RICARDO PASSOS
A Unique Journey
Ricardo Passos is a multi-instrumentalist musician, born in Porto, Portugal in 1977.
For the last 20 years he has been travelling the world, guided by his interest in music and cultures from different places in Asia, Africa, America and Europe.
Firstly, Ricardo Passos began to study classical guitar and piano in the Music Conservatory of Porto, tap dance and jazz in Escola de Jazz do Porto.
His journey begins in Granada, learning how to play flamenco guitar. Searching for roots in Africa, he went to Essaouira in Morocco to learn how to play guembri with Jamal Babamar. His interest in derbake, rik and bendir drove him to Cairo in Egypt. There he studied with master Hassan Youssef.
Attracted by the bonds that unite East and West, he flew to Istanbul, a bridge between the two cultures. Cem Yildiz taught Ricardo Passos traditional Turkish music, with saz. He then proceeded to Iran, to learn how to play tonbak and def.
Eventually he arrived in Benares connecting with the oldest form of classic music from the north of India: dhrupad singing. He received lessons from Dr. Rajesh Sendh, Pandit SriKant Mishra was his master of the pakhawaj, the drum that accompanies this singing. He traveled to Bhopal to learn with the masters of this tradition, the Gundecha Brothers.
In the South of India he learned the Indian rhythmic system - solkattu - with V.Suresh and carnatic singing with Anuradha Krishnamurthi. Studied qawali singing with Ibrahim Khan in Ajmer and nagara with master Nattu in Pushkar. Ricardo Passos is a self-taught diphonic singer.
In China he was in Beijing, where professor Wang Yao taught him guzheng, the Chinese zither.
From Asia he crossed the Pacific Ocean and settled in 2011 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He graduated in Universidade de Minas Gerais, with a degree in Music Education. There he learned latin drum, congas and bongós with cuban master Santiago Rhéyter.
Amongst other instruments, he taught himself diphonic singing, sheng, morchang, duduk, portuguese-guitar and persian santoor.
Through this journey Ricardo passos performed in Portugal, Spain, France, Morocco, Mexico, Turkey, Iran, China, India, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. He explores in depth improvisation and spontaneity, mixing elements of the Eastern culture such as Indian ragas with Western poliphony.
Nowadays Ricardo Passos is back to Porto, his hometown, where he prepares the launch and presentation of his first record, “Noite de Luz”.
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