Paulo Veloso

Paulo Veloso, born on 4th January 1980, is a Portuguese piano, hammond and guitar blues performer, songwriter, composer and acoustic engineer. Although Veloso's musical style has varied throughout his career, it has mostly rooted in the blues genre. Credited for his innovative spirit, Veloso's career swang from blues-rock (with André Indiana), to jazz-blues (with the B-Flat Blues Band) and even allowed some incursions into the pop-rock scene (with Dr1ve). Synthesizing influences from Chicago Blues and Hammond B3 organists such as Lucky Peterson and Booker T, Paulo Veloso forged a distinctive style and his passionate performance bears evidence of his neverending dedication to the Blues.

Veloso joined André Indiana, a blues-influenced rock'n'roll songwriter, in 1998. Initially, André Indiana's Band played mostly blues and increasingly got the public's ear, which eventually led to their performance in the Gaia Blues Festival, to their tour around Portugal with Robert Plant and to constant appearances in summer music festivals as well as in Lisbon's local jail. At the end of 2002, Veloso recorded the piano and Hammond tracks of Indiana's release album “Music for Nations”.
In 2004, Veloso joined Johnny Blues Band, a charismatic band formed in April 1994. Although the sound of Johnny Blues Band is mostly based on R&B, blues and soul, it also drew heavily on rock and jazz elements, which usually meant taking a blues standard and bringing a rock sound and style into it.
Antonio Ferro, Musical Director of the B-Flat Jazz Club, and Miguel Pires thought of a new project based on gathering blues talents in order to form their own blues band. The B-Flat Blues Band featured Paulo Veloso, Mão-de-Ferro, Carlos Polónia and Chico Cardoso. Since November 2004, this enthralling band performed in numerous blues and jazz festivals.
In September 2006, Veloso embraces a new blues project, this time with the experienced and yet fresh singer Daniela Galbin. Galbin had incurred in this genre quite recently, and still she had the ability of belting out the blues as if she had done it from the start, offering stirring renditions of blues classics.
2009 is the year for a new incursion in the pop-rock scene, it's time to DR1VE... (see more at www.myspace.com/dr1ve) .