Bio:
Born in São Paulo in 1971, Mônica Salmaso surfaced as one of the best young voices among the new talents of Brasil.
She started her musical career singing in a "comedy" directed by the award winning Gabriel Villela.
Since her music studies in São Paulo, Mônica has recorded and performed with important Brazilian artists like Edu Lobo, Eduardo Gudin, José Miguel Wisnik, Marlui Miranda, Guinga, Nelson Ayres and the Jazz Symphonic Orchestra of São Paulo.
She was one of the soloists on the album CANÇÕES DE NINAR by Paulo Tatit and Sandra Peres. The CD won Brasil's "Prêmio Sharp - 95" as Best Recording for Children.
In 1995 she recorded AFRO SAMBAS, a voice and guitar album, arranged and produced by Brazilian guitarist Paulo Bellinati. The CD premiered the complete Afro-Sambas by Baden Powell and Vinícius de Moraes, including the famous Berimbau and Consolação; released in US and Europe by GSP (Guitar Solo Publication) Records.
In the same year, recorded with Paulo Bellinati the song "A Felicidade" by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes for one Brazilian Jobim's song book by Lumiar Records.
In 1997, she was nominated for Prêmio Sharp - 97 as Best New Singer on Brazilian Popular Music with the Cd AFRO SAMBAS.
In 1998 she recorded her first solo Cd TRAMPOLIM - Pau Brasil Music (in Brazil) and Bluejackel Records (in USA) produced by Rodolfo Stroeter. The cd features some of the most creative musicians in Brazilian contemporary music such as Nana Vasconcelos, Teco Cardoso, Paulo Bellinati, among others.
In May of 1999, Monica Salmaso won the Visa-Mastercard-Eldorado Prize for best singer in Brazil among 1.200 contestants, all over the country. The prize has earned attention over Monica's talent and career, and during august/september 99 she recorded for Eldorado records, her third album.
VOADEIRA is also produced by Rodolfo Stroeter. The album was described in the press as one of the best releases of 99 in Brazilian Popular Music. "Voadeira" features Marcos Suzano, Benjamim Taubkin, Naylor "Proveta", Toninho Ferragutti and Paulo Bellinati, among others.
Also in 1999 Mônica was awarded “best singer” from Brazil. The prize was conceded by APCA – (Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Arte), and it is particularly important as it is given by a poll of the most important Brazilian press community .
Since 1998, Monica has sung with the Orquestra Popular de Câmara - a 12 piece band - that blends the Brazilian musical heritage along with the personal contribution of each one of the renowned soloist of the group.
In 2004, she released her fourth cd IAIÁ by the label Biscoito Fino (in Brazil), released in USA and Europe by Harmonia Mundi.
Took an important part as a singer in the movie “Vinicius” about the life and work of Vinicius de Morais, directed by Miguel Faria Jr
Took part in the most recent cd recorded by Chico Buarque, "Carioca", singing the song “Imagina” composed by Chico Buarque and Tom Jobim.
Released in 2007 her 5th cd "Noites de gala, samba na rua" with songs composed by Chico Buarque and the quintet Pau Brasil as special guest.
Took part in the soundtrack of the coreography SEM MIM composed by José Miguel Wisnick and Carlos Nuñes for the dance Grupo Corpo in 2011.
Released in 2008 her 1st DVD "Noites de gala, samba na rua" with the live concert with the quintet Pau Brasil.
In 2011, released the cd "Alma Lírica Brasileira" (Brazilian Lyric Soul) playing with Teco Cardoso (sax and flutess) and Nelson Ayres (piano) for the label Biscoito Fino.
In 2012, was awarded “best singer” at the 23º Prêmio da Musica Brasileira with the cd Alma Lírica Brasileira.
In 2012 recorded and released her 2nd DVD Alma Lírica Brasileira, directed by Walter Carvalho, and winner of the 24º Prêmio da Musica Brasileira in 2013 as the best music DVD.
In 2014 released the cd "Corpo de Baile", with songs composed by Guinga and Paulo César Pinheiro, for the label Biscoito Fino.
Quotes, Notes & Etc.
"...she has the best voice I have heard in recent years."
- Edu Lobo
"When I listened to Mônica Salmaso for the first time, I was immediately fascinated with her precise and powerful voice, which ranges from low to high with beautiful colors, uniquely her own. Her intonation is naturally perfect, always complimenting her musical interpretations."
- José Miguel Wisnik
"...warm and profound voice, secure in all ranges. She is one of the outstanding vocalists of the nineties. Watch out for this wonderful voice."
- Mauro Dias - journalist, "O Estado de São Paulo" - Brazil
"Salmaso comes from a theatrical background and her various recording projects seem to indicate that she's more of a neo-traditionalist singer than anything else. Her voice is a fluent and beautifully colored instrument."
- Philip Van Vleck
"Salmaso does have an exquisite instrument, a stimulating, acutely precise natural voice with a wide range and huge timbric palette that emits effortlessly. Her vocal style has been admired for its purity of tone, perfect intonation, instrumental concept, and highly refined sense of harmonic climax by some of the most important names in Brazilian music."
- Bruce Gilman - journalist from "Brazzil September 1999 Music " - USA
"Mônica Salmaso is pensive pop as only Brazilians can make it. Her breathy, melting voice is set against just a handful of instruments at a time, making the melodies seem even more cherished."
- Jon Pareles, The New York Times
“Monica Salmaso has a gorgeous, quintessentially Brazilian voice: quietly lustrous and sustained, suffusing each liquid note with languid secrets.”
- Jon Pareles, The New York Times
“Salmaso's voice is one of the most attractive to arrive from Brazil in recent memory. But beyond her wide vocal range and warm, velvety timbre, she also worked within musical settings that were filled with subtle creative aspects. (...) She is an artist to be watched, one with extraordinary potential.”
- Don Heckman, The LA Times
"She is the most pure singer in Brazil today.(...) Listen to the tonal pattern of her vocal, and you'll realize she is the most intriguing instrumental soloist on this tune."
- PVV, Billboard Magazine
"A longtime champion of Brazil’s rich musical culture, Salmaso has garnered rave reviews from those lucky enough to catch one of her infrequent U.S. gigs. Her latest solo CD captures the passion, elegance, and feel of her best live shows. "
- Ellen Collison, hemispherical.blogspot.com
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).