Harmonica player, vibraphonist and composer Hendrik Meurkens may have been born in Germany, but listening to his work you realize that he definitely has a Brazilian soul. Over his career, he has not only contributed original music to the canon of Samba Jazz, but he has also helped take the music of Brazil to international audiences both in the United States and in Europe.
Mr. Meurkens recently released Live At Bird’s Eye (Zoho), an album captured live at the eponymous jazz club in Switzerland. The album consolidates over three decades dedicated to samba jazz, choros and bossa nova – genres he fell in love with while he was still a teenager and that only grew in the years he lived in Rio de Janeiro.
We caught up with him over an email interview in which he detailed his career origins, his time in Brazil and also the ideas behind the recording of his latest album, which features Misha Tsiganov (piano), Gustavo Amarante (bass) and Adriano Santos (drums), the latter being the musician who started this interview series early in 2011.
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