Theo Pascal is one of the most talented and inspired Portuguese musician/composer/producer in the Worldmusic/Lusophone/Jazz Crossover area.
He’s been playing professionally since his 13 years old and has a strong background of tours in Europe, Africa and Asia as a solo artist, performer bass player and musical director.
As a performer bass player and musical director he already played in Festivals worldwide: Holland – Showcase at Womex- World Music International Conference, Jazzahead showcases, Europaishes Festival in Recklinghausen, the International Africa Festival in Wuerzburg, "Dunya on Stage Festival" in Holland, Several Festivals in Cape Verde, Mozambique, Namíbia- "Warehouse Theatre", South Africa, Zimbabwe - International Festival HIFA in Harare, Angola, Arts Festival in Macau-Asia, plus consecutive tours around the World with Carmen Souza.
He also recorded several albums as a session player or invited musician with Portuguese and African artists from Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau (Sara Tavares-www.saratavares.com, Ildo Lobo, Maria Alice, André Cabaço, Eneida Marta, D.Kikas, etc) and in doing so he already had the chance to be directed by artists like Lokua Kansa-one of the most talented African singer/musician/producer in the world, working in France.
Between the years of 2002 and 2005, besides his 2 solo albums, he produced several Portuguese, African, Brazilian artists and was the mentor of 2 pioneer Portuguese programmes, supported by major international and Portuguese company’s, to discover new Portuguese speaking talents in World Music, African music, Jazz, Fusion, Fado, etc. With these projects, he gave new talented artists the opportunity to record their music and play in big promotional events.
In 2002, Pascal was the producer and musical director in the Political campaign of Durao Barroso. Who was by then elected Portugal Prime Minister and later President of the European Commission for several years.
At only 27 years old he achieved great conquers like the birth of his own record label and a publishing deal with the biggest independent publisher in the world - PEERMUSIC. He was actually the first Portuguese artist to sign a deal with Peermusic.
His first solo album, released in 2001, Quamundo’s, received very good reviews from the Portuguese Press and the international music community, entered playlists in Portuguese radios like Antena 3 or RDP Africa Radio - the Portuguese representative of EBU and World Music Charts. “Mutebass” and “Different Moon”, two of Quamundo’s songs, entered the playlist at KDFA FM 94.1 Berkeley USA Radio in a World Music Program directed by Kutay Derin Kugary, the co-founder and program director of the San Francisco World Music Festival.
In 2005 he released his second solo album MOTIVE. This album received great reviews from producers on radios like BBC 3 – the UK, his compositions were included in playlists of radio programmes like AfroBase on Juice 107.2 weekly Sundays 4-6pm (Live at www.nonstopjuice.com) and club: AfroBase monthly Saturdays @ The Volks, Madeira Drive, Brighton, UK, Radios in Poland, Spain, France and USA. MOTIVE was released in Portugal and dist. in Spain, Poland and Cape Verde.
Besides all this, he also composed (Music) and produced all songs for acclaimed Cape Verdean singer/songwriter, Carmen Souza since her first release in 2005.
He wrote most of the musical compositions included in all Carmen Souza´s albums released to date:
Carmen Souza /Ess ê Nha Cabo Verde (2005) - TheOoTheZz
Carmen Souza /Verdade(2008) – Jazzpilon/Galileo
Carmen Souza/Protegid(2010) - Jazzpilon/Galileo
Carmen Souza Duo feat THEO PASCAL-London Acoustic Set (2012) - Jazzpilon/Galileo
Carmen Souza/Kachupada (2013) - Jazzpilon/Galileo
Carmen Souza/Live at lagny jazz festival (2014) jazzzpilon /Galileo
Carmen Souza & THEO PASCAL / Epistola (2015) Jazzpilon/Galileo
Carmen Souza feat THEO PASCAL /Creology (2017) Jazzpilon/Galileo
Carmen Souza /The Silver Messengers (2019) Jazzpilon/Galileo
All 9 albums gathered great reviews from the International Press around the world and Pascal´s compositions were included in several international playlists plus broadcasted live by major TV/Radio stations like BBC Radio 3 (UK), Vrije Geluiden (NL), CBC (CA), RDP/RTP Africa (PT), CONCERTZENDER (NL), WDR/3Sat (DE), etc.
Theo Pascal also composed and produced several advertising jingles and station jingles for Portuguese major tv Channel’s: SIC Noticias and RTP2.
In 2016 he was included in the BLITZ MAGAZINE (only music magazine in Portugal) list of the best bass players in Portugal from the last 30 years.
In 2019, Theo Pascal together with Carmen Souza releases a new CD called 'The Silver Messengers' in tribute to Horace Silver that got into all the press charts for World Music and Jazz in Europe: World Music Charts Europe, Transglobal World Music Chart, Europe Jazz media chart. The album was FIP selection album in France and got 4 Star reviews on Downbeat magazine (USA), Songlines (UK), amount other 4 & 5 Star reviews around the world. With this album, Carmen Souza was also a cover story at Jazzthetik Jazz magazine in Germany.
In the USA the album was included the radio Jazz charts for 11 months Nov. 2019 to Sep 2020.
Aside from being Carmen Souza composer/producer,
Theo Pascal is also her Musical Director, Bass Player and Double Bass player and is currently touring with
The Silver Messengers album.
In 2020 during COVID stand-by, Pascal went back to finish his studies and was awarded a Master´s Degree with Distinction in Creative Production by the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London/UK.
IN 2021, Theo Pascal solo album QUAMUNDOS2 received funding from Arts Council England and is set to be released in MAY 2022 by Galileo Music.
The first single - MUTEBASS was released on Sep.14, one day before the SOLD OUT NEW SHOW premiered in Spain at the 33rd Mercat de Musica Viva de Vic.