Trio Curupira

The Brazilian instrumental music trio Curupira was born in mid 1996 as a result of a happy assembly of ideals and affinities of its members - Andre Marques, Cleber Almeida and Ricardo Zohyo. Nowadays, Fabio Gouva substitutes Zohyo in the band, but the change was only in instrumentation and in a few sonority characteristics. The band is determined to develop its own and differentiated work, resulting from cultural and musical research, and supports such work with genuinely Brazilian music, by going through all rhythms and all "colors", and eliminating all limits between the popular and erudite styles. "It doesn't matter whether the music is classical, popular, Brazilian Popular Music, North-American, Arabian or Caribbean. We want to make a pure music, without labels, prioritizing our cultural roots", justifies Andre Marques. 

The sonority is thick, the harmony is rich e the personality is remarkable. The band's own compositions range from maracatu to reisado, going through xote, coco, baio, congada, catira, capoeira, ciranda, frevo, guarnia, samba, etc. For the members of Curupira, the fact that Brazil is country with a wide cultural miscegenation allows the mixture of miscellaneous elements from such different cultures, such as the Indian, the African, the European and the Arabian cultures, among others. "Just a few people were interested in exploring this subject, which is inserted in all segments of our culture", they comment.

 
Curupira intends to bring to the public - through sounds resulting from our inherited cultural plurality - an unique and original music which exists only in Brazil. The first album (by Jam Music) was recorded only in 2000, when not only was the band consolidated as instrumental, but also it had found its own musical language. At that time, the accumulated repertoire was already enough to record three albums.

 
This name was chosen because Curupira is one of the characters which best represent our folklore, immediately referring us to pure Brazilian culture. As in the legend, the band has undertaken Curupira's personality and, through its work, it seeks to protect our music, our culture and our folklore. Moreover, it seeks to sensitize the public also towards preserving and interacting with the nature... This is the idea of these three young musicians, whose sums include a wide musical experience.

The Trio Curupira features three CDs ever released. The group's third album Pés no Brasil, Cabeça no Mundo released in 2008 was acclaimed by the specialized critic and it was also nominated for the Latin Grammy.

The performances of the trio has already counted with special participation of great musicians such as Hermeto Pascoal, Jane Duboc, Hamilton de Holanda, among others.

Trio Curupira has just released their new album called Janela in Brazil, which will be worldwide release at the second semester of 2014.

About the musicians:

Andre Marques

Born in São Paulo, Andre Marques started his musical studies at age eleven. At the beginning he studied classical piano then he moved to popular piano. In 1992 Andre started to perform professionally. After two years he joined the group of Hermeto Pascoal who has toured throughout Brazil, Europe, USA, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America and many other places. Since he joined Hermeto Pascoal's group Andre has been performed in some of major festivals in the world.

Fabio Gouvêa

At age of 10 encouraged by his grandfather, Fabio Gouvêa started to learn the acoustic guitar, followed by guitar, bass and also flute. At 14 he joined the Conservatório Dramático e Musical de Tatuí. At 18 he graduated in guitar at the same conservatory and from then began acting as a professional, accompanying singers and ministering his first private lessons. At 24, Fabio graduated Bachelor for the Faculdade Carlos Gomes, São Paulo.

Since that he has performed in some of the most important venues in Brazil and abroad. Besides his work with Trio Curupira, Fabio is member of Vera Figueredo Quartet and Arrigo Barnabé Group.

Cleber Almeida

Cleber Almeida began his practical studies at age 11 and the theoretical at 14, when he joined the Conservatório Dramático e Musical de Tatuí. There he studied with Eduardo Gianessela, Luiz Marcos Caldana and Rui Carvalho. In 1995 he graduated at the same conservatory where he teaches today.

Since then Cleber has been working with great names of Brazilian music as Hermeto Pascoal, Natan Marques, Jane Duboc, Renato Teixeira, Pena Branca, Vinicius Dorin, Elomar, Arismar do Esprito Santo, Hamilton de Holanda, Banda Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Airto Moreira, Toninho Horta, Lea Freire, Trio Bonsai, Proveta, Antonio Nóbrega, among others.