With the CD Herz e Loureiro, awarded by the Proac 2014 award and released in the same year, the meeting between vibraphone and violin, unusual in any musical style, forms a huge variety of tones and sounds that complement each other. Ricardo Herz, violin and Antonio Loureiro, vibraphone, already recognized in their instruments also show their sides as composers on this CD, which also featured the production of renowned musician André Mehmari.
“I met Loureiro at the Filial bar, in São Paulo, presented by Benjamim Taubkin, as a great drummer and composer from Minas Gerais. I first met the person: kind of shy, well from Minas… good people! I played, Ramo. Then I started to see his side as a drummer and composer. I was already impressed! Soon after, he went to Paris, the city where I lived at the time. We met and I heard his first solo record. My chin I fell with that record. What compositions, what arrangements, what performance! I became a card-carrying fan. On this occasion I played the song Quinem Quiabo in his concert.
He on the guitar and I on the violin. Then he told me that he played the vibraphone and that when I went to Brazil we should put together a duo of vibra and violin. I thought it was kind of risky. I had never seen it. It could sound too “headed”. But if you don’t risk something, don’t you? So it is. We took a risk and it didn’t work? I’m not going to say that it wasn’t work.
There were hours and hours of study and rehearsals thinking and experimenting with the possibilities. We also have the luxurious direction, audio capture, mixing and mastering of the great André Mehmari!
I hope you like the album so much
how much I enjoyed doing!
A hug to everyone!””
Ricardo Herz
Antonio Loureiro brings a sophisticated new voice to the vibraphone as a composer and performer. Ricardo Herz is a violin revolution-in-the-making with his unparalleled originality, charm and swing. Their album, “Herz e Loureiro,” released in 2014, is unprecedented as a duo of violin and vibraphone. It challenges expectations and stands as an example of textural, compositional, and artistic brilliance.
“Recording this work is the fulfillment of a desire that involves my moving from Belo Horizonte to São Paulo 4 years ago. Ricardo and André are musicians I admire a lot since long before we became friends and played together. Today I am happy to make music. and friendship with these two who are representatives of the best that has been done today in the music of our country.
The main reason for this meeting is the mutual admiration for music and personality. The meeting of instruments is unusual, but it is the result of a simple desire to find and make music, regardless of the instrument, I believe. Ricardo and André give me, at this moment, the maximum joy of being a musician and being able to learn and enjoy their great talent and friendship. Thank you friends.”
Antonio Loureiro
“Marriage of the violin with vibraphone? Improbable, daring, new, unprecedented, strange even. Except that it wasn’t. It could have been tuba and bagpipes. Here is the duo performance of Antonio Loureiro and Ricardo Herz: two complete musicians who join their voices in this beautiful record that I had the joy of producing in my studio in the middle of the forest. And it was there, through the wood of the floor and the stones of the wall, that I heard the reverberation of wonders, the meeting of never-before-heard sounds, the alchemy of generous color and sound resulting from the happy embrace of two musicians who have given their lives to music. And this is the thing heard clearly and gently in every note (and also in every pause) that leaves the album so unique and special. I lived, I heard, I saw. It was beautiful. Thank you.”
André Mehmari (world-class pianist, composer & producer)
Acknowledgements:
André, Lea, Gisella, Fernando, Benjamim, Teresa, Caio, Claudinho, Camilla, Luana, Marina e Renato Herz, Wim Comptdaer, Aline, Cybelle e Maurício Loureiro e todos que direta e indiretamente contribuíram para este disco. Agradecidos, de coração!
Technical sheet:
violino – Ricardo Herz
vibrafone – Antonio Loureiro
direção de gravação, produção musical, captação, mixagem e masterização – André Mehmari
design gráfico – Teresa Maita
fotos – Caio Palazzo
foto do duo + mehmari – Arquivo pessoal de André Mehmari
elaboração do projeto e produção executiva – Borandá
This project was made possible by an award from Proac in 2014, and was produced by world-class pianist, composer and producer André Mehmari.