For over two decades, he's been known as Brazil's most versatile instrumentalist, a jazz savvy soloist whose virtuosity as a saxophonist has been matched by his renowned skills as a composer , arranger and producer. In whatever musical endeavor he has chosen to demonstrate his unique and multifaceted talents, the presence of Leo Gandelman has always insured an uncommonly high level of artistry , energy and passion.
     In a country famed for an abundance of world class musical talent, Gandelman has earned distinction rare for an instrumentalist , recording some of the best selling instrumental albuns in the history of Brazilian popular culture, winning the coveted Jornal do Brasil poll as the nation's most popular instrumental artist for fifteen years in arow, and being hand-picked by Milton Nascimento, Gal Costa , Gilberto Gil , Djavan and dozens of other legendary vocalists to add his trademark sound to over 600 albuns.
     
     At the same time as mantaining his high profile at home in Brazil , the saxophonist has taken his singular sound to other countries, energizing his growing international fan base through a series of hit albuns and enthusiastically received festival and club appearances at some of the world's most prestigious venues.
     
     The Rio de Janeiro-born musician grew up in a home where the tradition of European classical music exerted a strong influence, cultivated by his mother, a concert pianist,and his father, an orcherstra conductor. It's not surptising that by the tender age of 15, Leo had gained enough skill on his first instrument to be featured as a flautist with Rio's highly regarded Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira ( Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra).
     
     One of the first Brazilian instrumentalists to pursue a formal music education abroad, Leo attended Boston's internationally famed Berklee College, where he refined his budding tallents as a saxophonist, composer and arranger. Graduation signaled an immediate return to the heady cultural enviroment of Rio, where he quickly established himself as a first-call soloist and session player in Brazil's hyper-active recording scene. With seven solo albuns to his credit, including three chart-topping and critically acclaimed projects for the international market on the Verve Forecast label, Leo has all but defined a style that, while unmistakably Brazilian at the core, masterfully blends carefully selected portions of jazz, funk, R&B and pop to create an effervescent new hybrid that shimmers with tropical passion as it burns with the urban energy of a new global music language.
     
     Many of the most adroit critics in the U.S. have recognized Gandelman's wholly personal artistic imprint and its influence on contemporary jazz. Billboard Magazine lauded his ability to "blend punchy horn lines and slamming rides with Brazilian rhythms," The Gavin Report" , an influencial music industry observer, cited Leo as " a saxophone force to be reckoned
     with ... he just keeps getting better and better ". Commenting on the release of his Verve Forecast album Made in Rio, Jazz Times advised its readers to "pick it up and prepare to be enchanted ", noting that Gandelman "immediately distances himself from the wannabes through skilled arrangements thick with real horns and percussion exotica." And his Verve Forecast album Visions was proclaimed by a leading JAZZIZ critic as one of the best albuns of the decade.
     
     With such an illustrious track record of accomplishments, it would be easy to assume that Leo Gandelman had reached the pinnacle of his career. But the saxophonist Brazilians regard as one of their greatest living musicians is just getting started . Now residing in the United States, Leo is poised to achieve an even higher level of fame and artist growth.Equally conversant in the innumerable musical idioms of his native land, his adopted home, and other global cultures, Leo Gandelman can be counted on to help set the trends others will follow for many years to come.
     
     Copyright © 2000/01 Leo Gandelman.