Leo Gandelman Quartet - Brazilian Jazz
Leo Gandelman Quartet
Entry Requirements: Under 16s are not permitted in the venue. Under 18s must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times.
Get ready to vibe with Leo Gandelman Quartet’s smooth Brazilian jazz grooves live and up close! The exceptional musical legacy of Leo Gandelman.
Leo Gandelman is one of the most expressive artists in Brazilian culture over the last four decades. The scope and importance of his work have made a significant contribution to instrumental music, unprecedented in our history.
Saxophonist, composer, arranger and music producer, he is one of the main people responsible for spreading the instrumental genre to the general public, collaborating, since the 1990s, to popularize Brazilian jazz and other styles, both in Brazil and around the world. The prominence of his legacy led him to recently receive the title of Doctor Honoris Causa (Notorious Knowledge) from the University of Brasília.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of maestro Henrique Gandelman and pianist and teacher Saloméa Gandelman, Leo has moved between classical and popular music from an early age, crossing both boundaries, in the words of journalist and critic Luiz Paulo Sampaio.
Rare are the musicians who inhabit the threshold of a music without limits. Among the highlights of his career are his participation as a soloist in the main orchestras in Brazil and in some of the most important in the world. His most recent work took place this year, with the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra, in Manaus, in the “Songs of the Amazon Forest” Project. Conceived by Gandelman, the concert celebrates the cultural and ecological richness of Brazil, with works that take the audience on a sensorial and poetic journey through the largest forest in the world.
Last year, he was featured with the São Paulo Jazz Symphony Orchestra, playing pieces of his own composition, such as “Luz Azul”, “Neshama” and “Solar”. He also performed four times with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (from 2012 to 2016), interpreting pieces from the bossa nova songbook such as "A felicidade", "Chega de Saudade" (both by Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes), "Meditação" (Tom Jobim and Newton Mendonça), "Wave" (Tom Jobim) and "Manha de Carnaval" (Antônio Maria and Luiz Bonfá). In 2019, he performed with the acclaimed Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ligia Amadio. He was also a soloist in a concert with the Caracas Youth Orchestra, interpreting Villa-Lobos's "Fantasia", conducted by Isaac Karabtchevsky (2009). In Brazil, he performed with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra (OSB) the "Concertino para Saxofone", by Radamés Gnattali, and “Fantasia” by Villa-Lobos (2012 and 2005), conducted by conductors such as Roberto Duarte and Silvio Barbato. He performed the same pieces with the OSB in memorable concerts at the Central Park Summerstage Concerts and at the Lincoln Center in New York (2001), alongside conductor Yeruham Scharovsky.
Line Up
Leo Gandelman Quartet
In honor of the centenary of Radamés Gnattali, in 2006, he recorded his “Concertino for Saxophone” on DVD with the Petrobras Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. He performed several concerts with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (Osesp) between 2003 and 2017, some of them conducted by John Neschling. In recent years, he has performed with the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, the São Paulo Municipal Theater Orchestra, the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theater Orchestra, the National Theater Symphony Orchestra, the Brasília Symphony Orchestra, the Bahia Symphony Orchestra, the Cesgranrio Symphony Orchestra, the Barra Mansa Symphony Orchestra, the UFRJ Wind Orchestra, the Curitiba Music Workshop Orchestra, among many others.
Leo Gandelman is undoubtedly one of the most awarded Brazilian musicians of the last decades. One of the artist's rare and unique achievements is having sold more than 500 thousand instrumental music records, with the highlight being his third album, “Solar”, from 1990, which sold more than 100 thousand copies and was nominated in five categories of the Prêmio Sharp (record, music, arrangement, instrumentalist and producer).
With the album “Radamés e o sax” (2007), he won the Tim Award in the categories of best instrumental album and best producer. He recorded a total of 21 albums and three DVDs. He was elected the best instrumentalist in Brazil for 15 consecutive years, at the Diretas da Música Award, from the Magazine Program of the Jornal do Brasil, in addition to awards from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA) as best instrumentalist (1990) and best producer (1991).
The artist's talent in his interface with audiovisual has generated important awards such as the silver medal at the New York Festivals TV & Films Awards, in the Performing Arts category, in 2021, with the series “Vamos tocar”, shown on the Bis channel. As a soundtrack composer, he won awards at the Recife and Belém film festivals with the film "Garrincha: a estrela Solitária” (2003). He has been working as a screenwriter, producer and film director.
On YouTube, he stands out as the producer and director of the channel “Machines Series”, which mixes jazz with different musical styles, such as hip hop, pop and others.
Leo Gandelman has performed thousands of shows in recent decades, at all the main music festivals in Brazil and around the world. He is one of the highlights of the Rock in Rio line-up this year, for the second time, and has performed at the same festival in Lisbon and Las Vegas.
He has appeared on the music scene in countries such as the United States, where he performed at the Blue Note in New York for six sold-out seasons; Switzerland, at the incomparable Mountreux Festival; Ukraine, where he played with the renowned Kiev Saxophone Quintet; as well as Israel, Uruguay, Egypt, Morocco, Malaysia, Singapore, Iran, Kuwait, England, Italy, Spain, Russia and many others.
As a music producer and instrumentalist, he has participated in more than 1,000 CDs, by both Brazilian and international artists. He has recorded with wind instruments, performed solos, composed arrangements and produced great names in samba, MPB, bossa nova, instrumental music, rock and other styles. The list is long, and includes names such as: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Milton Nascimento, Ney Matogrosso, Fagner, Elba Ramalho, Alceu Valenca, Geraldo Azevedo, Fafa of Belém, Moraes Moreira, John Gilberto, Leny Andrade, Luiz Melodia, Djavan, Boca Livre, Toquinho, The Cariocas, Margareth Menezes, Leila Pinheiro, Frejat, Fernanda Abreu, Seu Jorge, Carlos Brown, Roberta Sá, Pepeu Gomes, Baby Consuelo, Paulinho da Viola, Beth Carvalho, Neguinho da Beija Flor,Fundo de Quintal, Alcione, João Nogueira, Rita Lee, Lulu Santos, Guilherme Arantes, Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos, Paralamas do Sucesso, Roupa Nova, among others.
Creativity, versatility, boldness and innovation make Leo Gandelman a musician who has gone beyond the boundaries of the instrumental “niche”, making him recognized by the general public, young and pop, as well as by MPB fans, and also associating his name with the excellence and virtuosity of concert music.
Leo Gandelman plays a vital role in Brazilian music as a saxophone virtuoso and as an ambassador of Brazilian music to the world, contributing to the evolution and popularity of genres such as jazz and instrumental music in Brazil.