Nelson Ayres

Nelson Ayres (born January 14, 1947 in São Paulo as Nelson Luís Ayres de Almeida Freitas ) is a Brazilian pianist and composer who has performed with American jazz musicians and artists of the Música Popular Brasileira .

Live and act

Ayres, the son of a pianist, began playing the accordion when he was five. At the age of twelve he began taking piano lessons at the São Paulo Conservatory. From 1959 to 1962 he had lessons from Paul Ursbach. He was also a student of Luís Schiavo (1963–1965) and Conrad Bernhard (1966–1967). In 1961 he became a member of the São Paulo Dixieland Band , to which he belonged until 1968 and with which he recorded an album in 1963. In 1967 he joined the vocal trio Os Três Morais and recorded award-winning advertising soundtracks in the same year. In 1968 he began arranging for singers and was musical director of the play Chiclete com Banana (directed by Augusto Boal). In 1969 he went to the USA to study piano with Margareth Chaloff and composition with John Adams at the Berklee School of Music . In the USA he also accompanied Astrud Gilberto and appeared in the band of Airto Moreira (album Free ).

After returning from Boston, Ayres formed his Nelson Ayres Big Band , which was active from 1973 to 1981. At the same time he began to teach at the Fundação das Artes de São Caetano , where he met several members of his later Banda Mantiqueira . His arrangement for “Como um Ladrão” with the singer Carlinhos Vergueiro won first place at the Abertura Festival (Globo Network, São Paulo). In 1979 he recorded his debut album under his own name, on which "Projeto de Jingle" by Osvaldinho do Acordeon was re-recorded. In the same year he organized the Festival de Jazz de São Paulo , where he also performed. Two years later he published Mantiqueira (Som da Gente). He also appeared in a trio with Rodolfo Stroeter (bass) and Azael Rodrigues (drums). This collaboration resulted in the Banda Pau Brasil , with whom he recorded three albums and toured Europe and Japan several times.

In 1985 Ayres was invited by César Camargo Mariano as the second keyboardist in his Duo Prisma , which performed all over Brazil for two years. There was also a collaboration with Dizzy Gillespie , Benny Carter , Nina Simone , Milton Nascimento , Chico Buarque , Dori Caymmi and Nana Caymmi . Since 1992 he has also worked as arranger and conductor of the Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica . In 2004, his Perto do Coracao received critical acclaim. He has also worked as an arranger and conductor for Annie Haslam , Tom Zé , Sergio Santos and Spokfrevo Orquestra . In 2017 he recorded the album Invisible Threads with John Surman and Rob Waring .

As musical director, composer and arranger of theater music and ballets (e.g. Cidadão Corpo by Ivaldo Bertazzo ) he has received several awards.

Discographic notes

• Mantiqueira (1981)
• Nelson Ayres, Márcio Montarroyos, Nivaldo Ornelas & Toninho Horta Concerto Planeta Terra (1989)
• Arranjadores (1997)
• O piano eo blues
• Princípios de improvisação
• Projeto memória brasileira
• Perto do coração (Atração Fonográfica 2003)
• Francis Hime / Nelson Ayres Concerto para violão e Concertino para percurssão
• Nelson Ayres e Ricardo Herz Duo (2017)

Web links

• Entry (Diccinario Música Popular Brasileira)
• Nelson Ayres at Allmusic (English)
• Nelson Ayres at Discogs (English)