Thank you to the British Embassy in Brazil

As part of the This is Great Britain campaign, The British Embassy in Brazil are currently producing a series of online cards about British people with links to Rio de Janeiro. Today I had the honour of being included as number #32 for founding the Favela Brass project.



Great to see the project getting official recognition and extremely flattering for me to be included on any list that also includes Charles Darwin, The Queen and Rod Stewart - can't see that happening again in a hurry!

Curry Clube on Culinary Backstreets Blog

Present at the last Curry Clube were American journalists Nadia Sussman and Taylor Barnes. Click the image below to see their subsequent write-up of the event on the Culinary Backstreets blog:



Many thanks Nadia and Taylor!

Interview on BBC Radio Leeds with Russell Walker

Yesterday I gave an interview on Russell Walker's show on BBC Radio Leeds about the Favela Brass project. Thanks very much to producer Munaza Rafiq and presenter Russell Walker for having me on the show.

New Phone Number

My new phone number is: +55 (21) 97250-2250

Favela Brass on Channel 5

Big thanks to Peter Lane and co. from UK's Channel 5 for coming to film the Favela Brass Project on Wednesday and featuring it on the news on Thursday:

My Essential Samba Playlist

I came to Rio de Janeiro in 2008 having fallen in love with Brazilian music, and made the decision to try and experience it first hand. One of the first things that I noticed was that at all of the live samba parties, there was a repertoire of classic songs that everyone seemed to know and sing along to. 5 years later, after playing countless samba gigs with various bands, I've now become familiar with a fair portion of this repertoire as well.

The following playlist (just click the image below to access it) is an attempt to pass on the knowledge that I have accumulated as a result of these 5 years of painstaking research. To arrive at this point I have had to play trombone and drink ice-cold beer at hundreds of samba parties around Rio, sometimes with nothing to eat apart from industrial quantities of barbequed Brazilian steak. It's been a very tough time, but I comfort myself with thought that if at least someone out there enjoys the following selection of music then my sacrifice won't have been entirely in vain...

São Jorge Brass Band @ Lavradio Jazz Festival (Rio Carnival 2014)

On Sunday my jazz band, the São Jorge Brass Band, played at Rio Carnival as part of Lavradio Jazz Festival. We had a great gig, many thanks to Santo Scenarium for organising the festival and inviting us to play.









São Jorge Brass Band:

Pedro Araujo (banjo)
Tom Ashe (trumpet)
Levi Chaves (clarinet)
Altair Martins (trumpet)
Fritz Meier (trombone)
Fernando Pereira (surdo)
Rodrigo Serra (caixa)
Carlos Vega (tuba)