Trio Brasileiro includes the celebrated guitarist and full time member of the award-winning Brasil Guitar Duo, Douglas Lora; one of Brazil’s finest mandolin virtuosos, Dudu Maia, and the amazing percussionist and brother of Douglas, Alexandre Lora.

Trio Brasileiro is dedicated to performing the great traditional choro music of Brasil by Jacob do Bandolim, Ernesto Nazareth, Pixinguinha and others, as well as their own compositions, which are modern reflections of that great traditional musical form. Their discography includes “Simples Assim” (2012), “Alegria da Casa” - featuring the amazing clarinetist Anat Cohen (2015) and “Caminho do Meio” (2015).

Clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. Reviewing one of Anat’s headlining sets with her quartet at the North See 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 – whooping it up when pianist Jason Lindner followed her clarinet trills on a Latin-flavored number. . . With her dark, curly, shoulder-length hair swaying to the beat as she danced, she was a picture of joy.”

The Jazz Journalists Association has voted Anat as Clarinetist of the Year eight years in a row, and she has topped both the Critics and Readers Polls in the clarinet category in DownBeat magazine every year since 2011. That’s not to mention years of being named Rising Star in the soprano and tenor saxophone categories in DownBeat, as well as for Jazz Artist of the Year. In 2009, ASCAP awarded Anat a Wall of Fame prize for composition and musicianship, among other honors.

In March 2015, Anat released Luminosa, her seventh album as a bandleader. Luminosa sees Anat play singing, dancing originals, interpret Brazilian classics by the likes of Milton Nascimento, and even re-imagine electronica as acoustica with an ingenious arrangement of a Flying Lotus tune.

Choro, pronounced shore-oh, comes from the Portuguese verb chorar, which means to cry, but in Brazil, where the musical form originated in the late 1800s, it suggests a bursting of emotion, an overflowing, often of exhilaration and pure joy. Like ragtime and tango, it brings together many musical influences, melding plaintive melodies with jazz improvisation, classical European harmonies, and the rhythms of Africa and Brazil. These days, choro is enjoying a renaissance not only in Brazil but around the world, and the wave of enthusiasm has definitely reached Berkeley, where the Freight is proud to present the Festival of Choro.

visit the Trio Brisileiro website

visit the Anat Cohen website