Minas
Internationally acclaimed duo Minas, who has been on the forefront of world music and Brazilian Jazz in the Northeast, performs "Singing Does Away With the Blues".
“Singing Does Away With the Blues”
Based in Philadelphia for the majority of their career, internationally acclaimed Minas has been on the forefront of world music and Brazilian Jazz in the Northeast for the past 30 years.
Led by the couple Orlando Haddad, a native Brazilian , and Pennsylvanian Patricia King, Minas has recorded and released 7 CDs of original music, produced in Philadelphia and Brazil. Their latest, Symphony in Bossa, recorded with The Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, conducted by Terrell Stafford, was up for 4 Grammy nominations. They are presently recording a new album – Beatles in Bossa Nova, reimagining Beatles songs with Brazilian rhythms. Drawing from traditions of samba, bossa nova, baião, axé, combined with jazz, blues, and folk, as well as classical music, Minas mixes north and south seamlessly. Patricia on piano and vocal, Orlando on nylon-string guitar and vocal, complement each other and create a mood that only a lifetime of performing together can attain. Their music is inspiring, warm, their vocals sensual, their instruments percussive, and their melodic lines are jazzy. Minas’ impact on the Philadelphia music and cultural scene has been a constant since 1984, when Orlando & Patricia moved here from Rio de Janeiro. Minas introduced local audiences to Bossa Nova and Brazilian Carnaval, founded the city’s first samba drum troupe – Philasamba, and presented educational programs about the music and culture of Brazil in schools, to more than half a million children.
Orlando taught Brazilian Jazz and Percussion at The University of the Arts for 10 years. Both Orlando and Patricia have also continued their own education at Philadelphia’s universities, earning masters degrees from Drexel, Temple, and UArts. They both taught for one year in Philadelphia Public Schools.
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