Our Bellingham CD release concert at Nancy's Farm was a big success, with a full house of hometown friends and fans.  Next up is the Seattle release show at Egan's Saturday night, Oct. 2nd at 9:00.  We love Egan's for many reasons.  It's great to be able to invite folks to a venue where every seat in the club is a good seat, where they can have dinner, appetizers, or dessert, a nice glass of wine or cocktail or a beer while listening to our music.  The lights are low, and it is a very intimate setting.  We're looking forward to Saturday at Egan's!

Here's a short clip of Zumbido playing Carrapato.  Click here to be escorted to YouTube.

I was thinking recently that I might not play Brasilian music were it not for the music of Joao Gilberto. It's hard from our present vantage point to fully appreciate the extent to which Joao's approach to playing the guitar was epoch-making; Bossa Nova and Samba guitar as we currently understand them simply didn't exist prior to Joao Gilberto. And think of the disadvantage at which he was operating: he didn't have Joao Gilberto to copy!
I had heard some of Joao's early recordings with Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, but the recording that turned me into a Joao idolator was his "Live at Montreaux" album from '82 or '83, on Elektra Musician. Recorded live at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, it features Joao alone, singing and accompanying himself, and I think it is one of the most remarkable recordings ever by a solo singer/guitarist. (Because of the transparency of the sound, it's a great recording from which to figure things out by ear.) The beauty of the guitar playing combined with the fact that it is completely at the service of the singing and the songs is remarkable, as is the degree of rhythmic independence that Joao was able to utilize in his vocal phrasing relative to his guitar playing. He's so quiet, but the enraptured audience erupts at the conclusion of each song. What's really scary is that he may be a better singer than a guitarist. Thank you, Joao Gilberto, for what you have contributed to music and to our lives.
John Miller

Hey folks, we Zumbidites are tickled pink about the fine job 3 Crown Creative did with our website.  Not only are they professional, prompt and full of good ideas, but they're nice people too!  And when all is said and done, that is what really counts.  Everything else is gravy.  Well, they served up tons of gravy!

We just spent two long days in Garey Shelton's studio, recording tracks for our upcoming Zumbido CD.  You know things are going well when spirits are still high at the end of the second day, and when you take a CD of 13 roughs home with you, most of which you really like.  It doesn't always work out this well.  So we Zumbidites are counting our lucky stars for having found each other, and for having found such an able and entertaining engineer.  I still bust up when I remember Garey demonstrating how to crack the whip Perry Como style yesterday!  What a guy.