Amaro Freitas

He is the new star of Brazilian music: the critics are falling over themselves with praise for the pianist Amaro Freitas who combines the rhythm of his homeland with the classic American jazz tradition. It was not an easy path for him from the slums of Recife to the stages of the world. The child prodigy of his father’s church band, Freitas had to stop his studies because his family did not have enough money. But he didn’t give up and already shot to international fame with his first two albums “Sangue Negro” and “Rasif”. “Down Beat,” the American mother of all jazz magazines praised his “unique and uncanny use of the keys.” In his current album “Sankofa,” Freitas goes on a spiritual search for the forgotten stories and inspirational figures of Afro-Brazilian culture.