While I was in NYC in June I played the demo I made last year with Yuval for a friend and his wife wound up offering me a night of my own at a little place in Greenwich Village. It wound up being a wonderful night of music of pandeiro (me), guitar (Freddie Bryant) and saxophone (Joel Frahm). I made a page about the gig with some photos and audio clips. Hope you like it.

Check out the gig! »

OK, finally getting to the NYC trip back in June. Let's see what has stuck in my mind after almost 3 months have passed since I returned to Rio.

NYC in June after not visiting in a year and it was one of those beautiful NYC Junes! Well, I got to see tons of friends as well as my mom, sister and my father. I got a new visa for Brasil and I dealt with my NYC apt. I ate plenty of ethnic food and heard a fair share of jazz gigs. Many friends are doing well and sounding great. Got to hear Bernstein and Melhdau at the Jazz Standard and Uri Caine at the Vanguard. I also did a bit of sitting in myself at a variety of gigs.

I got to joke around in English and let my NYC sacasm run wild. One thing I was really cognisent of was the "First World Element". I was super in-tune with the differences between the US (or shall I say NY) and Brasil. If nothing else, from a cosumation standpoint it's really a trip. Buying electronic gadets, getting things fixed, etc., etc.. Just a whole different story! I got off the plane, stopped at my apt and then went to get my laptop fixed around 9:30am. By noon it was ready!! I bought a DVD player for $39. $39!!

But probably the biggest and best memory was a gig I played with Freddie Bryant and Joel Frahm while in town. But I'm going to put that one in a separate entry!

I've been super neglegent about adding entries on Tales of a Gringo. After returning from my month in NYC in June there's seems to have just been one "uninspiring" thing after another to keep me from blogging. First an unexpected end to a relationship, then a tendonistis flair-up followed by my 3rd herniated disc crisis. Fun, eh?!

Well, I still haven't written anything about my trip to NYC, which was great, but I will do that soon. In the meantime I wanted to add a link here to a big article that was written about me in the Jornal do Brasil last week. A half-pager with a highlight on the front page of the paper. Check it out here, complete with an English translation!

Read the article on pandeiro.com »