#hamiltondeholanda

🎶🏆 Hamilton de Holanda faz história: único brasileiro a vencer categoria geral no Grammy Latino Com “Live in NYC”, bandolinista celebra a força da música instrumental brasileira no cenário internacional. Em uma noite marcada por celebrações, surpresas e discursos emocionados, o nome de Hamilton de Holanda ecoou no palco do Grammy Latino como uma afirmação poderosa da música instrumental…

Every December, Hamilton de Holanda organizes a benefit concert, ABRACE, at the Escola de Musica de Brasilia. It features his most promising students, his family, and his long-time collaborators. In December 2024, I was there.

Here's percussionist Larissa Umayta, mandolin monster Ian Coury, and 7-string guitarist Igor Souza. I first met Ian Coury at ABRACE in 2015. He was 13. I've watched Ian develop from a talented kid with stage presence into a very strong and innovative musician. He's played in my Woods Hole concert series several times. He's playing again in March.

The back stage jamming was my highlight. The guy in the middle is Tiago Tunes, who I first met at the International Mandolin Festival in Lunel France in 2013. He's also developed into a major mandolin force.

This was the ABRACE concert itself. The audience was much bigger than I remember it in 2015.

The next evening, while I was still in Brasilia, Ian and Igor played an outdoor gig at a local restaurant.

In October 2024, the Hamilton de Holanda trio, with Chris Potter, played a two-night stand at Dizzy's, at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In celebration of Dizzy's 20th anniversary, the club had installed twenty giant photos of twenty musical giants that have played there. See the fifth one?

Here's a close-up . . .

The gigs were hot.

Now here's a perverse tradition that began in 2008.

Continued in 2012 . . .

and in 2017 . . .

and in 2022 . . .

and in 2024 . . .

When the striped bass start biting, I'm distracted. You can see my last post was in May. The fish were almost jumping into the boat.

I did get a chance to do a brief music safari in May to hear Hamilton de Holanda and Chris Potter play at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

That's "Big" Rabello on percussão, and Salomão Soares on keys.

On June 1, we hosted The Lovestruck Balladeers, a ragtime/swing super-group, for a Woods Hole house concert!

That's Jake Sanders (guitar), Mike Davis (trumpet), Dennis Lichtman (mandolin and clarinet), Sean Cronin (bass) and Dalton Ridenhour (piano).

The Balladeers had a friend in the audience:

This annual concert has become a landmark on my music calendar. It is organized by Hamilton de Holanda. It features his closest musical collaborators and biggest influences - his musical brother, Fernando César, his kids and his brother's kids, his first music teacher, his most promising disciples representing the next generation of Brazilian acoustic music, and, usually, a couple of deeply venerated elder Brazilian music super-heros.

Catch it on line - tomorrow - at 6:00 PM Woods Hole time, Saturday, December 17 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktoc4i5qDQw

I was honored to attend this event in person in 2015. It was an experience I'll never forget. So deep. So joyful. Such talent. Such tradition.

In years past, Hamilton's father, the great guitar player José Américo Mendes, was one of the featured performers. He passed away just a few short weeks ago. So I expect this concert to be even deeper, with multiple tributes, with a deep undercurrent of memento mori.

Here's Hamilton's dad, José Américo Mendes, with his daughter and his wife, at the ABRACE concert in 2015.

Hamilton with Fernando César, ABRACE 2015.

The next generation of Brazilian superstars - Tiago Tunes (mandolin), Ian Coury (mandolin), Mateus Donato (cavaquinho) - tore it up in the ABRACE dressing room in 2015. They were simply amazing then, and each of them is even better today. This music is future-proof.

Here's Hamilton with Venezuelan cuatro player Jorge Gleim at ABRACE 2015.

Hamilton with Brazilian popular music icon Rosa Passos, ABRACE 2015

Paulo André Tavares, Hamilton's first music teacher, and my friend Frango, the sound guy for most of Hamilton's shows.