MARIA MENDES
SAUDADE, COLOUR OF LOVE, Maria Mendes’s 4th album awarded with GRAMMY 2024 and Latin GRAMMY 2023 nominations
From her native Portugal to her adopted home in the Netherlands, the 4 x Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated vocalist and composer Maria Mendes has been traveling a world of musical expression.
With Wayne Shorter’s blessings, Mendes premiered his contemporary jazz piece “Gaia” in Germany in 2022. Her song “Inverso,” featuring Anat Cohen, was part of the soundtrack of the Emmy-winning soap opera “Ouro Verde”.
Hailed by DownBeat magazine as “a jazz singer of the highest order,” Mendes’ praises have been sung by such legends as Quincy Jones and Hermeto Pascoal.
The vocalist has performed at the Blue Note Jazz Club NYC; Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals and released four striking solo albums, most recently blending Jazz and Fado on the acclaimed live album “Saudade, Colour of Love” featuring the Metropole Orkest and John Beasley.
Her 4th album, “Saudade, Colour of Love”, featuring the Metropole Orkest, was listed Best Jazz Album 2022 on the 5 top international jazz magazines – Downbeat, Jazziz, Jazzwise, Jazzthing, Jazzism. Rage reviews point out the style-type Sinatra “orchestral” introductions, the rippling jazz piano and adventurous free improvisational interludes, the melancholy passionate fado felt on Mendes’s fervent vocals’s forays into scat on luminous vibrant songs.
“A melange that is fascinating and unusual” (Stereo Magazine, Germany) and “that alone, makes this project an all-round success, infused with Jazz, rich with classical overtones and culturally prominent” (Musical Memoires, USA) “Pulling on two different traditions, this genre-disruptive fusion project manages to make a new genre of its own” (The Big Take Over, USA).
Maria Mendes on CNN
Maria Mendes entrevistada por Herman José
Photo credits: Nathalie Hennis
Significant
awards
GRAMMY Award 2024 *nomination*
BEST ARRANGEMENT | Saudade, Colour of Love
LATIN GRAMMY Award 2023 *nomination*
BEST ARRANGEMENT | Saudade, Colour of Love
GRAMMY Award 2020 *nomination*
BEST ARRANGEMENT INSTRUMENTS & VOCALS | Close To Me
LATIN GRAMMY Award 2020 *nomination*
BEST ARRANGEMENT | Close To Me
*winner* EDISON JAZZ Award 2020
BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM | Close To Me
Montreux Jazz Voice Competition Award
SWITZERLAND | 2010
(president of the jury was jazz legend Quincy Jones)
*winner* Best Jazz Vocalist Award at the Nederlands Jazz Vocalisten Concours
NETHERLANDS | 2009
Relevant
shows
2024-2012 NETHERLANDS: North Sea Jazz Festival, Het Concertgebouw, Bimhuis, Lantaren Venster, Tivoli Vredenburg, Paradox, Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ
2024-2022 GERMANY: Rudolf Oetker Hall Bielefeld, JazzNacht Zollverein
2022-2015 PORTUGAL: CCB, Casa da Música, Teatro São Luiz, Teatro Rivoli, Festival de Jazz de Tavira
2018-2017 BELGIUM: Handelsbeurs, De Bijloke
2018-2010 SWITZERLAND: Montreux Jazz Festival, Off Beat Jazz Festival, Bird’s Eye Jazz Club
2016 FRANCE: Sunside Paris
2014 USA: Blue Note Jazz Club New York
2013 BRASIL: SESC Pompéia São Paulo
Relevant
collaborations
Bielefelder Philharmoniker | Chamber line up on German tour 2024
Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras | Chamber line up on Portuguese tour 2023-2024
LoveMetropole Orkest | Chamber line up on Saudade, Colour of Love (2022) and Close to Me (2019) projects & tours 2019-2022
John Beasley | Arranger, producer, pianist and Metropole Orkest’s conductor for Saudade, Colour of Love and Close to Me projects & tours 2019-2022
Brussels Jazz Orchestra | Big Band on De Bijloke project 2017
Andre Ceccareli | Drummer on Innocentia tour 2017
Anat Cohen | Clarinetist on Innocentia project 2015
Steven Kamperman, Alex Simu & Ricardo Toscano | Clarinetists on Innocentia tour 2015-2018