Receita de Samba, taken from Jacob do Bandolim's choro of the same name, means in Portuguese "recipe for samba", an apt name for a group who's focus is to showcase the many flavors of Brazilian music in their purest form, with no artificial additives like drum machines or electronic sampling. The chefs de cuisine are husband and wife duo Anna Borges and Bill Ward, who draw from Boston's vibrant Brazilian music scene to cook up only the finest bossa nova and samba, and well as regional specialties such as forró, ijexá, and coco.
Anna Borges, originally from Recife, Pernambuco, began her career in Brasília, singing in local nightclubs and theaters. As an adolescent, she would go out to hear musicians who were passing through Brasília such as Egberto Gismonti, Joyce Moreno, Hermeto Pascoal, Chico Buarque, and the vocal group Boca Livre. Eventually she learned to play guitar and enrolled in the Escola de Música de Brasília, where she studied voice with Jane Duboc and sang in choral groups, studying both classical and popular techniques. After many years working closely with Brazilian guitarist Agilson Alcântara, Anna moved to Boston Massachusetts along with her father who was stationed there as a vice-consul in the Brazilian Consulate. In Boston, she began a musical collaboration with Bill Ward, whom she would later marry.
Bill Ward is a pianist, guitarist and singer who has explored, in depth, many musical universes. He began as a jazz pianist, winning Downbeat polls as a high school student and later studying at Oberlin Conservatory with Dan Wall and Sanford Margolis. He got his first João Gilberto record when he has thirteen, but it wasn’t until later, in college, that he would drop everything to learn Portuguese as he fell deeper and deeper into the vortex of Brazilian music. Lately, he has immersed himself in the universe of Classical Piano, pursuing a Master’s degree in Piano Performance at Boston University, where he studies with Boaz Sharon and Gila Goldstein.
Check them out on Facebook.
