Leo Gandelman

Leo Gandelman earned recognition for his instrumental pop work, which layered brass charts over Brazilian percussion both domestically and internationally, and he currently makes his home in the United States. In addition to his own recordings as a saxophonist, he produced Gal Costa’s Plural and Marina’s Virgem. As a composer he supplied scores for prominent Brazilian television soap operas, series, and feature films. Festival appearances include the Free Jazz Festival and Hollywood Rock in Brazil as well as the Montreux Festival in Switzerland. For fifteen straight years the Rio de Janeiro newspaper Jornal do Brasil named him the nation’s most popular instrumental artist in its annual poll.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Gandelman received his earliest instruction from his mother, concert pianist Salomea Gandelman, and his father, conductor Henrique Gandelman; European classical repertoire shaped his initial outlook. At fifteen he appeared as flute soloist with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira. He also took up the viola da gamba and joined the early-music ensemble Pró Arte Antiqua. At sixteen, weary of the unrelenting discipline demanded by classical training, he set music aside and turned to photography instead. Three years later he resumed performing, this time on saxophone.

After enrolling at Boston’s Berklee College he concentrated on saxophone technique, composition, and arranging. Upon completing his studies he returned to Brazil in 1979, quickly establishing himself as a prolific session musician whose credits eventually encompassed six hundred albums over a ten-year span. During the same period he assembled his first band, Avenida Brasil, whose trumpet section featured Serginho Trombone, Bidinho, and Zé. In 1984 he composed the score for the film Rádio Pirata, directed by Lael Rodrigues. His debut solo album, Leo Gandelman, appeared in 1987 and scored an immediate success with the track “A Ilha,” recorded with William Magalhães. The third release, Solar, issued in 1990, moved seventy thousand copies—an uncommon achievement for an instrumental project in Brazil. Western World, the American reissue of his 1988 album Ocidente, was later cited as the year’s finest progressive music album in the United States.