Right after I accepted a scholarship to attend the master’s degree program in Jazz Performance at the University of Louisville in the fall of 2017, I felt it would be a good time to be the leader of some project and to have something under my name as an artist.
I felt I was in a phase in my career where I should start creating, making opportunities and learning about leadership, management and planning. I say ‘making opportunities’ because we need to take the initiative to make things happen as well as being prepared for the opportunities that might show up; which is extremely important. That is how my career has been developed to where I am today.
So I ask you, why not develop a career from the active side of opportunity? Why not plan and make things happen?
This is challenging for me because it is out of my comfort zone which is getting calls and working to deliver the best musical result I can to whoever is hiring me. That doesn’t mean the work is easy or minor. For example: as far as I know, Vinnie Colaiuta only has one solo album, however this doesn’t mean his career has not been successful. He is one of the best musicians in the world and one of the best drummers of all time. He developed a tremendous career, unmatched so far, recording and playing mostly on other´s projects. I’m used to working in this fashion: getting a call to do my part in a project. This is wonderful. I get to play with so many different musicians, get to know different places and be part of a lot of great projects. Being a project manager/leader is completely different and outside of my experience. But I’ve had the opportunity to observe the leaders for the projects I worked on and it was great learning experiences. So I created two opportunities: the Pedrinho Augusto Trio and the Fazendo 1 Som (which means “Jamming”). I will talk about my trio in another post, for now let’s talk about the Fazendo 1 Som!
Initially, the idea was to produce good video material that could highlight my potential as a musician to be published on YouTube so it could be watched by the world. After that, I tried to figure out who I was going to play with.
For example: Michael Pipoquinha was in my city, Brasília, to play with Funqquestra (a band which I play as well), so I took the opportunity to invite him to jam with me and Dadá Nunes (on accordion). In other words: any musician I wanted to play with could be invited to record for the project with no rehearsal, the result is a “picture” of a musical moment that is available to the public.
The simplicity makes the project doable. I don’t need a fixed band, I don’t need arrangements necessarily, I don’t need rehearsal, I need the right musicians “only.” Nevertheless the logistics and managing the schedule to make the recording happen can still be a challenge, but the simplicity makes even this part less stressful.
Welcome to the Project, you are a huge part of all of this. The Fazendo 1 Som first season has four videos that are released monthly.
I’d like to thank Hertz Studio in the name of Mariano Junior and Frederico Braga; all guest artists: Dadá Nunes, Michael Pipoquinha, Sandro Alves, Rodrigo Bezerra and Lucas Rodrigues; and to the G7 PRODUCTIONS team that manages my career. Enjoy the content and write down your comments, opinions, the good things and the things we can improve on too!
Scroll down to check the teaser out. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch the whole project playlist!
Let's music!
FAZENDO 1 SOM - TEASER :