Sambismo, born from the love of Brazilian music, is a movement growing from the union of an international team of like-minded music producers, musicians and singers. A democratic collective conceived by music business veterans Zé Luis Oliveira, Simone Giuliani and Béco Dranoff, Sambismo’s music is a unique and contemporary take on the magical and timeless sounds of Brazil, the vision of three cosmopolitan producers living in New York at the start of the millennium.

Sambismo’s first album, The Birth of..., features 11 original compositions plus two covers: Jobim’s classic ‘Luiza’ and Massive Attack’s ‘Protection’. The Birth of... seamlessly fuses modern and traditional Brazilian elements with a wide array of international influences.

Composed, arranged and produced by Zé Luis, Simone and Béco, The Birth Of… features guest vocals by an internationally renowned roster of artists, including Bebel Gilberto, Sabina Sciubba (Brazilian Girls), Lilian Vieira (Zuco 103), Nina Miranda & Chris Franck (Da Lata, Smoke City and Zeep), Mariana De Moraes, Celso Fonseca, Apollo Nove and Rose Max.

With Zé Luis on flutes and saxophone and Simone on keyboards and programming, the band is fleshed out by top players João Parahyba of Trio Mocotó, Magrus Borges and Dendê (percussion), Tristan Banks and Kenny Grohowski (drums), Masa Shimizu, Guilherme Monteiro and Richard Padron (acoustic guitar), Simon Katz (electric guitar), Jesse Murphy and Amanda Ruzza (bass), among others. The recordings were mixed by Mitch Davis (U2, Danger Mouse, Orba Squara), David Darlington (Sting, Herbie Hancock, Bjork), Brad Leigh (Billy Joel, Malcolm McLaren, Tracy Chapman) and Patrick Dillett (Mary J Blige, Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto).

Sambismo is already creating a buzz. Their song ‘Chapéu de Carmen’ (Carmen’s Hat) is the most-played track on The New Brazilian Music compilation (Volume 4), which peaked at number 8 on ‘World Music Charts Europe’ in April 2012. The album was conceived as a special promotional giveaway for attendees of the Midem and Womex conferences.

Zé Luis

Zé Luis (José Luis Oliveira) is a composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist, playing woodwinds, guitar and percussion. Originally from Rio de Janeiro, he relocated to New York City where he is an in demand composer and producer.

A leading saxophonist in Brazil in the 1980s, Zé Luis has performed and recorded with—and arranged and composed for—many of the biggest names in Brazilian music, such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tania Maria and Cazuza to name a few, and has been featured as a composer, arranger, producer and instrumentalist on hundreds of recordings, including albums, film soundtracks and advertisements. He worked with Gilberto Gil on the original score of director Carlos Diegues’ film Subway to the Stars, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was the Brazilian entry at the Academy Awards in 1987.

Zé Luis continues his longtime association with Bebel Gilberto on her latest album, All In One (Verve), nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album, on which Zé is credited as flautist and arranger. In 2011, he was co-producer and arranger with Bebel Gilberto of the song “Samba de Orly”, which appeared in the motion picture Rio and on its soundtrack album.

As a solo artist, Zé Luis produced the self-titled Zé Luis EP and two albums of his compositions, Guarani Banana and Caiapó. He has also written the soundtrack for Os Lados Da Rua, a short movie selected at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and contributed four songs to the ecology-themed Green Heart compilation. Acclaimed in the American press, Zé Luis and his work have garnering enthusiastic coverage in DownBeat, Saxophone Journal, Rhythm and Jazziz, among many other publications.

For more info, visit: www.zeluis.com

Simone Giuliani

Born in Florence, Italy, Simone Giuliani is a music producer, film composer, arranger and keyboard player living in New York City.

He has worked as an arranger and producer with conductor and cellist Suzie Katayama (Prince, Madonna, Beck), singer/songwriter Jamie Catto (Faithless, 1 Giant Leap feat. Stewart Copeland, Carlos Santana, Michael Stipe), record producer Robert Sadin (Sting, Herbie Hancock) and artist Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto, Gorillaz) among others.

Under the moniker 4MuLA, he has worked on remixes for Beyoncé, Maxwell and Sia.

Simone wrote original music for Spike Lee's 'Humanity' Project, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Volkswagen, CBS News and the Golden Globe-nominated movie 'A Raisin In The Sun' featuring P. Diddy and John Stamos.

In the US, he created the projects Racoon and Lazybatusu, resulting in work that has appeared on more than 300 electronic compilations worldwide, with sales of over 4 million units to date.

Since 2007, he has joined forces with Grammy Award-winning producer Jason Olaine and Monterey Jazz Festival Records/Concord Music Group, releasing rare live recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, Dave Brubeck, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Tito Puente.

He is founder of the digital label Emunity Records and a contributing author to the book The Spiritual Significance of Music, published by Xtreme Music (New Zealand, 2011).

For more info, visit www.simonegiuliani.com

Béco Dranoff

São Paulo-born Béco Dranoff is an award-winning music producer and A&R professional with over 20 years experience in the Brazilian music industry. Béco’s multi-faceted career has focused on producing, promoting and delivering artistic projects with Brazilian flavor to the world.

As a co-founder of the Ziriguiboom imprint with Belgium’s Crammed Discs, Béco signed and co-produced artists such as Bebel Gilberto (resulting in three Grammy nominations), Celso Fonseca, Bossacucanova, and Zuco 103, among others.

Significant projects include the production of the Red Hot + Rio I and II benefit compilations and the Best of Os Mutantes compilation (co-produced with David Byrne), and the music supervision on the films Next Stop Wonderland (Dir. Brad Anderson), the documentary How To Survive A Plague (Dir. David France), and his own documentary Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music (Dir. Guto Barra).

For more info, visit www.becodranoff.com