$20 Cover @ the Door / Start 8pm / Doors 7pm / Seated Show

Pablo Fagundes

Over 25 years ago, while noticing his growing interest in the black roots of blues and jazz, Pablo Fagundes discovered the diatonic harmonica. Later on, the singularities and challenges of Brazilian music motivated him to develop a bond with the chromatic harmonica. Only a few musicians in the global music scene can play both modalities with such expertise.

Pablo has five recorded CDs and an extensive international experience that includes performances in Europe, Australia and North America. He has played with well-known musicians, such as Belgian harmonica player Toots Thielemans, multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Paschoal, guitarist Toninho Horta, mandolinists Hamilton de Holanda, David Grisman, and Mike Marshall, accordionist Dominguinhos and US harmonica players and Grammy Award winners Howard Levy and Peter Mad Cat.

He has forged several partnerships throughout his career, such as the unusual fusion of the Brazilian harmonica with the beatbox sounds of North-American Christylez Bacon, endorsing musical plurality as part of his career.

Pablo can easily adapt to different sounds and cultural realities and this has awakened his talents as a producer. Thus, in 2016 he implemented a house concert project entitled Som la em Casa (SLC), which regularly hosts intimate and memorable performances.

The project has welcomed international musicians, such as David Helbock (Austria), twice winner of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Pedro Barbosa (South Africa), Christylez Bacon (USA), Grammy Award-nominated artist, and the Eric St Laurent Trio (Canada), winner of the Montreal Jazz Festival and Best Band at the Vienne Jazz Festival (France). Similarly, Brazilian artists Nelson Faria (RJ), Mauricio Einhorn (RJ), Carlos Malta (RJ), and guitarist Pedro Martins (DF), acclaimed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, have been invited to participate. Pablo has featured in all editions of the SLC.

Together with Trinca Brasil (Félix Jr., 7-string guitar, and Pedro Almeida, drums), he won, from a total of over 120 Brazilian contestants, the Competitive Cultural Festival promoted by the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce (BCCC Jazz Fest) in 2018. The prize was to have them perform in Canada, taking with them a genuine “Brazilianess” in music.

A graduate from the Brasilia School of Music, in 2006 Pablo devised and implemented a chromatic harmonica course at the Choro Club of Brasilia, where he is also a music coordinator. Today, the course has over 1,000 enrolled students. Furthermore, he launched a DVD entitled "Learn to Play Harmonica in Brazilian Music" and has taught at Brazilian music workshops for students and teachers held at North American institutions, such as the Georgetown University, Northeastern University and Richmond University, as well as the Australian National University and the Choro Club of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Pablo is an endorsee of Suzuki harmonicas.

Valerinho Xavier

Versatile musician plays several instruments and has accompanied renowned artists, among them: Jair Rodrigues, Dona Ivone Lara, Paulinho da Viola, Hamilton de Holanda, Paulo Moura, Altamiro Carrilho, Beth Carvalho.  As a teacher he worked for 3 years at the Londrina Music Festival, percussion workshop in Montreal-Canada, Pandeiro workshop in Buenos Aires-Argentina and many other countries. As musician he played in more than 40 countries arround the world.