"catch a small world"
Joana Almeida vocals and guitar (Portugal)
Joana is one of the very first women working as a fado guitarist, in Portugal. She started to study at the age of 11, with Gracindo Costa and slowly, she was accepted in the professional fado scene in Porto. At the age of 22 and in the next four years, she attended the jazz department in Valentim de Carvalho Academy. Studied with masters in the fado scene like Bruno Brás, Eurico Costa e Nuno Campos. Beyond Lisbon Fado, Joana is exploring different music genres like popular and traditional Portuguese music, bossa nova and jazz music.
Thus, she integrated various projects as: “Canções de Zeca Afonso”, “Fado dos Dentes”, “Coimbra à Moda do Porto”, “Tulipa” and “Bossa em Trio”.
During her journey, she had the opportunity to play with various Portuguese guitar musicians as Eduardo Jorge, Samuel Cabral, Mário Henriques, Márcio Silva and Domingos Mateus, and with different fado singers like António Laranjeira, Mariana Correia, Francisco Moreira, Miguel Bandeirinha, among others.
Almeida played besides Portugal in different countries such as Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Uzbekistan, in “Sharq Taronalari Folk Music Festival” (Samarkand, 2019). In 2019, after to become a present musician in fado scene of Porto, she was invited to join the cast of the older fado house in Porto, the Casa da Mariquinhas. In September of 2020, exploring arrangements and composition, Joana founded the first female fado ensemble, the Amara Quartet. Also, by invitation and in partnership with Sjahin During, Joana started the first group with her own compositions, Cacha Mundinho.
Sjahin During percussion (Turkey/Netherlands)
Sjahin is a permanent resident of the Netherlands where he makes a living as a musician, having founded several groups that include Bayuba Cante, Turqumstances, Tarhana, Afro Anatolian Tales and most recently Arifa & Voices from the East and the Namibian Tales. He is a producer and teacher of world music, specialized in percussion. During has studied and performed on five continents, learning from masters as far afield as Havana, Cuba to Istanbul, Turkey as well as India, Spain and Africa.
He collaborated with amazing artists as Claron Mcfadden , Asko – Schönberg Ensemble, Harmen Franje, Arto Tunçboyaciyan, Eric Vloeimans, Miguel “Anga” Diaz, Simon Phillips, Pedro Luis Ferrer, Lakha Khan Jorge Reyes, Naseer Shamma, Edmare Castaneda, Alex Simu, Aynur,
Osama Abdulrasol, Mola Sylla, Franz von Chossy, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Les Ballets C. de la B.), the Gypsy’s from Rajasthan & Theodosii Spassov.
Sjahin performed in 32 countries worldwide at international festivals and venues such as the Concertgebouw, London Jazz Festival Southbank Centre, Kennedy Art Centre USA, Ethnoport Festival, Jarasum International Jazz Festival, Jazzahead, Chicago World Music Festival, Amsterdam Roots, Bimhuis, Garana Jazz, Havana Jazz, Istanbul Akbank Festival, Shanghai World Music Festival, de Roma, Barbican’s Transcender Festival, Glatt & Verkehrt Festival, BBC Broadcasting House London.
Maripepa Contreras oboé & duduk (Spain)
There are not so many jazz oboists but Maripepa Contreras is one of the best.
Born in Spain (Almuñécar, 1989), Maripepa started at the age of 5 with music. Thanks to her mother, who would take her by car to the conservatory since she was 11 years old, she got a higher degree in oboe performance at Conservatorio Superior de Música de Málaga (Spain), with teacher René Martín Rodríguez in 2011.
She entered in the world of jazz in 2013, taking lessons with Ernesto Aurignac who brought her talent into a new direction.
In 2018, she won the scholarship AIE Jazz Tete Montoliu to finish the bachelor of oboe jazz in the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with teachers: Jasper Blom, Simon Richter, Ben van Gelder and Ernest Rombout. Nowadays she is dedicating herself entirely to music as a performer, composer, arranger and she is teaching "oboe jazz" online and onsite.
She has played in “XXVIII Festival internacional de jazz de Málaga”, “34 Festival Jazz Terrassa”, “Festival de jazz de Sant Andreu (2015)”, Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam (2017), 50 Voll-Damm Festival Internacional de Jazz de Barcelona (2018), Jazzahara (2019), etc.
Felix Hildenbrand double bass (Germany)
Born in Freiburg, Germany, he moved to Amsterdam in 2000. His curiosity constantly crosses the boundaries of musical styles and he doesn't confine himself to one instrument only. While getting his bachelor degree for jazz on electric bass, he also followed a 2 years Conservatory course for classical doublebass with Peter Stotijn. His band projects have ranged from Salsa, Samba, Choro Fado, Free Improvisation, Chanson, African music, Latin American Folklore and musical theater.
His experimental jazz trio earswideopen performed with NL's most renown jazz soloists like Yuri Honing, Eric Vloeimans, Efraïm Trujillo and Anton Goudsmit.
With Fado diva Maria de Fátima, he toured the most renown theaters of the Benelux: Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Haarlem, Vredenburg Utrecht, Roma Borgerhout, L'Ancienne Belgique Brussels,... With his own bands Tierra and Gosto Delicado, he performed on festivals in France, Spain and Germany.
As a freelancer, he worked with Noam Vazana, Brechtje Kat, Bram van der Vlucht, Supercity, Neco Novellas, Maria Markesini, Merlijn Twaalfhoven... He's also part of interdisciplinary collective Bühnenbiest with dancers, spoken word, actors, video artistsBesides on bass guitar and doublebass, he performs on guitar, cello and as a singer. Felix is the director of Stichting Handmade Music, a foundation seeking to increase the impact of jazz and global sounds in NL, and the curator of the very popular concert series "On the Roof".