About Me
Drummer and composer, Pascoal Meirelles was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State in 1944. Initially self-taught, he studied and later graduated from Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA), the famous music school that has produced musicians such as Quincy Jones, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Gary Burton, among others.
His professional career began at the age of 18, playing at dances and in nightclubs. He set up the Tempo Trio Group in 1966, with which he recorded an album for Odeon.
He moved to Rio de Janeiro the following year and was invited to join the Paulo Moura Group, while also playing in shows and recording with Maysa, João Bosco and Ivan Lins, among others.
He toured Mexico in 1972, followed by the USA in 1974, with the Festa Brasil Group, alongside Simone, Tenório Jr., Fernando Leporace, Chiquito Braga and João de Aquino.
In 1975 he was awarded a study grant to Berklee College of Music where he remained until 1979. During this period, he played in jazz clubs and perforrned in the Saravá Show presented on Broadway, New York, in addition to recording the Terra Brasilis double album by Antonio Carlos Jobim, with orchestration by Claus Ogerman, together witb Oscar Castro Neves and Michael Moore, among others.
Back in Brazil, he played for the next ten years in the LuÃs Gonzaga Junior Band. As a studio musician, he recorded with Hélio Delmiro, Wagner Tiso, Chico Buarque, Danilo Caymmi, Edu Lobo, Claudio Roditi, Hendrix Meurkens and LuÃs Bonfá, among others.
He is one of the founders of the Cama de Gato instrumental Group, which originally included Mauro Senise, Arthur Maia and Rique Pantoja (this latter recently replaced by Jota Moraes). This Group was acclaimed by the critics as the most successful instrumental Group of the 1980s. With five records launcbed - "Cama de Gato", "Guerra Fria", "SambaÃba", "Dança da Lua" and "Amendoim Torrado" (this latter nominated for the Sharp Prize), the group also toured Brazil, Spain, France, Belgium and the USA.
In parallel, from 1981 onward, Pascoal Meirelles went solo, launching his first record: "Considerações a Respeito". This was followed by "Tambá" (1983), "Anna" (1987), "Paula" (1992), "Forró Brabo" (1998) and "Considerações" (CD compilation of his first three records, 1996). His work in "Paula" and "Considerações" brought him nominations for Brazil's most important music award: the Sharp Prize.
From 1994 through 1996 he lectured at the International Summer Course given at the School of Music in Brasilia; he ran thirteen workshops in Denmark and Sweden, and also played in two concerts at the Copenhagen Jazz House. In 1996 he gave courses at the Winter Festival held at the University of Minas Gerais in Ouro Preto as well as Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul State) and the II Latin Arnerican Percussion Meeting.
In 1997 he recorded the sound-track by Edu Lobo for the historical epic: "A Guerra de Canudos", playing classical percussion with a chamber orchestra, and then toured Northeast Brazil giving shows and workshops with the Cama de Gato Group. He was also invited to play with the Bob Mintzer Big Band at the Winter Festival held at the University of Minas Gerais, and later to teach at the Berklee World Percussion Festival, Boston (USA). ln 1998, he lectured at the I International Music Festival held in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte State.
ln 1999, he performed with Paulo Moura in Rome, Milan, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and played with the Claudio Roditi Group at the Berne Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and also held workshops in Sweden.
Since then, he did differents projects, like as: launching in 1997 his sixth solo CD "Forró Brabo" in various brazilians capitals, did one track on a Ed Motta CD and played in two gigs with him, did some workshops at the Feira Nacional de Arte e Cultura da ParaÃba in 1999, launched "Ãgua de Chuva", the new Cama de Gato CD in 2002, played a concert at the Jazz Festival of Marciac, France, with Claudio Roditi Group, did a workshop at DRUMTECH, a drum school in London, England, in 2003, launched the CD "Tom" in 2004, at the Mistura Fina, in Rio with his trio - Nelson Faria (Guitar), Aliberto Continentino (Bass) and Kiko Continentino as a special guest.Yet in 2004, was invited througt the Sociedad Filarmonia de Quito, Ecuador, to play a concert with Cama de Gato at the San Francisco University of Quito.
Starting from August of that same year, he returned to Quito to teach at that University, for 4 months. In March 2005 he launched the show for his 40 years' celebration, with the participation of "Cama de Gato" Group, the Sextet (Idriss Boudrioua, Daniel Garcia, Jessé Sadoc, Dario Galante and Alberto Continentino) and the "Pascoal Meirelles Trio" (Nelson Faria and Alberto Continentino) and his friends Markos Rezende (piano), Ney Conceição (bass), Zé Canuto (sax baritone) and Aldivas (trombone).
On June of 2005 he did a concert with the bass player Charlie Haden together with Alan Broadbent and Ruth Cameron at the Estacio de Sá University in Barra da Tijuca , Rio de Janeiro.
In September he went at the Tim Festival from Juiz de Fora, with the Quinteto Pró-Jazz, with Silvio Gomes (piano), Marcelo Martins (sax tenor), Alex Carvalho (electric guitar) and André Neiva (bass). In November, he went together with the "Cama de Gato" Group to the Assuncion Jazz Festival (Paraguay). He still recorded the Tribute to Art Blakey with the Sextet and he release his first DVD including his piece "Triumvirato", with the participation of Carlos Balla and Kleberson Caetano.
