Kike Mayor, Cesar Stolzembach | en

Pianist, arranger, composer, and producer Cesar Camargo Mariano is one of Brazil's most celebrated and sought-after musicians. In the early '60s, just as the bossa nova was taking its baby steps toward enchanting the world, a teenage Cesar became famous for his ability to swing and for his now-legendary left hand. His ensembles of that era, notably Sambalanço Trio and Som Tres, are regarded as high points in Brazilian jazz; so is his 1981 album Samambaia, one of his thirty-plus instrumental albums. Cesar's collaborations with many of Brazil's most important singers, notably Wilson Simonal and Elis Regina, have brought him...

Chico César (born January 26, 1964 in Catolé do Rocha, Paraíba) is a Brazilian Zouk singer. With his outlandish neo-Indian costumes and music that borrows from reggae, hip-hop, and Senegalese mbalax, Chico César serves notice that he's doing Brazilian popular music his way. He marries an elastic voice that croons and purrs one moment, yelps and yodels the next, to a dexterity on guitar that puts him in the league of tiptop instrumentalists. Originally released on a small independent label in Brazil, the live, mostly solo recording Aos Vivos launched César's career, putting him in demand as both a performer...

The spirit of rock & roll has hauled himself out of bed. He's called up his demons, put on his best black suit, and returned to the city's dark places. His new playmates are The Cesarians. Not since The Birthday Party crashed and burned in Berlin, have the twisted sounds of old style decadence been pumped so intensely through distorted amplifiers. London scenesters looking for a scene free of recycled rock, have found expression in The Cesarians cabaret world. Had rock and roll been born in 1930's urban Europe, and not 1930's rural America, it would have been like this;...