Grooveria Electroacústica or simply Grooveria
The story of these 8 pieces brazilian Samba meets Soul and Jazz and whatever else they might enjoy collective begins way before it's 10 years of existence. Ten first years I'd say. It's format as a collective is the result of a life filled with a very diverse musical environment.
Tuto Ferraz is the centerpiece of this collective, and his involvement with music began before he can even recollect. Tuto Ferraz 44 was Born and raised in the West central zone of São Paulo in a upper mid class family were music was omnipresent.
" I can' t really remember not wanting to play the drums!" says the 44 years old drummer singer composer and arranger, that look like a 24 or less on stage, for his energetic grooves and jazzy fills, still keeping the groovy flow that drives the band.
"I was playing in a gig with Deacon Jones (john Lee Hoocker's B3 player)" says Tuto, "and suddenly the manager of the gig decides to cut out our bass player, so I decided to leave, too despite, loving to play with this old blues cat, so I came to Deacon Jones and said, man I am really sorry but i wont be travelling with u guys, "He said:"IF you re not comming , I m not going either! You're the Locomotive of this band!"
Ferraz started playing the acoustic guitar at the age of 6 and even before that The Beatles were his and his sister "child records" as their father drew on the compacts the story of the song as they were tôo young to read:"I loved the compact with the walrus drawn on it!" it was my favourite!" recollects Tuto Ferraz.
Finally at 11 Tuto started playing his beloved drums and grew up playing to records of Brubeck and Oscar Peterson and "Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, And Egberto Gismonte, and Elis Regina and Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Morais and Baden P owell and Pink Floyd and the Who and Rick wakeman, as his dad's musical taste ranged from classical to all that above!
Later in the teens his bigger sister presented him Milton Nascimento, 14 bis, Hermeto pascoal, Pat metheny, reanissance, and He discoverd himself Earth Wind and Fire, Miles Davis, Genesis and Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, Michael jackson and Jeff beck ,and weather report and sooo much more even the more "trendys" The Cure, New Order and Madonna.
That is why Grooveria's sound is a more refined version of the brazilian music most known elsewhere, having a range of musicians with such a diverse background results in an everchanging calderon of styles with only one guidance: The Groove, the pulse, the rhythm of our hearts and lives that take us to where we are drown to.
"Grooveria unites Rio (de Janeiro), São Paulo and the Samba" as famous music critic Nelson Motta put on his site.
But that's not just it! Grooveria unites a big part of Brasil with their sound, played by musicians from several parts of Brasil with ages raging from 26 to 44!
The DJ Rick Dub 35, shares the lead singing with Tuto and mixes live with the band a variety of drum and percussion beats. He comes from a satellite city of São Paulo where local Hip Hop and old funk bands have flourished and along with that brings some extra Dub and Ragga to Grooveria's sound.
From the Northeast part of Brasil, comes Leonardo Mendes and Magno Vito , Guitar and Bass respectively.
Leo Mendes brings his fierce and yet soulfull guitar playing with a "Bahianity" from a controversial small city close to Bahia's capital called Santo Amaro da Purificação, home of famous musicians like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethanea and his father Roberto Mendes.
Magno Vito comes from Maceió - Alagoas, hometown of Djavan, and brings it's laid back feel so desirable in a Bass player and with a great naturally compressed round tone!
On Keys and Percussion, two other fellows from São Paulo, from the outskirts Capao Redondo comes Dado Tristão 26 from a family of God devoted musicians, he brings all that joy of vivre to the group, and from São Caetano comes DJ Tubarão, a DJ/ percussionist raised in a family of masters of School of Samba.
The horn players, Paulo Jordão and Paulo Malheiros, trumpet and trombone, are two of the young blood of horn players in Brazil, Jordão playing in every major Broadway musical that comes to São Paulo, and Malheiros, arranges and composes for big bands and playing in every major orchestra , jazz sinfônica, etc.
But they re are not the only ones drown to this sound, musicians and audiences from all over are touched by it's sound, representing themselves some way.
In 2005, their first CD "#1" had air play in big FM stations all over Brasil, like Eldorado FM, Nova Brasil FM, and Globo FM, and had their first original "Nada Mal" included in Som Livre's ( biggest recording company in Brasil) compilation called Soul Brasil vol 1.
Apart from that song, the CD had several special guests that Tuto Ferraz had worked previously such as: Toninho Horta, Max de Castro, Jair Oliveira, Paula Lima, Rappin'Hood among others.
In 2009, Grooveria's first live DVD/CD distributed by Universal Music, reached top 20 for 7 weeks reaching the 12º position on week 5.
The DVD has Tuto's long time partners Seu Jorge and Max de Castro as well as others that showed up and jammed in the end.
In 2010 Grooveria made it's debut in European stages playing for a pulsating 3.000 crowd at Festival Maré de Agosto in Azores Islands and at Harlem Jazz Club and Festival Dia de Brasil in front of 9.000 people.
Grooveria's sound has drown attention from the media both on Portugal and Spain having favorable reviews and interviews for newspapers and radios, TV shows and videos on music sites as Myspace Portugal.
Having said all that, i'll "let the music speak for itself", as the late Miles Davis would put.
Enjoy!
