Adriano Giffoni

Adriano Giffoni is a well-respected Brazilian musician. He is a bassist, arranger and composer from Quixadá, a small town in the state of Ceará, northeast of Brazil. Giffoni has studied inthe University of Amazonas and in the University of Brasília. While attending these schools he had a chance to study with Jaques Von Frasunkiewk and Tony Botelho. In the early eihties, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and continued his studies on the instrument with Zeca Assumpção and Sandrino Santoro, and also studied jazz harmony and arranging with Ian Guest. As a sideman he has performed alongside with some of the best Brazilian musicians ever like Nivaldo Ornelas, Mauro Senise, Rildo Hora, Antonio Adolfo, Marinho Boffa,Gilson Peranzzetta, Paschoal Meireles, Raul Mascarenhas,Nelson Faria and sivuca. He appeared with Sivuca and Toots Thilemans at the Festival de Jazz de Madrid. Giffoni has been in demand from many Brazilian recording artists such as Emílio Santiago,Marcos Valle,Tim Maia,João Nogueira, Roberto Menescal,Edú Lobo, Wanda Sá, Maria Bethania, Joyce, Dory Caymmi,and many others. With some of these artists Giffoni has toured extensively through United States and Europe where he performed at JVC Jazz Festival,Montreaux Jazz Festival, Albert Hall(London), and San Francisco Jazz Festival 1999. He is also very active as a stúdio musician and his bass playing can be heard on recordings of Elba Ramalho, Leila Pinheiro,Yuka Kido, Kasuo Yoshida, João Donato,Luiz Melodia,Fátima Guedes,Danilo Caymmi,Roberto Menescal,Pery ribeiro, Djavan,Milton Nascimento, Gal Costa,etc. In the famous séries Songbooks from Lumiar Records he appeared on the volumes dedicated to works of: Dorival Caymmi, Vinícius de Moraes,Carlos Lyra, Edu Lobo, Ari Barroso, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Djavan,João Donato,Marcos Valle and Chico Buarque. His large esemble activities include Orquestra de Música Brasileira directed by Roberto Gnatalli, Orquestra Tabajara, Orquestra do Maestro Cipó, and School of Brasília Symphony Orchestra. He has been part of some small groups as well like Artimanha, Eclipse, Jazz Brazzil ( with them he recorded two albums), Azimuth and Gilson Peranzzetta Trio ( with one album out). As a leader, Giffoni has four solo CDs realeased through Perfil Musical Records: Adriano Giffoni(92), Madrugada Carioca (94) ,Contrabaixo Brasileiro ( 97), and Caçula(99) that is coming out at the end of this year. He leads his own band appeared in a serie of concerts entitled Hermeto e os Novos at the CCBB The great Hermeto Paschoal selected the artist that performed at this event. The shows were by Brazilian Public Television. As na educator Giffoni worked for two years at Pro Arte Music School and has been giving many winter/summer courses in Brasília and Curitiba. In October,94 he traveled to Copenhagen to the Copenhagen Jazz House were he taught bass and esembles and performed in a band with Antonio Adolfo, Mauro Senise and Paschoal Meireles. His years of intense activity resulted in a book called Música Brasileira Para Contrabaixo ( Brazilian Music for Bass Players). This is a CD/Booklet unit with more than one hundred examples of bass lines for Brazilian rhytms and 13 original compositions on these rhythms. Irmãos Vitalle released it in 98.