The Regent Theatre - Arlington, MA - Arlington's Show Place of Entertainment

Fernando Holz: Voice and Guitar
Jose Pienasola:Bass
Daniel Nocera: Melodica
Dough Johnson: Piano
Gustavo Assis Brasil: Guitar
Vinicius Pienasola :Drums

General Admission: $20 advance, $25 at the door (prices include $1.50 restoration fee)

I equate this music with the sultry ambiance and fire of a Sarasota sun off shore
just as the peaceful blanket of nightfall enter ones life. (Karl Stober)

Fernando Holz Bio

"In addition to being an excellent singer, Holz is a composer of great sensibility... beautiful and provocative melodic lines. But the most significant part of his work as a composer is represented by his lyrics." - Martin Pillsbury, Ritmo Brasileiro

On his new release Minh' Alma Nua (My Nude Soul), Fernando Holz sings and orchestrates original Brazilian pop-jazz music that makes the listener feel that he or she is being spoken to personally. The Boston-based musician from the south of Brazil by way of Europe melds happiness and sadness in superior material with an uncommon ease. Poetry is achieved through his sensitive and careful employment of mood, tempo, melody, and harmony. Never stilted or weak in sentiment, the music makes connections with that of the master, Tom Jobim.

Back home in Rio Grande do Sul, Holz balanced successful careers as a photographer and a singer in clubs before undertaking the journey that resulted in his arrival in Boston in 1990. He first made a favorable impression on the New England music scene as the vocalist with the popular quintet Gandaya, which created "Brazilian music with a great deal of heart and soul, and not afraid to take a chance or two," - Jeff Turton, WFNX-Radio, and appeared at the Boston-area's premier jazz rooms Scullers and Regattabar as well as at the Hartford Jazz Festival before disbanding in the '90s. He's also displayed his sizable musical talent with the Rio Show Band, with Banda Aue, and with Duo Bossa Rio. Outside of the Greater Boston area, Holz has earned a following in New York City by performing at prominent venues like the Zinc Bar, SOB's, and the Queens Theatre. The Fernando Holz Quintet, whose repertoire includes sambas and bossa novas from the songbooks of Djavan and Jobim along with originals and gems from the Great American Songbook, consists of the bandleader, pianist Afredo Cardim (a former sideman with Astrud Gilberto), bassist Jose Pienasola, and percussionist Paulo Braga. Holz also keeps busy as a vocal coach when not performing with his band or making special appearances at Brazilian music shows held at MIT, the University of Massachusetts, Berklee College of Music, the Brazilian Cultural Center of New England, and many others.

The music of Minh' Alma Nua opens up vistas of beauty with colors and textures resulting from Holz's smooth singing, a string section, Romero Lubambo's guitars, Gilson Schachnik's and Rebecca Cline's pianos, Jose Pienasola's bass and Paulo Braga's drums. With complete command of phrasing and timbre, Holz works through hard sorrow on Freud Explica (Freud Explains) and projects both vulnerability and determination during Segredos De Laetitia (Laetitia's Secrets). His voice radiates a poignant tension amidst the surprising blend of rambunctious drums and sweet strings on Outro Outono (Another Autumn). The joy-plus-ache that his vocals carry on the infectious, melodious number Diaspora Brasileira (Brazilian Diaspora) makes for a perfect fit emotionally with the guitar expositions. These and all of Holz's other song performances are at once pristine and sensual. Radiant innocence often masks harsh reality in his arresting prose.