CHICO CHAGA & DAVE O'HIGGINS PROJECT

 Chico Chagas 

Dave O’Higgins

CHAGAS/O’HIGGINS PROJECT

Chico and Dave met at a jam session at bassist Dave Chamberlain’s house last year and struck up an instant rapport & respect. Not long after a new band emerged to play the 606 Club in London – the longest running club in London where the musicians have always been made welcome.

They play original music by Chico – beautiful, evocative, joyous, sad – firmly rooted in Brazilian tradition with a host of jazz & world music influences, conceived especially for the distinctive voice of Dave’s saxophone. If you like melody, harmony & rhythm this music is a feast of all these ingredients the band is certainly not to be missed. They will record a cd soon for release later in the year.

This group won the Best Show Award at the 2009 Kaunas Jazz Festival in Lithuania earlier this year. Other international concerts include: Latvia, France, Italy, South Korea – all this on the strength of word of mouth from the audiences so far….

Accordion-led jazz from Brazilian bandoneon virtuoso Chagas, joined here by fast and funky tenorist O’Higgins for some refreshing, Rio-style modern jazz.

CHICO CHAGAS (Accordionist,pianist, composer) 

Chico comes from Rio Branco, Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon - the same state as Chico Mendes. He followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, father and uncles, who all played accordion. Chico began his musical journey aged 7.

He moved to Rio de Janeiro aged 19 to study classical & jazz piano, harmony, arranging, improvisation and Brazilian popular music. Whilst living in Brazil, Chico enjoyed a prolific career as the most in demand sideman with Paulo Moura (has recorded composition by Chico)

Nana Vasconcelos (has recorded a composition by Chico)

Caetano Veloso

Maria Bethania

Gilberto Gil

Djavan

Cassia Eller

Nana Caymmi

Zeca Pagodinho

Joao Bosco

Chico was also musical director for Elza
Soares (Winner the Best Samba Singer of the Millennium - BBC Awards) and composed music for cinema, soap tv, theatre…

He recorded a cd as leader in Brazil, called “…E por falar em acordeon” (Rob Digital)

Chico moved to London in 2008 to find an audience for his original music. He believes the UK capital to be the most exciting, open minded, cosmopolitan “cooking pot” to create his own rich musical stew…

“Fantastic musician”Egberto Gismonti; “One of the best in Brazil”
Dominguinhos

DAVE O’HIGGINS (Jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator) 

Dave played various musical instruments from the age of 7, finally settling on the
saxophone. He moved from Derbyshire to London in 1983 to study music at the City University. Whilst still studying he started his own jazz quartet and began gigging with NYJO, John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, Icelandic jazz-funk band, Mezzoforte.

Over the years Dave has won various accolades from the British Jazz Awards including
Best Tenor Sax. Sketch Book (Jazzizit)
is his 10th solo cd, featuring Dave alongside one of New York’s finest tenor saxophonists, Eric Alexander. Dave  regularly features as a part of the Ronnie Scotts Allstars, BBC Big Band, and has recently been
touring all over the world with the Chico Chagas/Dave O’Higgins Project – an exciting new collaboration with Brazilian accordion piano playing composer, Chagas.  

Fast Foot Shuffle(Candid) Push (Short Fuse) were conceived for the jazz dance market and have become favourites in clubs like London’s Jazz Café. The track North
Station featured around the world on various compilations (Brasilia
Slim & Messin’ Around). Dave can be seen on many festival stages internationally performing with the breathtaking Jazzcotech Dancers.

Dave has played over the years with “everyone and their auntie” from Martin Taylor to Ray Charles, Matthew Herbert
to Salif Keita. He has also done a fair amount of studio work (jingles, pop stuff, films, library), composes arranges for jazz ensembles of all sizes, and teaches saxophone harmony at the London Centre for Contemporary Music and Goldsmiths College.

“A stunning player in the neo-bop vein, with an apparently effortless flow of coherent ideas, beautiful time and a highly developed harmonic sense.”

JAZZ GUIDE