. And I knew from that moment, thsi is the beginning of a great friendship, musical and personal. Upon arrival we hardly had time to get of the plane before Kiko offered to take us to the best Steaks and Cachasa, which we gladly accepted. There was many such nights to be had on that tour! But the main thing was the music. I played one set with my Funk music and then I took a seat in the trombone section for the second set with João. Just to be able to sit there, playing João´s music with himself playing gui tar and singing like a god. And then on top of that Kiko leading the band in directions the might never have known was possible to go. It was one of the best experiences of my life and much of it thanks to Kiko. Since then we have played many times and we enjoy each others company and playing, as well as a good steak and some cachasa. On my next Album, he even performs together with me and Joao, I cant wait til I can bring it out. Kiko, You’re the best. I am proud to have you as my friend! Love ,
- Nils Landgren”
“Kiko Freitas is a beautiful musician. Not just a great drummer that plays with fantastic, clean technique, energy, swing and a strong groove. He is a warm and beautiful generous person. For me that is very important and inspiring. Would be fantastic and an honour to have Kiko Freitas playing my music.”
- Lars Jansson
“Kiko Freitas is an amazing drummer. More than that: he is a true musician. With him the NDR Bigband could explore new shores. We first met Kiko in 2007 when we prepared a trip to Brazil with the great João Bosco, followed by a recording session for a CD that will be released in 2010. It wasn’t only that Kiko was well familiar with Joao’s music – his mere breathtaking technical skills and his infinite creative energy inspired the whole band. Not to mention his warmhearted personality – he’s a real team player! With passion and patience he shaped the rhythmic parts, and thank’s to him a German Big Band turned into a steaming Samba band – at least for a couple of moments…! In Kiko’s playing the tradition of the Jazz drumming lives on and blends with the Afro-Samba heritage. As the American composer and arranger Maria Schneider once said: “Kiko is the only drummer I know, who can play at the same with one hand Bebop, and Samba with the other”. It is this cultural bridge work that makes his playing so unique. Kiko Freitas is one of the great artists of our time.”
- Stefan Gerdes/NDR
“I´ve had the pleasure of touring together with Kiko Freitas, João Bosco and the NDR Big Band in Brasil in 2007. Since I was just playing the first half of the concert I got the chance to listen to Kiko´s outstanding Grooves every night. His way of playing is very unique, inspiring and tasty all the time. He´s the kind of drummer who always plays what´s right for the song and he knows exactly what to do. Kiko has a warm sound on the drums and his touch is simply amazing. Kiko Freitas is one of the most musical drummers I know. I´m his biggest fan!”
- Wolfgang Haffner
“Even though I am probably known for more moderate statements; in this case regarding Kiko Freitas I have to renew the superlative, that for me he is the best drummer in the world.
After first meeting him in a Brasilian context as the drummer of João Bosco, where he already changed my view on drumming drastically, transcending all I knew about this music far beyond the horizon, I then had the opportunity to invite him to play some ambitious music productions for the Olympic Games in German public TV and finally my own artistic projects with the NDR Bigband and Symphony Orchestra as special featured drums soloists. His participation is still one of the most rewarding and most beautiful magical experiences of my professional musical life. He has always been the heart and soul of every project in which I had the pleasure to be working with him. I will always be grateful getting to know this giant of drums and exeptional world class musician that brings every music to rise to unknown levels and changed my view on drumming for ever.”
- Prof. Wolf Kerschek
“Kiko, I think you’e the greatest Drummer on the Planet. You have perfect technique, Traditional and matched grips, ambidextrous too. You swing so hard, it’s a pleasure to see the clips you post. I think any Drummer would be really fortunate to study with you.I would come to a class if I could, you’re never too old to study from the Master. I mean everything I said. You are my hero! The best of wishes for you my friend from me and Michele.”
- Colin Bailey
“Kiko’s aplications of brazilian rhythms to drumset are only a matter of pure musicianship….yet if they are full of tecnical dificulties is only to the service of music…..so this is not another braziliam rhythms drum book, this is a book about brazilian music from the drum set made by one of it’s modern most advanced innovator.”
- Horacio El Negro Hernandez
“Pra ser inteiramente sincero, NUNCA vi um baterista melhor do que você. Você é, sem favor algum, o melhor batera do MUNDO!!!
Abração,
Aldir”
- Aldir Blanc
“Era final dos anos 90 quando o baixista Nico Assumpção me disse sobre uma gravação que faríamos dentro de alguns dias: eu conheço um baterista de Porto Alegre. Você precisa conhecê-lo. Vamos convidá-lo para essa gravação?
Lá se vão 19 anos desde o nosso primeiro encontro. Já viajamos juntos o mundo inteiro e ainda há muito que viajar… O que me impressiona em Kiko Freitas é a facilidade que ele tem de traduzir as situações rítmicas mais complexas que surgem na execução de um tema. Ele nos faz sentir mais inteligentes quando toca pois temos a sensação de estarmos compreendendo tudo pois nos revela detalhes de suas preciosas conquistas por ser o grande baterista que é . Generoso , para mim ele é uma espécie de reencarnação de Joe Morello, baterista do Dave Brubeck Quartet que atuava dessa mesma forma. Assim como Paul Desmond compôs Take Five “apenas como um pretexto para um solo de bateria de Morello”, venho experimentando alguns temas apenas como pretexto para solos de bateria de Kiko Freitas.
A boa nova é que ele está lançando esse livro didático sobre as adaptações dos nossos ritmos brasileiros. O livro traz explicações e partituras que vão enriquecer a todos e certamente , ao final, seremos mais inteligentes.”
- João Bosco
My Instruction
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Lessons/Workshops:
To all who have been asking, now I am opening some hours for Skype lessons. If you are interested, send an email to [email protected]
My best regards. Thank you!
Clips (more may be added)
For all roads here lead to Black Rome, and everywhere, but all pathways lead to Bahia.
I created this matrix so the world might discover elemental cultural genius here in Bahia, Brazil: João do Boi (rest in power) and magisterial others... But following the dictates of logic, in order to make these artists discoverable worldwide, the matrix must, to the greatest extent possible, do likewise for all creators across the planet.
Pardal/Sparrow
The Integrated Global Creative Economy: uncoiling from this sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix...
The mathematics of the small world phenomenon transforming the creative universe into a creative village wherein all are connected by short pathways to all...
Tap the grey crosses on somebody's Matrix Page to recommend that person for the categories next to those crosses.
(Crosses visible when you are logged in)
The crosses will turn green.
That person/category will appear in your My Curation & Recommendations.
You will appear in that person's Incoming Curation and Recommendations.
You and the person you are recommending will be pulled by mathematical gravity to within discoverable distance of all other creators inside the Matrix.
In a small world great things are possible.
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
This Matrix was conceived under a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to Havana and the provinces of Cuba to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...*
Sodré
*...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré, who summed up the irony in this sequence by opining for the ages: "Where there's misery, there's music!" Hence A Massa, anthem for the trod-upon folk of Brazil, which blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south until...
And hence a platform whereupon all creators tend to accessible proximity to all other creators, irrespective of degree of fame, location, or the censor.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome (where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where we built this matrix as an extension of our record shop).
Assis Valente's (of Santo Amaro, Bahia) "Brasil Pandeiro" filmed by Betão Aguiar
Betão Aguiar
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
Replete with Brazilian greatness, but we listened to Miles Davis and Jimmy Cliff in there too; visitors are David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR/WXPN
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar found us (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
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 founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Salvador is our base. If you plan to visit Bahia, there are some things you should probably know and you should first visit:
www.salvadorbahiabrazil.comAcross the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
Ex Terra Brasilis
Wolfram MathWorld
UNIVERSAL
Alicia Svigals
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Roberto Mendes
Luciano Calazans
Gustavo Caribé
J Velloso
Lázaro Ramos
Fernando Guerreiro
Maria Marighella
Russell Okung
Bule Bule
Caetano Veloso
RÁDIO MATRIX