Yemanjazz

This adventure started in minor mode. Coltrane was the far away godfather that in the first instance put together some of the present musicians that later would create the group we here present: Yemanjazz. During 2004/2005 Pedro Castanheira conceived the project, creating original compositions and arrangings which resulted in a True Musical and Lyrical Creole of Cape Verdian Batucadas, Afro Cuban Mandinga, Brazilian Samba and Post Bop Horn Sections, with combined Italian, Cape Verdian Creole, Brazilian and French Lyrics. The variety of nationalities of the current formation further and continually enriches these Global Musical Vectorizations. In 2006, the group finds its form with the present musicians: guitar & piano & vocals & didgeridoo & flutes – Pedro Castanheira (PT); electric bass – Pietro Casella (PT/IT); double bass & percussion – Afonso Castanheira (PT); alto saxophone & percussion – Peter Bastiaan (NL); tenor saxophone – Francisco Andrade (PT/VN)); trumpet – Ricardo Pinto (PT); drums – Nuno Pessoa (PT); trumpet – Alexandre Andrade (PT/VN); trombone – Eduardo Lála; vibraphone, percussion & panela “sound system” – Ian Carlo Mendoza (MX). As the name suggests, there is a relation to the ocean’s motion and its inhabitants…Space is the place and that is where music plays its unifying role. The waves of the ocean connect the continents, as well as the sounds coming from these lands and that’s where Yemanjazz distils these influences in to its own painting and poetry. Yemanjazz profits from vernaculars of a variety of disciplines, some of them outside music like dance, poetry & performance. (text by Yemanjazz)

My space