The Aliéksey Vianna Trio consists of Brazilian guitarist Aliéksey Vianna, Swiss bassist Stephan Kurmann, and Brazilian drummer Mauro Martins. Based in Basel since its creation in 2009, the group has been working together in a variety of settings in Switzerland, Germany, France and Brazil.
Some of the group’s most important performances have taken place at the In Guitar Festival (Winterthur, 04/2012), the Heinsberg Guitar Festival (05/2013), the Off Beat Series (Basel, 08/2014), the Rencontres Internationales de la Guitare (Antony, 03/2015), the VIII Festival Internacional de Violão (Belo Horizonte, 04/2015), and at the bird’s eye jazz club (Basel, several dates since 2010).
In November 2013, the trio performed on two consecutive weekend nights at the Bird’s Eye. In one of the evenings, the late Peter Schmidlin of the TCB Music label was in the audience. He was so excited about the Trio that, when he found out that the concert was being taped, offered to release a CD with the live recordings. This became “Aliéksey Vianna Trio in concert at the bird’s eye“, the group’s first record, which was officially released in January 2015.
The Trio’s repertoire has been growing and now represents a large variety of music that cannot often be heard. It specially features the classical guitar in the music of composers such as Ralph Towner, Guinga, Toninho Horta, Egberto Gismonti, Marco Pereira and Paulo Bellinati, as well as in some standards by Tom Jobim or Pixinguinha, among a few originals.
MEDIA
To listen to some tracks of the Trio’s CD and read some press reactions, click here.
To watch some videos of the Trio playing live, click here.
To download a bio, press clipping, and photos, click here.
THE MEMBERS
Early in his professional career, which began in 1978, he had the chance to work with many jazz-legends, such as Chet Baker, Wild Bill Davison, Mal Waldron, Harald Mabern, Lee Konitz, Kirk Lightsey, Steve Grossman and others. He toured and recorded with international groups all over Europe and also in Asia, Australia, USA, Cuba, Brazil and South Africa in concert halls, festivals and clubs with music legends from many different cultures as India (Neyveli S. Radhakrishna, Udai Mazumdar), South Africa (Makaya Ntshoko, Feya Faku), Cuba (Julio Barreto, Juan Munguia), Brazil (Jovino Santos Neto, Cléber Alves), the US (Peter Madson, Jeff Gardner), Europe (Dado Moroni, Jorge Rossy) to name a few.
His work as sideman is documented on many CDs. Among them several have been produced in Brazil (with Esdras “Neném” Ferreira, Guinga, Marina Machado, Lincoln Cheibb, Beto Lopes, Andre „Limao“ Queiroz, Pedro Morais, Wilson Lopes, Carla Villar), where he has lived partly and worked from 2003-2008.
The music of his own group the “Stephan Kurmann Strings”, founded in 1987, consisting of a Jazz ensemble and a string quartet is documented on 5 CDs. In 1994 he founded the “bird’s eye jazz club” for which has been the Artistic Director since.
Mauro Martins is a Brazilian bassist and drummer from Curitiba. He grew up in a musical family playing percussion and guitar with his older brothers. He switched to the electric bass at the age of sixteen and would soon be playing with several bands in his hometown.
In December 1989 he was invited to play in Switzerland. He decided to settle down in Europe where he has been working ever since – not only as a bassist but also as a drummer, composer and arranger in countless live and studio productions.
Mauro Martins has appeared in major festivals and music clubs in Europe, Asia, South Africa, Madagascar and Brazil such as the Free Jazz São Paulo, Montreux Jazz Festival, Olympia, New Morning and JVC Jazz Festival in Paris, Umbria Jazz, Capetown Jazz, Pataya Jazz, Blue Note NY, Birdland only to name a few.
He has collaborated with outstanding artists such as, Airto Moreira & Larry Coryell, Luis Eça, Toninho Horta, Phill Collins, Tania Maria, Sebastiao Tapajos, Raul de Souza, Chico Cesar, Richard Galliano, Gregoire Maret & Gene Lake, Marcia Maria, Rosinha de Valença, Jovino Santos Neto and Itiberê Zwarg from Hermeto Paschoal’s band and many others.
Allying a profound classical music background to his natural involvement with popular music and the art of improvisation, Aliéksey Vianna is a guitarist whose versatility differentiates him from the majority of his peers. He is equally at home performing classical guitar solos, concerti, chamber works, jazz and music from his native Brazil.
Aliéksey has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Sinfonieorchester Basel (Switzerland), Turku Philharmonic (Finland), Aukso Tychy Chamber Orchestra (Poland), Filarmonia das Beiras (Portugal), Orquesta Ciudad de Almeria (Spain), Sinfônica de Campinas and the Filarmônica de Minas Gerais (Brazil). He has also played in chamber settings with a wide diversity of first-class musicians, such as Pierre Boulez, the Artaria String Quartet, Paul Galbraith, Peter Erskine, Tracy Silverman, Paul Hanson, Mike Eckroth and Paul McCandless.
A winner in over 20 international classical guitar competitions, Aliéksey has appeared in prestigious music venues in over 30 countries throughout Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Africa and the Middle East. Some performance highlights include New York’s Carnegie Hall, San Francisco’s Jazz Club Yoshi’s, Basel’s Stadtcasino, Canberra’s Wesley Music Centre, Cairo’s Opera House, Mexico City’s Sala Nezahualcoyotl and Sao Paulo’s Praça das Artes.