Artists
Maria João
Biography
Maria João has participated in the most prestigious Europe and World Jazz Festivals. Her career started at Lisbon’s Hot Club Jazz School, in 1982. One year later, she formed a quintet with Mário Laginha, Carlos Martins, António Ferro and Carlos Vieira. Together they recorded two albums – “Quinteto de Maria João” (1983) and “Cem Caminhos” (1985). At the time, she was already considered a true revelation in the jazz universe, having received several awards, namely from the San Sebastian Jazz Festival (Spain). In 1986, in one concert while touring Germany, Maria João had a special person in the audience: Japanese free-jazz pianist Aki Takase, who invited her to begin a duo project. From 1987 to 1990, singer and pianist astounded the audiences of Jazz Festivals all over Europe that surrendered to the freedom and irreverence of their music. In 1991, Maria João became involved in a new project with Portuguese group Cal Viva. This project marks her reunion with Mário Laginha. With the record “Sol”, a fusion of Portuguese traditional music with the sounds of jazz, they toured intensely all over Portugal.
The regularity of her work with Laginha and the musical complicity established between the two incited them to put together a new personal acoustic project. This is how the record “Danças” was born (1993), the beginning of a duo that persists until today. Besides her regular work with Mário Laginha, which has given them the possibility to work with very prestigious artists, Maria João has also worked with big names in Portugal (António Pinho Vargas, Carlos Bica) and abroad (Gilberto Gil, Lenine, Guinga, Joe Zawinul, Laureen Newton, Bob Stenson, Christof Lauer, Saxofour, Miroslav Vitous, David Friedman, Charlie Mariano, Aki Takase, Niels Henning Orsted Pederson, Hannover Philarmonic Orchestra, among many others).
In 2007, she released “João” a solo album including 14 songs from traditional Brazilian Songbook.
“Follow the songlines”, featuring Maria João, Mário Laginha, David Linx and Diedrick Wissels and the Orquestra Nacional do Porto was released in 2008 and was awarded the Victoire du Jazz award for artist or vocal formation. Still this year, Maria João and Mário Laginha were invited by the Frankfurt Radio Big Band to a series of concerts throughout Europe. In 2010, the duo recorded a CD with the big band.
In 2009, Maria João started a new project – “Ogre”, with jazz, pop and electronic sonorities. “Ogre” released its first CD, “Electrodoméstico” in 2012.
In March 2011, Maria João released “Blackberry and Raspberry” with the Portuguese big band OJM. An album that features a series of historical North American standards such as “Skylark”, “Spring can really hang you up the most”. Besides these songs, the CD also brings fresh interpretations for themes that belong to Maria João´s inspiring and long career alongside the pianist Mário Laginha such as “Flor”, “Torrente”, representative Brazilian music themes, among others. Still in 2011, Maria João and David Linx, together with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, record “A Different Porgy, Another Bess”, released in 2012.
On November 2012 Maria João released “Iridescente” with the pianist Mário Laginha. Born of an invitation from the Gulbenkian Foundation to make part of the series ‘Songs of the World’, the music of “Iridescente” was created purposely for an unusual setting of voice, piano, accordion, harp and percussion. Maria João wrote all the lyrics and, for the first time, extended her creative capacity to composition – she’s the author of the theme “Iridescente”.
“Abelhas” (Bees), her most recent project in trio, blends Maria João's voice with an electronic and digital instrumentation... Their repertoire draws sounds from drum'n'bass, electro, glitch and electro acoustic music, and includes both original tracks and their own takes on songs from the jazz and pop/rock canon.