Cool!

João Erbetta - The L.A Sessions

Brazilian guitarrist João Erbetta recently upped sticks and moved to the States where he recorded this, his third instrumental outing. Searching for the right place to record live with a vintage drum sound, he was recommended Pete Curry's Powow Fun room Studio in Los Angeles and, within three days of his arrival, the album was ready. Pete (The Halibuts, Los Straitjackets) plays drums and Richard D'Andrea bass, João providing the guitar work and the songs. He say's: "I don't like songs with long solos that don't reach a conclusion. Surf and Country music are based on melodies. My connection is with the melody."
Viva Waimea! makes a fine first impression as João manages to fire 1st and 2nd guitar parts as well as some crashing rhythm chords in a single volley of finger work. It's impressive and hugely enjoyable too. O Caipira is a jolly uptempo Hawaiian style melody while South American Girl in an exotic roll-along surf ballad. The only cover amongst ten originals is the excellent racey Tico Tico, but Oil Man meanders somewhat untill João's flying fingers zoom along the Road to Mineapollis. With a Jazzmaster playing through a Fender amp, João pushes this surf-based set out of its box and towards a bit of country on The Dog and the Squirrel and easy listening for This is Your New World, there's even some easy with a hint of jazz on Malibu Nightmare. It's a striking album and Viva Waimea!  keeps drawing me back. (Alan Taylor)

Pipeline Magazine

I'm really excited about playing at The Living Room next Sunday (October 4th - 9pm). I remember the first time I saw Jim Campilongo playing there and I was hooked by the place. We will have a special night there. Andrew (Borger) will be back playing with me and Tim (Luntzel). I'm working on a new album so we will have a bunch of new tunes, also the "New Orleans" special with "Big Butter and Egg Man" and "Tishomingo Blues" being part of the setlist. Maybe Caravan and Perfídia too. I'm not sure. Too many songs so far!

In November I'll be playing at the Rockwood Music Hall (Nov 14th 1am), another LES gem. It will be a Saturday night. How cool is that?

I'm doing the "every other Tuesday" late show at Nublu (will be there October 6th and 20th) and loving every minute of it. Nublu is kinda my second home. Sometimes I play with Forro in the Dark at those crazy Wednesday nights. You should check the guys anyway.

We might have some other Sunny's (Red Hook, Brooklyn) gigs when Smokey is out of town. The deal is, go to Sunny's every Wednesday around 10pm. It doesn't matter who's playing. You'll have a great time.

Have a great Fall! New album coming in December (I guess). Have fun.
Cheers
Joao

PS:
Here's  a cool video filmed at Nublu by Estêvão Bertoni:

So, everybody knows that Sunny's is the best spot in Red Hook, right? Everybody also knows that Wednesday is Smokey Hormel's night at Sunny's. Smokey is taking a break this summer and I'll be there with the best of latin-americana while Francis will be in charge of some caipirinhas.
Every Wednesdays in July at 9:30pm. It's a deal!

Sunny's
253 Conover St.
Brooklyn, NY 11231

How cool is that? Check it out:
Vintage Guitar Magazine review

Still Making Waves

by Dan Forte (Vintage Guitar Magazine)
I
know what you're thinking: How can instrumental surf music, a genre
that was declared dead in the water, so to speak, 40-odd years ago,
keep turning up new players, along with new releases from its elder
statesmen? Like most, I believed Jimi when he murmured, "And you'll
never hear surf music again," lo, these four decades ago. But, despite
all odds, not to mention less than zero support from the "music
industry", there are probably more bands playing surfmusic worldwide
today than there were in its heyday.

One of the newest and most interesting players to hit the scene is Joao Erbetta. A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, he recently relocated to Brooklyn. Following up two volumes of Guitar Bizarre,
he went to Los Angeles to record his latest CD (aptly titled The L.A
Sessions, on Monga Records), on instructions from one of his favorite
pickers, Deke Dickerson.
"I asked Deke where could I go to have
"that drum sound" that I love so much, and he said Pete Curry was the
answer for me". While Bizarre
features overdubs and layered guitars, this album was recorded
essentially live and mixed in two and a half days at Curry's Powow Fun
Room studio, with Curry (who genre aficionados will recognize as
bassist of Los Straitjackets and lead guitarist of the Halibuts) on
drums and Richard D'Andrea on bass.
The versatile Erbetta is also a
producer and composer for TV and videogame soundtracks and
singer/guitarist of the Brazilian trio Los Pirata. Playing primarily a
Jazzmaster-styled N.Zaganin JM Custom through Curry's brown Fender
Super, he achieves a rich, authentic sound, but is far from restricted
by the idiom. On a set of 10 originals and a spirited reading of "Tico
Tico", you can detect Joao's influences (he cites Chet Atkins, Les
Paul, Al Caiola, Tony Mottola, and Jerry Reed, among others), as he
gets jazzy one minute ("Malibu Nightmare"), countrified the next ("The
dog and the Squirrel"), then turns easy-listening on end ("This is your
new World").

At 37, Erbetta is roughly the same age that Paul Johnson was when he returned to active duty... 

So, thanks for Tim and Joe I'll be playing at the Gretsch Stage at the 2009 Namm show in Anaheim next Sunday at 4pm. Wow.
I told Gretsch guys that I never forgot the Brian Setzer's introduction on the "Gretsch Guitar Book" talking about the thrill of passing by the Gretsch Building while going to Manhattan from Long Island... I kept that on my mind. When I walked for the first time in front of the building I had the same happy feeling I had when I saw the Manhattan skyline for the first time... or, when I first crossed the Golden Gate Bridge... That's how Gretsch is important to me.
The dream band with me (the same as in the Guitar Geek Festival) is Pete Curry on drums and Sam Bolle on bass. What else can I ask for?

So, my pal Monty called me to tell that I'm one of the "Latin Best Recording" at Wammies this year. How cool! If you are a member you can vote at Wama's webpage.
Even cooler is the fact that Yamomanem was selected one of the best Jazz Duo/Groups in Washington DC.
I'm not that into competitions and prizes in music but, anyway, congrats to everybody on it!

So, three weeks ago I received my Guitar Player mag. Beatiful cover with top artists live gear. Cool. Inside there's this "Rants and Raves" section with CD reviews and stuff. Opening the whole thing there's this "what's spinning in the editors' heads this month" and Mr. Art Thompson wrote:

Cool! Well, two days ago I received the January edition and, voilà!



So, I'm glad Mr. Thompson is enjoying the CD! Cheers!

I forgot to tell this... I'll be playing at the world famous Deke Dickerson's Guitar Geek in January. There's this "breakout showcase" opening the whole thing and I'll be there with Pete Curry and Sam Bolle playing a couple of tunes.
Check out the Guitar Geek website for more information!

So, it's time to move on. Washington DC has been really nice to me. Now is time to Brooklyn, NY. Meanwhile I'll be heading down South to perform in Sao Paulo with my trio (Regis Damasceno and Marcelo Effori) and with my crazy band Los Pirata. We promise fun and noise in those venues. sometimes more noise than fun, I guess.
Monga Records, my little record label, is also having a party. I'm glad to see Bazar Pamplona (with a freaking cool new video coming up) and Pelico doing pretty well in Brazil. I'm proud of them. Los Pirata might be preparing new songs soon, I'm not sure. Let's see what happens.

So, here's the thing: You can listen (and buy!) the cd at CD baby and also at the beloved Itunes Store. Go now, bro...