Di Freitas

• country:
  Brazil
• region or city:
  South America
• style(s):
  World
• label:
  Selo SESC
• type:
  Solist, Composer/Songwriter
• gender:
  male
• instrumentation:
  instrumental, vocal
• artist submitted by:
  Babel Produções Artisticas

This is Di Freitas, a man of few words ... but a lot of music playing one od his instrumental creations. One day he was looking for a 'foot gourd', fruit typical of warmer regions, when he had the idea: "if I cut the bowl in the middle, I will have a perfect sounding board; and the nicest thing is that there are no two alike, each one has the unique shape of the gourd that was done, "says musician and craftsman". "O Alumioso" (The shining light) presents the music of Di Freitas and hid job and research with strings instruments constructed with gourd.
That's an album that reveals Di Freitas music to a wider public. An extraordinary Brazilian classical musician but now devoted to popular culture.
Di Freitas lived for eight years in Juazeiro do Norte in Cariri, Ceara, where he teaches music, builds instruments from gourds and other alternative materials and make songs, surprisingly, mixing influences from all corners.
He was born in Fortaleza, Ceara, where he studied cello and classical guitar at the training center for string players of SESI.
In Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso and Goias, for many years he took part in many music festivals and took courses with several Brazilian and foreign professors (cello, and also guitar, improvisation and harmony). He served as erudite musician at the Philharmonic of Goias and the group Syntagma, Fortaleza). Eight years ago, he left St. Paul and moved to Juazeiro, up to the North, where he gave new meaning to his life and his career as a musician.
"Juazeiro was like an awakening for me, as if I had awakened from a deep sleep," he says. "I've been seeking for something that seemed so far away, there in the past ... And suddenly I've found it here - in every corner, in every house, every person, shapes, colors and especially the sound. The sound is ancient, it is a gourd sound, modal, armorial, and that's what attracts me ... "
In Juazeiro, in the heart of Cariri Ceara, rich tradition of polo and a renewal of popular culture, Di Freitas began working as a music teacher at SESC site. Lack of resources to purchase instruments for students led him to also become a craftsman, in order to build gourd fiddles and other stringed instruments - including gourd cello, viola, 13 gourd, gourd and marimbau, a Northeastern lira. In 2002 he created the SESC Fiddle Orchestra Cego Oliveira, on which he is the maestro and music coordinator.

Sound Symposium - In 2007, Di Freitas launched alongside the Italian opera singer Francesca Della Monica, the CD Ultraexistir.
But is this new "The shining light", tha shows his strong musicality. The album is a tasty feast of sounds that reveals the most varied influences (from Arabs, Moors, Cuban, Oriental, Spanish, Indian and even the whole musical heritage of the Northeast). In the repertoire are twelve of his compositions, and even his own interpretation to the classic "Juazeiro" by Luiz Gonzaga, and "Vaca Estrela e Boi Fuba," by Patativa do Assare.

According to Di Freitas, "The shining light" is a summary "of my musical memories of these events and times in which the image is already gray, leaving a doubt whether it was real or an illusion of the stubborn. "

To contact this artist go to:
Circus Producoes (www.circusproducoes.com)
Contact: Guto Ruocco (guto@circusproducoes.com.br)
0055 11 3151.3617
0055 11 9172.4010

Links

• artist's page on myspace
• artist's management website