Jazz Roots Jobim and the Music of Brazil

Featuring three of Brazil's most in-demand musicians, Trio da Paz updates the infectious spirit of jazz-oriented Brazilian music. Formed in 1985 by Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta and Duduka Da Fonseca, the Trio redefines Brazilian jazz with their harmonically adventurous interactions, daring improvisations and dazzling rhythms. All three are seasoned masters of jazz and Brazilian music.

The list of legendary musicians the members of Trio da Paz have recorded and performed with is extensive. A sampling would include guitarist Romero Lubambo's work with Dianne Reeves, Michael Brecker, Grover Washington, Jr. and Kathleen Battle; bassist Nilson Matta's work with Joe Henderson, Don Pullen, Yo-Yo Ma and Paul Winter; and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca’s work with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, John Scofield and Tom Harrell. Trio da Paz as a group has recorded and performed with Charlie Byrd, Herbie Mann, Lee Konitz, Kenny Barron, Nana Vasconcelos, Joe Lovano, Dori Caymmi and Joyce Moreno, among others.

The Trio's critically acclaimed, multifaceted debut recording, Brasil From the Inside, with special guests Herbie Mann, Claudio Roditi, Joanne Brackeen and Maucha Adnet, received the "Indie" award for best album of the year. Trio da Paz followed that success with a daring and ambitious concept album, an exploration of the well-known themes from Black Orpheus, the soundtrack that set Brazilian music on a new course. Their third release, Partido Out, is a riveting mix of spirited original compositions embracing the full spectrum of rhythms, fusing jazz and Brazilian music in a fresh and inspiring way. This album won the Jazz Journalist Association award for "Brazilian jazz album of the year" in 2002. The Trio followed with their album Café, which includes special performances by Cesar Camargo Mariano and Grammy Award winners Dianne Reeves and Joe Lovano. Their next album, Somewhere, treats American and Brazilian standards to their exciting and often unexpected interpretations. Live at Jazzbaltica, Trio da Paz with guest Joe Locke, is a vibrant performance that includes several originals. Trio da Paz 30 includes mostly original compositions and is a celebration of their 30 years together as a group. It received a Grammy nomination in 2017. 

Trio da Paz received the following accolade from critic Howard Mandel: "If North Americans hadn't invented jazz, then surely Brazilians such as the three talented young men [in Trio da Paz] would have invented something like it."

Clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds around the globe with her expressive virtuosity and magnetic stage presence, earning esteem as a musician’s musician and as a performer who charms new recruits to jazz like few others. With her acclaimed albums, sold-out world tours and Grammy Award nominations adding up over the past 2 1/2 decades—not to mention the glowing profiles by such totemic outlets as NPR’s Fresh Air and The New York Times—it has become apparent that the Brooklyn-based Cohen has evolved into one of the genre's great border-bounding leaders, as not only an artist but as an educator and an ambassador. At the core of this, there is always her jubilant, ever-exploratory musicmaking as a soloist, bandleader, collaborator and composer. Revered journalist and jazz sage Nat Hentoff encapsulated her artistry this way: “Anat does what all authentic musicians do: She tells stories from her own experiences that are so deeply felt that they are very likely to connect listeners to their own dreams, desires and longings.”

Bloom, Cohen’s 21st album as a leader or co-leader and the second with her small group Quartetinho, was issued to rave reviews and a hit transatlantic tour in 2024, with All About Jazz applauding the band’s “daring virtuosity and soulful joie de vivre.” Hot on the heels of that release came a new live album, Interaction, issued by Cohen’s label, Anzic Records, in March 2025. Interaction presents the clarinetist as part of The 3 Cohens, the long-running family band that also stars her brothers, trumpeter Avishai and saxophonist Yuval (both ECM artists). They were recorded in concert with Germany’s WDR Big Band, an ensemble renowned not only for its sound but also its collaborative flair. The arranger-conductor for Interaction is Cohen’s Anzic comrade Oded Lev-Ari, who also plays that role with her Tentet, the 10-piece group that she has showcased at such venues as Carnegie Hall and SFJAZZ’s Miner Auditorium. Cohen’s multiple Grammy nominations include one for 2019’s Triple Helix, the second album by the Tentet.

Cohen has been credited as a primary force for reestablishing the clarinet as a solo instrument in the 21st century—“bringing the clarinet to the world,” as Fresh Air put it. She has been named Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association every year since 2007, and she has also been the top clarinetist in the readers and critics polls in DownBeat every year since 2011. Moreover, a JazzTimes review of a Quartetinho set at Seattle’s Earshot Festival underscored Cohen’s continuing development as a player: “She has been winning jazz polls on clarinet for years, but her work has steadily grown stronger and deeper and freer.”

As an international presence, Cohen has performed across North and South America, Europe, Asia and India, headlining at the Newport and Umbria jazz festivals as well as at Chicago’s Symphony Center and such hallowed clubs as New York’s Village Vanguard. Reporting on a headlining show at the North Sea Jazz Festival, DownBeat said: “Cohen not only proved to be a woodwind revelation of dark tones and delicious lyricism, but also a dynamic bandleader who danced and shouted out encouragement to her group. … With her dark, curly, shoulder-length hair swaying to the beat as she danced, she was a picture of joy.”

Since 2005, Cohen’s prolific series of releases via Anzic have seen her range from infectious swingers to lilting balladry, from small groups to larger ensembles and back again, exploring a world of music along the way. Cohen fell for the choro music of Brazil while studying at the Berklee College of Music, and the country eventually became a home away from home for her. Not only have many of her albums as a leader included Brazilian classics and original pieces that Cohen composed under the influence of choro, samba, bossa nova and more; the clarinetist has also devoted multiple albums to Brazilian music, including the Grammy-nominated Outra Coisa: The Music of Moacir Santos (with Brazilian guitarist Marcello Gonçalves) and the Grammy-nominated Rosa Dos Ventos (with Trio Brasileiro). DownBeat declared: “One of the most acclaimed clarinetists in jazz, the Israel-born Cohen has also managed to become one of the world’s foremost practitioners of Brazilian music. Indeed, she is now to the clarinet what Stan Getz was to the tenor saxophone in the 1960s: a jazz musician who speaks the language so fluently that she has become a beacon of Brazilian music to the larger jazz world.”

Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning pianist, singer, composer and arranger Eliane Elias’ distinctive musical style is one of the most recognizable sounds in jazz and Brazilian music. She blends her Brazilian roots and alluring voice with her virtuosic jazz, classical and compositional skills, while she consistently displays her pianistic mastery and ability to integrate many artistic roles.

With the release of her 2024 recording Time and Again, Elias proved again that she’s a multifaceted, groundbreaking artist who continues to reach new heights in a brilliant career spanning decades. The music on Time and Again reflects the same level of artistry and ingenuity Elias has demonstrated throughout her career. She surprises us time and again with her creative ability, this time producing an album of her own compositions with lyrics in English and Portuguese.

Elias has won two Grammy Awards (2016 and 2022) and two Latin Grammy Awards (2017 and 2022) and has been nominated in five categories, having received 11 Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations in all. With 32 albums released and more than 2 1/2 million albums sold, Elias has toured in 78 countries, is a four-time Gold Disc Award recipient, a three-time Best Vocal Album winner in Japan and winner of the 2018 Edison Lifetime Achievement Award in Holland. Her 2019 and 2021 albums (Love Stories and Mirror Mirror) were each voted “Downbeat’s Best Album of the Year – Masterpiece.” Elias received two LIBERA award nominations for Best Latin Jazz Record (2017 and 2023). She has a strong presence on Spotify with almost 500 million streams and more than 33 million Spotify listens of her song “Little Paradise.” Three of her more recent albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz and Billboard World Music Charts. Time and Again hit No. 1 on several jazz charts worldwide, including iTunes and Amazon Best Seller in the United States.