Jovino Santos Neto & Andre Mehmari

Biography

Jovino Santos Neto & André Mehmari is a piano duo collaboration that celebrates the music of Brazilian master Hermeto Pascoal. Jovino Santos Neto, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1954, is a three-time Latin Grammy nominee and one of the most important Brazilian musicians working today. He studied biology at McGill University in Canada before returning to Brazil to join Hermeto Pascoal's legendary group in 1977, where he served as pianist, flutist, composer, producer, and arranger until 1992. During his 15 years with O Grupo, Pascoal became his primary mentor and musical school, profoundly shaping his artistic development. After relocating to Seattle, Washington in 1993, Santos Neto pursued a solo career while maintaining deep connections to Brazilian music and Pascoal's legacy.

André Mehmari, born April 22, 1977, is a Brazilian pianist, composer, and arranger known for his virtuosic pianism and improvisational skills. The two pianists came together in 2016-2017 to create the album Guris, a monumental celebration of Hermeto Pascoal's compositions. This collaboration brought together Jovino's intimate knowledge of Pascoal's complete repertoire—he served as musical director of O Grupo and editor of Tudo é Som, a book featuring 32 of Pascoal's best-known works—with Mehmari's youthful vigor and compositional talent. The album features both musicians on piano, melodica, and various keyboards, with special guest appearances by Hermeto Pascoal himself on teakettle and melodica, creating what critics describe as a structurally significant addition to Pascoal's musical legacy.

Fun Facts

• Jovino Santos Neto holds a degree in biology and has described himself as 'a pianist, composer, arranger, biologist,' bringing scientific rigor to his musical analysis and teaching approach.
• During rehearsals with Hermeto Pascoal's O Grupo, Jovino and bandmates would sometimes spend entire days working on a single challenging passage, and Pascoal would occasionally dismantle formal rehearsals by spontaneously starting improvised pieces that could evolve into new written compositions.
• Jovino served as editor of Tudo é Som, a comprehensive book featuring 32 of Hermeto Pascoal's best-known works, making him a crucial custodian of Pascoal's musical legacy and giving him deeper knowledge of the master's complete repertoire than most musicians.
• In 2022, at an advanced stage of his career, Jovino toured the UK conducting the National Youth Jazz Orchestra alongside his longtime mentor Hermeto Pascoal, demonstrating the enduring mentorship relationship that began in 1977.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Hermeto Pascoal - Primary mentor and musical influence; Jovino studied under Pascoal for 15 years in O Grupo, describing him as 'my school for fifteen years.' Pascoal's teaching method involved presenting musicians with specific challenges rather than formal instruction, and he composed music in front of the group to teach composition, arrangement, and scoring. (O Grupo recordings; Guris album features Pascoal as special guest) [1977-1992 (primary mentorship); ongoing influence thereafter]

Key Collaborators

• André Mehmari - Piano duo partner; Mehmari collaborated with Jovino on the Guris album, a celebration of Hermeto Pascoal's music combining Jovino's deep knowledge of Pascoal's repertoire with Mehmari's youthful compositional energy (Guris (2017)) [2016-2017]
• Hermeto Pascoal - Frequent collaborator and featured artist; appeared on multiple Jovino albums and the Guris project (Roda Carioca (2006); Guris (2017)) [1977-present]
• Airto Moreira and Flora Purim - Jovino was a member of their group Fourth World (Fourth World) [1994-1997]
• Bill Frisell, Paquito d'Rivera, João Donato, Joyce, Paula Morelenbaum, Monica Salmaso, Ricardo Silveira, Gabriel Grossi - Featured musicians on Jovino's duet album Veja o Som (Veja o Som (2010)) [2010]

Artists Influenced

• Multiple generations of Brazilian musicians - Jovino's work with Hermeto Pascoal and his own compositions have influenced contemporary Brazilian music; his orchestrations and arrangements have been performed by major orchestras (Suite Universal orchestration (premiered by Los Angeles Philharmonic, 2019); Milonga da Emília (2018)) [1977-present]

External Links

• Spotify
• [Wikipedia](Not found in search results)