ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARCHTOP FESTIVAL

HILTON GARDEN INN MAIN STAGE

ARVADA, COLORADO USA 🇺🇸

Friday, Sept 13th

4:30 PM – 5:25 PM

MASTER CLASS

APPLYING JAZZ and BRAZILIAN MUSIC ACROSS CULTURES

Paul Ricci’s path from NY to Brazil through jazz, Bossa Nova, Latin, African, and Caribbean music is a wellspring of useful info for those looking to apply other grooves into the melting pot of jazz. With New England Conservatory training and tours alongside legends like Astrud Gilberto and Harry Belafonte, Ricci brings a wealth of real-world experience to his approach. His extensive experience with Brazilian music, including recording, touring, and living in Brazil for over 28 years adds a unique depth to his expertise and his hybrid fingerpicking style maximizes the guitar’s rhythmic potential in diverse musical settings, naturally internalizing complex rhythms that go beyond the familiar jazz reading of Bossa Nova.
Together with vocalist Mafalda Minnozzi, the students will be treated to a duo perfomance for real world application of Ricci’s approach.
Although Italian born, Mafalda has also lived and toured throughout Brazil for 28 years and with as many albums. She can be found on WBGO and other leading jazz stations and has performed with legends such as Milton Nascimento, Roberto Menescal, Paulo Moura, Guinga, André Mehmari, Leny Andrade, Guinga, Samba legend Martinho Da Vila, Joāo Bosco and many others.

This master class goes beyond the harmonic alternatives and technical learning that can be found all around us to offer insights into how to react in a band setting and translate subtle rhythmic nuances into a performance that can lift the music, the band and the audience. Shaped by decades of global performance and under the tutelage of Samba jazz drumming pioneers Edison Machado and Dom Um Romao, Paul has a solo CD with Anthony Jackson, Steve Jordan, Manolo Badrena, Randy Brecker among others and has produced and arranged over 20 albums in Brazil and New York with Minnozzi, whose presence will offer a look into the interplay and decision making process of keeping a duo arrangement fresh each time.
Ricci’s firsthand experiences with many world renowned musicians and styles and his over 35 years of immersion in Brazil’s vibrant musical landscape will all be on tap.