biography

TRIO
with Guto Wirtti & Nicolas Krassik

DUO
with Armandinho

DUO
with Renato Borghetti (2008)

It's not an exaggeration to call Yamandú Costa a prodigy on the guitar. Born in Rio Grande do Sul in 1980, Yamandú plays the "violão de 7 cordas" since he was seven and started to improvise even before his tenth birthday. Because he had to, he studied music theory, but his heart is with playing, improvising and paying tribute to Latin American music, with an emphasis on Brazilian music culture. Astor Piazzolla is one of his influences, as well as Armandinho, Jobim, Radamés Gnatalli and Reinhard Django. Today, Yamandú is one of the few composers of contemporary "gaucho" instrumental music.

What is new or unique about Yamandu? He plays the 7-string guitar (a different instrument with different sound potential) and exploits the seventh string on the low end so that you hear two melodies or counterpoint lines and sweeping bass note swipes. The sound he delivers is an amalgam of Choro, the most played music in Brazil, with Gaucho melodies and dance rhythms producing a distinctly new sound. Most important, his style is unique: he has an aggressive masculine attack, with strong, firm fingering and explosion in his execution--technical brilliance (Frank Cherry)

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This year Yamandú will play in Europe, Japan and Australia.

artists website: www.yamandu.com.br (portuguese & partly in English)

Yamandú Costa BIOGRAPHY & RELEASE

Yamandu Costa was born in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, where he began his guitar studies with his father Algacir Costa, band leader of "Os Fronteiriços", when he was 7 years old. Later, he perfected his technique with Lúcio Yanel, Argentine virtuoso who was then settled in Brazil.

Until the age of 15, Yamandú´s only music school was the folk music from the south of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Nevertheless, after he heard Radamés Gnatalli´s work, he decided to get in contact with the music of other renowned Brazilian musicians, such as Baden Powell, Tom Jobim, Raphael Rabello, among others. When he was 17, he played for the first time in São Paulo at "Circuito Cultural Banco do Brasil" ( BB Cultural Tour) . The event was produced by "Estúdio Tom Brazil" (Tom Brazil studio), and from then on he was recognized as one of the most gifted guitar players of Brazil.

One of the greatest geniuses of Brazilian music of all times, young Yamandu deserves the highest praise. Whenever he is on stage, he fills with joy the most select audience since his impressive performance shows the deep intimacy between Yamandu and his guitar. The recognition he has earned throughout the years reveals what he can offer the audience - recreation of the magic of music - once from his fingers the music he plays travels through his body and soul and is almost miraculously transformed.

Yamandu is a guitar player, composer and arranger that does not fit into a single music style, yet he creates his own when he combines all of them playing his 7-string guitar. Yamandu fully deserves his beautiful name, which in "tupi-guarani", the native language of Brazilian Indians, means "the precursor of the waters of the world".

Participations:
Winner of the "Uruguaiana California Award" - 1995
Buenos Aires Tour - 1998
Montevideo Concert - 1998
25 th Best Player Prize, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Instrumental Music Revelation Prize, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Nashville Festival, USA - 1998
Banco do Brasil Cultural Tour - 1999
Release of the Visa Award CD - "Yamandu" - December 03, 2001
Guitar Festival, Chile - 2001
Free Jazz Festival 2001, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil
32th Winter Festival of Campos de Jordão, Brazil - 2001
33th Winter Festival of Campos de Jordão, Brazil - 2002
Londrina Jazz Festival - July, 2002
Beach Summer Festival, São Paulo, Brazil - 2002
Banco do Brasil Cultural Tour, tour around the main capital cities of Brazil - 2002
"Caras" Award 2002 - Music Revelation of year - official and popular juries
Yamandú and "Os Irmãos Flores" (Argentina) - "Ares e Pensares", Sesc São Paulo, November, 2002
Midem - 37th International Music Market - 2003
Guitar Festival of Chile - 2003
Release of third CD "Yamandú ao Vivo" - independent label - Dec 5, 2003
Tim Award - Best Instrumentalist - 2004
Release of fourth CD "El negro Del Blanco" - Biscoito Fino - June 2004
Berlinale / Berlin - concert to Film Brasileirinho

European tour - June/July 2005:
Paris, Rome, Veneza, Vienna /Konzerthaus, Imst, Klagenfurt, Madrid, Porto, Nijmengen, Frascati, Toulouse
Brussels and Liege - September 2005
Japan tour and CD recording - November 2005
Release of live DVD - label Biscoito Fino - Dec. 2005
April 2006: Finland - Festival April Jazz Espoo
May 2006: CD recording in Belgium - GHA Records
3 concerts in São Paulo with Odair & Sergio Assad
November 2006: Japan - CD presention ( www.koalarecords.net )
March 2007:
23. Paris/ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with the "Orchestre National de France" (maestro: Kurt Masur)

Discography:
2000 - Dois Tempos - Lúcio Yanel and Yamandu Costa, Label: ACIT
2001 - Yamandú - label: Eldorado-Sony Music
2003 - Yamandú Ao Vivo - label: ABGI
2004 - El negro Del Blanco - Yamandú Costa e Paulo Moura, Label: Biscoito Fino
2006 - Tokio Session - Label: Koala Records (Japan)
2007 - comming soon new release with GHA Records (Belgium )
Compilations:
2005 - Brasileirinho ( Bande originale du film ), Label: Night & Day (France)
2006 - Original Soundtrack Brasileirinho - Choro in Rio, Label: Tropical Music (Germany)
2006 - popkommpilation, song Sampa - label: ABGI
DVDs
2005 - Ao Vivo - label: Biscoito Fino
DVD compilations:
2005 - Música do Brasil vol. 1 with Armandinho, Yamandú Costa, Robertinho Silva - label: ABGI
2006 - Música do Brasil - Popkomm, song Apanhei-te Cavaquinho, with Yamandu Costa and Armandinho - label: ABGI

Yamandú Costa Trio with Guto Wirtti and Nicolas Krassik
Europe: summer 2007

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After having played with his former trio (drums and bass) for a couple of years, Yamandú decided to change to a more "accustic" trio that would allow him to explore a vast musical scale, somewhere between Classic, Jazz, World Music and still very much based on traditional Brazilian music from the South. Eventhough there is no doubt about the virtuosity of every single musician, the music remains highly listenable with great swing.
Yamandú Costa is one of the very few contemporary "gaucho music" composers and the repertoire presented by the trio contains a great deal of own compositions
First appearance of this trio in Europe was in April 2006 at the 20-years edition of the April Jazz Espoo Festival in Finland. Right after the Festival the trio went to Brussels where it recorded a first CD with GHA records to be released in January 2007.

About the musicians:
Guto Wirtti - born as Gustavo Virtti in 1982 in the city of Frederico Westphalen, Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul, moved to the city of Santa Maria, where he started to play the guitar at the age of 6. His father was singer and composer of regional music. Inspired by various instruments that his father kept at home he finally, at the age of 12, chose the double bass as his favourite instrument. At this stage he already performed at night with other local artists playing instrumental music. In 2000 his musical curiosity brought him to Salvador, the capital of the Brazilian state Bahia, where he lived and learnt from local musicians, especially about Afro-Brazilian music and rhythms. After 8 months of intensive musical exchange he moved down to south to Porto Alegre where he stayed for 2 years improving his instrumental skills and studying with local and international musicians living in the southern capital of Rio Grande do Sul. Today, Guto Wirtti, playes with great names of the Brazilian music scene like Yamandú Costa, Gabriel Grossi, Daniel Santiago, Otavio Castro, Mariana de Moraes, Luka and other musicians of different styles. He is also composer of instrumental music and is now working on his own CD project with various invited musicians.
Nicolas Krassik (37 years old), French citizen, moved to Brazil in 2001, where he tied closer his immediate contact with Samba, Choro and Forró music. His professional formation, studying violin in Paris, followed the European standard, based on Classic and Jazz. His strong identification with the Brazilian culture made him stay in Rio de Janeiro and his very professional dedication to Brazilian music opened doors for various invitations to play with renowned artists like Yamandú Costa, Beth Carvalho and Marisa Monte.
Ever since he performed with Marco Pereira, Paulo Sérgio Santos, Henrique Cazes, Zé Carlos Bigorna, Chico Chagas, Carlos Malta, Hamilton de Holanda, Maria Teresa Madeira, Zé da Velha, Silvério Pontes and others.

Artists website: www.nicolakrassik.com

Yamandú Costa DUO with Renato Borghetti (accordeon)

"OS GAÚCHOS"

Europe: November 2007 and April-May 2008

Accordion virtuoso Renato Borghetti is the star among the new folk musicians from Rio Grande do Sul in Southern Brazil. The charismatic gaucho has revised, adapted and modernized many of the native sounds of his home country. His fast and playful tunes combine the sounds of the Argentinian pampa with central European, Italian and French elements into a sparkling, contemporary mixture of Tango, Polka, TexMex and Musette. He does not shy away from more typical forms of the wide spectrum of Brazilian and global pop, samba, jazz, tango and beyond, adapting each of those forms to his unique style of accordion playing. And in spite of all experiments he remains 100% gaucho - with long hair, hat and wide trousers.

Borghettinho (his nick name in Brazil) is the first Brazilian musician to achieve a golden record with purely instrumental music.