Luiz Santos

The vibrant and joyful music of Luiz Santos, a worldwide artist currently based in the New York City area, will make you feel alive. His brilliant mix of Brazilian rhythms, Caribbean, chamber music and jazz as he plays the drums and the piano will fill your heart with hope. Simply put on one of his CDs and you'll be sure to feel uplifted and encouraged. What makes the music of this world-class Brazilian drummer, percussionist, pianist and composer so unique and incredibly special? His unparalleled creativity in making music and has been doing so since his childhood.

His love of music stems from the passion for music his Brazilian parents had while growing up. They knew that as a young child of nine years old when they first heard Luiz play the drums, he had talent beyond his years. The more he played, the more he aspired to play many different rhythms.

The self-taught instrumentalist played his first professional gig at the age of 13 while living in Rio de Janeiro. Opportunities arose to play with older musicians which helped him to explore many different styles of music.

Eventually he began performing all over Brazil with well-known recording musicians such as bassist Arthur Maia, Jovino Santos, Hermeto Pascoal and many others. The passion Luiz had for music fueled him to begin composing and arranging full orchestral pieces.

He also toured extensively in Europe as part of "Brazil Fusion". His music became in high demand, enabling him to play for bands and work on music projects in several countries including Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Luxemburg and Italy. Listed below are a few of the many venues throughout Europe in which he has performed:

• Quasimodo Berlin

• Atlantis Basel

• Mannheimer Feuerwache

• Nefertitti Goteborg

• Unterfahrt Munchen

• Birdland Hamburg Fabrik

Influenced by the music of Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Strawinsky, Debussy, Bartok, Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti, Keith Jarrett, Weather Report, Pat Metheny, Elvin Jones, Peter Erskine, Billy Cobham, Tony Williams, Dave Weckl and Steve Gadd, he creates unique flavors of music by combining typical jazz sounds with classical and Brazilian percussion. He has also written compositions for everything from jazz to contemporary classical, modern music to string quartets.

He has also been on demand in New York City playing