Airto Moreira & Ricardo Bacelar feat. Flora Purim
Biography Airto Moreira & Ricardo Bacelar feat. Flora Purim
Ricardo Bacelar
is a Brazilian pianist, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Fortaleza, in the northeast of Brazil. His artistic practice extends beyond performance into the construction of an independent production ecosystem through Jasmin Music and Jasmin Studio, which operate as both label and creative laboratory.
Rather than following Brazil’s traditional Rio–São Paulo industry axis, Bacelar has developed an autonomous production model centred on artistic continuity, technical precision, and long-form collaboration. Within this system, the studio becomes a compositional instrument, and production is treated as an extension of musical thought rather than post-production support.
His work consistently brings together established figures of Brazilian music and new creative environments, allowing intergenerational exchange to shape contemporary output. Collaborations include Gilberto Gil, Roberto Menescal, Toninho Horta, Leila Pinheiro, and Flávio Venturini, positioning him as both curator and architect of a contemporary Brazilian production language.
In Maracanós, Bacelar acts simultaneously as performer and sonic director, shaping the album’s structural identity while guiding its aesthetic and conceptual framework.
Airto Moreira
is one of the most influential percussionists in modern jazz history and a central figure in the globalisation of Brazilian rhythmic language. After relocating to the United States in the late 1960s, he became part of a transformative period in jazz history, contributing to the emergence of jazz fusion alongside artists such as Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, and Stan Getz.
His approach expanded percussion beyond timekeeping into a multidimensional expressive system incorporating voice, texture, and improvisation. This redefinition of rhythmic function helped reshape contemporary jazz performance practice across multiple generations.
Airto is a recipient of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, the highest honour awarded in American jazz, recognising his lasting contribution to the development of the genre.
Within Maracanós, Airto continues his lifelong exploration of rhythm as a living, intuitive system—one that exists in constant dialogue with sound, space, and collective improvisation.
Flora Purim
is one of the most significant Brazilian vocalists in international jazz history. Emerging during the late 1960s, she became a defining voice in the global expansion of Brazilian music through jazz fusion and experimental forms.
Her international recognition grew during the 1970s in the United States, where she was repeatedly named Best Female Jazz Vocalist by critics over multiple years. Her vocal style, characterised by rhythmic elasticity and improvisational phrasing, helped redefine the role of the human voice in jazz contexts.
Closely associated with Airto Moreira both musically and personally, Purim has been a central figure in some of the most important cross-cultural jazz recordings of the fusion era.
In Maracanós, she appears on “Voo da Tarde,” where her voice introduces a lyrical and human counterpoint within the album’s broader abstract and textural sound world.
