Trio Ginga: News

It’s been so long since my last post and so much has transpired since then I don’t know where to start…heavy stuff…not fun stuff. I remember closing one of the last postings with the comment “the struggle continues”. Well, it certainly does. Some of this stuff is hard to talk about but I will lay it out honestly and unabashedly.

For all y’all who think being in or running a band is a “glamour profession”, you could not be more wrong. I always wondered why all the major artists for whom I have worked (the one’s that have been in the business for a long time) are so jaded and temperamental. Well now I know.

In late March our dear friend and guitar player Otto disappeared for several weeks. We had gigs coming up and I started to really worry that I had done something to upset him. (I always blame myself first.) The reality was, according to his fiancé, that he had some pretty serious unfinished business in Georgia before he moved to Nashville a year ago. Namely a felony indictment, which he failed to tell me about because he and his lawyer thought they had a slam-dunk case. Well, ‘fraid not.

Brother Otto is in the joint for a while. He was actually at his trial when he disappeared…convicted.

This seriously messed the band up for about three months. I had contracts on gigs that had to be cancelled immediately plus a new mission to find a replacement guitarist. Sooooo…..

It is with great pleasure that I announce the new lineup for Trio Ginga. Our awesome new guitarist is David K Martin, a dear friend for many years…since the ‘80s actually and one of the finest guitarists and all round musicians I know…all that on top of being a really great guy. David, and I and our new bassist have been doing a bit of session work together lately as house musicians for a studio in the area.

Playing with Trio Ginga now on Bass and Cello is another dear friend of ours, Ron de la Vega. Ron is a consummate musician. We have worked a lot together playing Caribbean music for Mat Brittain’s Deep Grooves Steel Drum Band. Ron’s background includes long stints with Nancy Griffith, Nashville’s r&b diva Jonell Mosser, English guitar god Richard Thompson and superstar singer Engelbert Humperdinck.

And just so you’ll know, Debora is still with us as featured vocalist. She has been writing some tunes lately, which we hope to debut soon.

Trio Ginga has some gigs coming up so we’ve been rehearsing really hard for several weeks getting the repertoire under our fingers. I have to admit this is the hardest grooving version of the band to date. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

….the struggle continues unabated!

Keep the Ginga!

We want to extend our heartfelt congratulations to our guitarist Otto Stoy, who won first place in a serious classical guitar competition in Memphis last week. This brother can jump from Bach to Baden and not miss a beat. As a matter of fact, after winning the competition the judges were stunned to know that his main interests are in Brazilian music. So, they asked him to come back out and do a Brazilian tune for an encore.

We are proud of you bro!

I am so happy to announce that our flautist/bassist Hubert is back playing again after recovering from brain surgery. I always knew that Hubert was a strong dude but after hearing his story of recovery, he's my hero. Hubert you are one tough dude! After the doctors told him he would likely never play woodwinds again, he took time each day to try to play his bass and when he got strong enough...the flute. And no matter how much pain or nausea it caused, he hung in and got all his mobility back. Moral of the story??? Don't mess with Texas.

Otto and I have been incredibly busy working the phones and booking the band. We are serious. This band is not just about survival. We aim to thrive. This incarnation of the group is the best we've had and we intend to keep it together no matter what. On top of that, Otto is writing charts for the group and is actively pursuing his Masters at MTSU. Debora is back in school too studying Art at Vol State. Me? Yeah, I'm in school...the school of hard knocks, working the phones everyday trying to learn to be a better businessman, bandleader and musician...learning time management, diplomacy, humility...heavy on the humility. The struggle continues....

Happy New Year people! We are happy to announce that our brother in music Hubert Knight is back in the saddle and playing woodwinds again after some pretty serious surgery. He'll be back with us on our next gigs.

Speaking of which, on Sat. February 13th @ 7:00 we will be performing at Nashville's second annual Carnaval party. This year we will celebrate Carnaval with three bands at the French Quarter. Samba Nove, Music City Samba and Trio Ginga will be sharing the stage for this incredible party. Don't miss it!

More later.

So what on Trio Ginga's ipod, you might ask? I just took a survey and here are the results:

Debora: Being a dancer, she's been wearing out the dance music lately... house stuff and trance. She really likes Sasha, a house artist from England and Tiesto a trance guy from the Netherlands. But what about Brazilian music. Deborah has become a Lenine fan. She mentioned specifically his song Leao do Norte. The song title was familiar but I couldn't connect a melody. So I started looking through my Lenine CDs. Couldn't find it. Then I thought...No it couldn't be? The only other place it could be is on a self titled duo album called Lenine & Suzano, with percussion genius Marcos Suzano. And there it was. This says a lot about Debra. She knows the great stuff. It is Lenine's debut and it is so brilliant. Unfortunately it is out of print. I guess I could burn you a copy... but that wouldn't be legal, would it?

Otto Stoy: Otto's listening tastes are all over the map lately. He's listening to all the stuff any serious Brazilian music buff would listen to, Baden Powell, Jacob do Bandolim, Rafael Rabello and Marco Pereira. However, Otto admitted today he was listening to Hank Jr. in his car. Yeah, that Hank Jr. Whaaaat? Sorry, I have to admit knowing what he knows. Southern rock and Brazilian music have some stuff in common...namely the stuff they sing about, the passion of the playing and the love of the land and the longing for getting back home...oh yeah and drinkin' and women.

Dann Sherrill: Let's see. My stuff is all over the map too. Here's a couple of recent discoveries. Check out Forró in the Dark. I think they are Brazilians living in NYC. Cool stuff. Also, a guy named Silverio Pessoa from the state of Pernambuco in Brazil. I was checking out Calabash.com and found this band called Cascabulho. It blew me away. So I ordered it and saw that Silverio was the bandleader and principal songwriter. He's one of the artists featured in the documentary called Moro no Brasil. Check out this movie for a musical tour of Brazil. For some OTHER Brazilian flavor...this a little darker, check out Os Ritmistas. They mix electronic music with live playing and vocals. Very cool stuff. Also, for all you Stomp fans, you will love Barbatuques, an amazing body percussion/vocal band from Sao Paulo. Stunning.

Haven't gotten Hubert's mix yet. He's recovering from some surgery and kind of on the down low right now. We love you Hubert! Get well soon my brother!

More later. Keep the Ginga!

Dann here. I found out today that one of my biggest influences and heros of Brazilian percussion passed away last month. His name is Ramiro Musotto one of the most gifted Brazilian percussionists ever to pick up a berimbau...or pandeiro, or an alfaia (Maracatu drum), or an MPC sequencer. Ramiro was a master of Bahian style Brazilian percussion and brought a creativity to the genre that has never been equaled. (Check out his water drums or his whacked out alfaia drumset on Lenine's Live en Cité DVD.) Ramiro's playing on the three Virginia Rodrigues CDs represent the best, most tasteful recordings of Brazilian folkloric percussion ever produced in my estimation.

As fine a percussionist as Ramiro was, he was also very adept as a producer. He made two CDs under his name Sudaka and Civilazâo y Barbaré. I can't recommend them highly enough. As a percussionist, the way that he blended percussion with electronica is just sheer genius. Ramiro also produced a fantastic CD on young woman named Mylene Pires....brilliant. Anyone with the balls to make electronica in 6/8 is alright in my book.

Ramiro passed away on September 11th of cancer. Ramiro we miss you desperately! Rest in peace Brother!

On Friday Oct 9 Dann, Lalo, John and Elena were featured performers with the Nashville Jazz Orchestra.

Once a year the director Jim Williamson and the orchestra host a Latin show at Martha Ingram Hall at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt U. This was a night of big band mambo played by one of the best big bands in the world (you find a better one...call me, I want to hear it!) This is the only big band I know that can change gears like these guys. What I mean is they can swing & groove like the Basie band and then turn around and do some whacked out Bob McConnell chart and then play a salsa groove to death...totally different languages!

This was an awesome show! We played charts from Oscar Hernandez, some arrangements from the U of Miami, Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. Previous guest Latin artists in recent years were Oscar Hernandez, Bobby Allende, Marc Quinoñes, and Horacio "el Negro" Hernandez.

Thanks to director Jim Williamson for his undying dedication to the presevation of big band jazz. Thanks to Lalo Davila for being a great friend and a continuing inspiration.

Hello folks. I want to shout to the world about the new Trio Ginga. We just played our first couple of gigs together and my God!!!...What a difference it makes having all the correct pieces in place. No offense to my former band mates. Y’all were good. But having like-minded people in a group…with everybody on the same page, makes all the difference in the world..

I want to thank my band mates Otto Stoy, Hubert Knight and our featured vocalist, Debora Brazil for all their time and effort in getting all the music together for this first run of shows. We rehearsed four or five times and put together enough music for 3 sets. This reflects many more hours of personal preparation and practice time by the band than just the rehearsals. You REALLY have to love the music to put that much effort into a band.

A perfect example of this is our new woodwind and bass player, Hubert Knight, a brilliant, thoughtful performer and great arranger. Hubert, a North Texas State graduate, took the time to go through all of our choro arrangements and modify them to fit the addition of his flute. He then took all our raggedy, electric samba charts and re-did them in Finale to make them clear and reflect all the key changes that were necessary when we added our featured vocalist Debora Brazil.

Speaking of Debora Brazil, she took time out of her workday to make all the rehearsals, which occurred during business hours and came in singing all the tunes perfectly. And did it all while moving and grooving ...you gotta see her on stage.

As great as everybody's contributions to this first gig were, none equal those of Otto Stoy, our nylon string guitarist. His talent and work ethic enabled us to kick the level of musicianship and virtuosity up several notches. Otto took time away from his Master's degree studies at MTSU to make all the rehearsals and on top of that made time to actually transcribe, note-for-note, five very difficult, 16th note packed forro, choro and afro samba arrangements off CDs I had. Otto also brought in some amazing choro arrangements that he brought back from his time in Brazil. This guy is amazing. I have no idea when he sleeps.

Our first gig together was the African Street Festival on the Tennesee State University campus on September 20th. We performed there last year with the old band and were asked to play again this year. This gave us a fairly high profile gig to shoot for in getting the new band ready…and time was short…really short, but everybody chipped in and we rose to the occaision and turned in a really good show. This gave us the confidence to tackle the next challenge.

The next weekend on Friday & Saturday September 26th & 26th we were booked for our first club gig at Swank’s Martini Bar in the Doubletree Hotel downtown. So we did two rehearsals that week and went in and turned in a couple great nights of performances. Friday we started at 7:00 our normal time. Then at 11:30 there was a wedding party that came and we were asked to play till 1:00. We played 5 sets that night. And I’m so glad we did because a member of the wedding party was a gentleman named Norm Harris who is a professional music photographer and journalist from NYC. Norm took a bunch of pictures of the band in action, which are posted in the photos section of the website. Norm, brother if you read this, you need to know that you captured this band’s first real gig together. For this I am eternally grateful.

Trio Ginga has to prevail. It has to! It will not only survive…it will thrive. It must, because we love this music so much, we'd be playing it, jamming & rehearsing whether we have gigs or not.

I am so proud of this band for being who you are. And I am proud of our fans for hanging in with us through the ups and downs.

The struggle continues….

What a great month. I am so happy I can barely contain myself. We've finally have, after many years of longing, a lineup of musicians that I believe are the perfect combination for Trio Ginga. Great musicians and great people to hang out with! Otto and I have been on the lookout for some new bandmates for awhile and I think we finally found them. Here's the story.

I went to a jazz jam session on Thursday, Aug 13th at my friend Bill Moore's house. I rode with my piano playing friend Will Adkins, who was on the session that day. We got to Bill's house and the bassist was a guy named Hubert Knight, a multi-instrumentalist from Dallas. I'd played with him a couple of times years ago on a gig with a bunch of weirdos, who were a really bad punk band who decided to go lounge and play in the Frank Sinatra vein. Awful. But Hubert, who played saxophone, was really good.

Anyway after the session I remembered that Hubert also plays all the woodwinds. So I thought hmmmm....woodwinds on the choros and bass on the sambas...this could be cool. So I called him. He plays so many styles well that I couldn't imagine him not being good at Brazilian music. He's already a virtuoso. It'll just be a horizontal shift. I guess the timing was right because he was totally into it, mentioning he was starting to get frustrated with the lack of creativity in much of the music he's involved in.

The three of us got together in my living room to run some chorinhos one afternoon and WOW! A new band was born. It was unbelievable. Hubert plays the fire out of the flute, saxes, clarinet as well as the bass. So this band is the perfect vehicle for him to showcase his talent.

Concurrently we had been looking for a singer for many months. We had ads out all over the place with no luck at all and one day Otto and some of his new Nashville friends were hanging out
drinking beer in his back yard when he mentioned that we had been looking for a singer who could sing in Portuguese. One of the guys spoke up and said, "Hey bro, my girlfriend is from Brazil and is a singer. She's been complaining that there is no Brazilian music here and no one to sing with, to which Otto replied,
"Oh reaalllly??!!"

So we arranged a meeting...actually a cookout/ping pong party at Otto and Abby's. Debora showed up with her boyfriend and after a few beers we played a little bit just to prove to her that, yes, there is Brazilian music in Nashville. She sang a couple of songs with us and sounded great! So for the last month in between gigs with all the other projects we have going, we've been trying to get everybody worked in. So far it is sounding really good. I try to think like this," If it sounds this good now, just imagine what it will sound like a year from now."

I can't wait for you to hear this new band. We will be at the African Street Festival this coming Sunday, 9/20 at 4:20 PM. And next week at Swank's in the Doubletree Hotel in Downtown Nashville. Cmon out.

Been a busy month here at Ginga Central. Otto and I have been putting together a bunch of new tunes that will hopefully kick our live show up a couple of notches in intensity. We probably will only get to debut one though (Hermeto Pascoal's gem called Sao Jorge). What a beautiful song!...hard as all get out too. Check out Hermeto's band performing it on You Tube. While you are there check out Hermeto and band performing in a lagoon, chest deep in water on flute and bottles...so creative! Speaking of Hermeto Pascoal, the music from his most productive period '79 - 91' is so hard to come by. Much of it is out of print and what is on the net are collectors items selling for as much as $1000 dollars a CD!. Don't believe me? Check out Amazon.com. Anyway, I found a Podcast on itunes called O Podcast da Musica Instrumental Brasileira - Miscelânea Vanguardiosa. It is amazingly good with all the major compositions from Hermeto's repertoire in that period when his band was rehearsing 6 days a week for six hours a day...inspirational stuff! Oh yeah, and the podcast is free.

We've been checking out a lot of Afro Brazilian music lately and intend to incorporate some awesome afoxes and afro-sambas into the repertoire. I've been busy making some serious loops to play along with to give it that future/primitive vibe.

See you at the Doubletree next weekend!

Hi Everybody,
May was a really good month for Trio Ginga. We played some fun gigs and had a bunch of rehearsals. But most of all we want to welcome the amazing Otto Stoy into the group. This dude is a trip and I am so happy to have him working with us. He has incredible chops honed from years of playing Flamenco music and has encyclopedic knowledge of Brazilian Samba, Samba Choro and Bossa Nova. So now we are performing with two guitarists, Mario DaSilva and Otto and the result is just fantastic. Mario will also be playing some bass as well.

Adding Otto to the group has vastly expanded our repertoire. We just debuted four new Samba Choros to the set list. And we have several new ones coming.

Otto's first gig with us was last month at the Doubletree on May 29th and 30th. We got great reviews on the new lineup. We also played a benefit for the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital on June 5th at the East Nashville Performing Artists Co-op, where we brought our music to a new audience of college age folks. They loved it. We were sandwiched between several really good rock acts. Our stuff is so vastly different, I think it was refreshing to the audience.

We are busy rehearsing and preparing for our June 26 & 27 gigs at the Doubletree with Ana. Should be really cool. Hope to see you there.


We will also be collaborating with our good friend Ana Gonzalez on our next gig at the Doubletree, which is coming up next week. Ana is a very talented singer of bossa novas and sambas. Hope to see you there.

Hi friends, Dann here. It's been a great month with lots happening. I've been living and breathing Brazilian music and percussion for the whole month. I am teaching a class in Brazilian percussion at the Nashville Jazz Workshop with some really great students. They are wonderful and very curious about all the possibilities of Brazilian percussion.

Also, through my work with school age kids with the YMCA's Arts Embrase program, I was asked to be the featured speaker at a series of principal's luncheons here in Middle Tennessee. Basically, I didn't speak much. I brought enough Brazilian drums to outfit up to 50 principals and after the lunch invited them to strap on the drums and play some real samba. I did this in Sumner, Rutherford, Davidson, Williamson and Maury Counties. It was just awesome to see these school principals grooving and smiling and having a great time. They needed diversion from their stressful jobs.

My new friend Chelle Watson is promoting a Brazilian night on Mondays at 12th and Porter. I played there Monday night with the dynamic Diane & Frank Marino, doing trio versions of the songs of Som Brasileiro. It was amazing fun.

Trio Ginga has a weekend of hard core Brazilian music coming up on the weekend of May 29 & 30 at Swank's in the Doubletree in downtown Nashville. We are really looking forward to this. It will be our first gig with our amazing new guitartist team of Mario Dasilva and Otto Stoy. Don't miss it. Well that's about it for now.

See you at the Doubletree!

Oi, Brazilophiles! My apologies for the long time between posts…Well we’ve been super busy darn it!!!

There have been quite a few changes in the band recently…great, life-altering changes, with the most perfect combination of musicians Trio Ginga has had yet! I’m blessed to be collaborating with two of the best musicians I know, Mario DaSilva, a great friend and an excellent guitarist from Sao Paulo and Otto Stoy also a virtuoso guitarist, who recently relocated to Nashville from Atlanta.


Mario DaSilva, as well as being a master of Brazilian guitar, is also a virtuoso flamenco guitarist...Amazing. He also maintains an inhuman teaching schedule at Belmont University, Travecca University and another college in Indiana, to which he drives one day a week. Otto Stoy is another complete virtuoso flamenco player whose first love is Brazilian music. He moved to Nashville a couple of months ago to pursue a Masters of Music here.

When these two players get together it’s like the NBA All-Stars. The roof is gonna come off the sucka’. Have mercy!

Anyway, be sure not to miss our upcoming show at the Doubletree Hotel on May 29 – 30. We will be debuting this new incarnation of Trio Ginga and hosting some special guests too. Stay tuned.

Amigos y Amigas,
Dann here...We have decided to have a release of not one but two
CDs in the next few months. We figured the new stuff is so much different than what we were doing a couple of years ago, that we decided to make them two different projects. So we will simultaneously release an EP of Samba/Bossa Nova and a full CD of new edgy Brazilian inspired originals...and maybe a couple of covers. Vince, Kenya, our new friend Leon and I have been really busy writing and recording all this music over the last couple of months and haven't been gigging a whole lot. We will start playing some of the new stuff at our next gig on November 22nd at the Doubletree. Maybe we'll see you there.

The last gig we did was so much fun! On October 22nd Trio Ginga played the after party for Nashville's Celebration of Cultures
festival. The party was held in the Parthenon and we played right underneath the beautiful statue of Athena. Thanks to the Metro Parks Department and Mimi Shimmin for having us. Also thanks to the Scarritt Bennett Center for being co-host. We love you all.

Till next time....Keep the Ginga!

We are delighted to announce that we have six gigs coming up in September (Check our calendar for details). This is turning into an incredible month for us. We are also incredibly busy writing more new material for our upcoming CD which will be released soon. So far in the recording process we recorded five of our favorite standard Brazilian tunes. That was the easy part. Now its time to step up to the plate and deliver some original material that will stand up to the tunes we covered. We have several written and more in the works. It is proving to be a real challenge. Vince and I are professional accompanists and not really songwriters. So we are learning the art of songwriting by doing it. We hope to have a new product ready in the next couple of months. Its long overdue, I know.

Thanks for stopping by and we sincerely hope to see you at some of our upcoming September shows.

A lot is happening on the Trio Ginga front this summer. We just came off our busiest month ever...really cool gigs at, Danny Salazar's World Music Sessions at 12th and Porter, the Doubletree Hotel downtown Nashville, and some great creative duo gigs at the 12 South Taproom. We are busy putting together some new material to debut in the fall and have quite a few side projects happening.

Jeremy (our co-producer and Kenya's husband) and I (Dann) are producing a Brazilian rhythm loop library for all you producers out there. We have about half of it recorded. I have been really busy teaching African drumming at a YMCA boot camp for youthful offenders and doing tons of freelance work, the latest being a concert of Tango music with a chamber group featuring Anna Maria Mendietta on Classical harp. The band was Conni Elisor on violin, Anthony LaMarquina on cello and yours truly on percussion. Vince has been busy playing lots of salsa on bass with Afinke Orchestra and Trabuko, which I also play in. Kenya has been recording a solo album. Its going to be awesome.

Anyway that's it for now. See you soon! Keep the Ginga

Trio Ginga now has a presence on Myspace. The actual address is myspace.com/trioginga. We need some more friends so get on in there and sign up. It'll be a great way to keep up with what's happening with us on a day-to-day basis. Till next time...Keep the Ginga!

Well we've been kinda busy. June has been a great month so far for the trio. We just had a great little gig at the Doubletree Hotel downtown. We played in Swank's lounge and it was loads of fun...a great playing environment with nice, ambient acoustics and a wonderful, friendly staff. We are looking forward to our upcoming gigs at the 12 South Taproom on the 25th and the Centennial Park International Festival on the 28th. We hope to see you at one of these events.

Please feel free to sign our guestbook and get on our email list. Let us know what's happening with you.

Looks like we'll be back again at the 12 South Taproom on April 24th in a duo, instrumental format with Dann and Vince. It was awesome seeing our friends from Samba Nove who came to hang out after rehearsal. We want to thank Pablo and Jonathan from meetup.com for being there and for bringing some new friends out. Also thanks to Dave Pomeroy, Guthrie Trapp, Doug Belote, Johnny Rabb and Ted Tretiak for coming out and showing some love. Looking out from the stage and seeing yall... some of the heaviest muthas in Nashville was kinda scary but those great taproom beers took the edge off.

Well, we finally did it...overcame our fear of social networking and signed up for a myspace account. We feel so much better now. We'll feel even better if you will go to www.myspace.com/trioginga and sign up to be one of our friends.