Heitor

Heitor Teixeira Pereira entered the world on 29 November 1957 in Brazil. The exuberant guitarist first drew widespread attention beyond his homeland through his pivotal role in Simply Red’s commercial breakthrough on the 1989 album A New Flame. Long-held ambitions beyond the group eventually produced a solo release in 1994. Raised in southeast Brazil, he initially viewed music not as a profession but as an inherent expression of his community. A friend later exposed him to recordings by Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart alongside classical works by Mahler and Schoenberg. Galvanized by these discoveries, he resolved to pursue further studies in America. Boston, Massachusetts, became his initial destination, where he devoted 18 months to jazz performance and record collecting. Returning to Brazil, he entered the studio with Stewart Lovine, an encounter that led to an offer to relocate to Italy and join Simply Red. The years spent with the band broadened his exposure to fresh musical currents and techniques, yet his drive to issue a solo project, matched by the distinctive character of his guitar playing, persisted undiminished. That goal materialized in 1994 with a self-titled album delivered entirely in Portuguese. Guest appearances featured Mick Hucknall’s vocal on the track “Manchester,” together with contributions from South American musicians Paulinho da Costa and Leo Gandelman, bassist Guy Pratt of Pink Floyd, Gota Yashiki of Gota And The Low Dog, and additional players. Heitor himself handled the greater share of the recording and performance. The piece “Joan Pernambuco” honors the figure who established the acoustic guitar’s legitimacy beyond Brazil’s itinerant communities. Settling in Los Angeles, California, from 1997 onward, he has since scored numerous films, among them As Good As It Gets (1997), Dead In The Water (2002), and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004).