jazz

Pedro Martins

1 upcoming festival

Brazilian guitarist and multi-instrumentalist whose writing folds MPB harmony and vocal textures into contemporary jazz.

Pedro Martins is a Brazilian guitarist, singer and multi-instrumentalist who came to wider attention after winning the electric guitar competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2015. His playing draws on Brazilian popular music — the harmonic language of MPB and the rhythmic feel of samba and baião — filtered through a jazz musician's sense of improvisation, and he frequently layers his own wordless vocals into the arrangements.

He has worked closely with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, contributing to Rosenwinkel's Brazilian-leaning project Caipi and releasing the album Vox through Rosenwinkel's Heartcore label. On record he often handles guitars, keyboards and drums himself, building dense, softly sung pieces that sit between songwriting and instrumental jazz.

jazz