Flute Sessions

"The career of the pianist Marcos Ariel is one of the most prolific and successful between our instrumentalists. This youthful veteran began in the Cantares group, in 1976, after intensive studies of piano, and then earned experience leading the group Usina, with which he recorded his early albuns. Following his path, he acted in innumerable contexts, developing his style and his language in many areas, always with balance, inventiveness and consistency. I have known Marcos Ariel for 20 years, since his first release, Bambu, and realized I was facing a promising potency with a brilliant future. In the occasion, in a critique published in the "Jornal do Brasil" newspaper, I affirmed that, beyond being a pianist and a flutist, Ariel was a composer and arranger with great future. Time has confirmed my predictions, and going beyond them, he has established definitely his international name. Living for the past ten years in the Rio-Los Angeles connection, a lot has happened in the path of this connection, and a series of records have sedimented even more his talent here in Brazil and in the United States." José Domingos Raffaelli Musical reviewer/O Globo newspaper A legitimate carioca, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro. Pianist, flutist and composer, Marcos Ariel has twenty five years of career and nineteen years of phonographic work. Since the beginning, his compositions have been crossing frontiers and his first album, Bambu, was released in France in 1986 and was awarded, in 1983, with the Chiquinha Gonzaga trophy. After that, the album Terra do Índio was released in the U. S. and was elected by JAZZIZ magazine as one of best releases of the year. "...Ariel's unique musical phrasing are played out stylishly employing classical keyboard technique and very 'Brazilian' ideas have a sensibility steeped in Rio brew that combines 'Choro' with Chopin..." Mark Holston Jazziz Magazine. "...Ariel's compositions bring out best in Brazilian beat..." "...Marcos Ariel the Brazilian pianist whose luch sense of phrasing comes with a feel that's at once sensitive and impressionistic..." Bill Kohlhaase LA Weekly. "Ariel revealed a major-league compositional talent. His vibrant works - rich shifting multiplique rhythms - managed to comnbine the twists and turns of be-bop articulation with the soaring melodies of the samba." Don Heckman Los Angeles Times. With the recording and commercial launch of New Age music from CDs Conversations With Angles I and II in addition to the album Enchanted Falls, Marcos Ariel revealed his flutist side where with a classic sonority he interprets his compositions aimed at meditation and healing. With the release of the album Flute Sessions, Marcos Ariel realizes the dream of having his compositions specially written for flute reunited in a sequence that provides much calm, relaxation besides inducing meditation and contemplation.