Melissa Oliveira
Half Australian, half Portuguese, Melissa Oliveira has been living in Europe for the past years (in Portugal and in the Netherlands). She had the privilege of recording her debut CD In my garden in Boston with special guests Greg Osby and Jason Palmer and is currently presenting it using an idiosyncratic line-up which also includes the Portuguese guitar, turntables and visuals.
In an innovative way, especially in the world of jazz, Melissa Oliveira presents a show that, despite being multifaceted, remains faithful to the principles of this style. Consider the Portuguese guitar, which instead of being used in a strictly traditional manner, is also entitled to jazzy melodies and harmonies as a mandatory part of the arrangements made for this project.
Yet, the fusion of styles and instruments doesn’t stop here. Another member of the project is JAM who uses turntables in an interactive way so that even audio-visual solos are possible thus resulting in no two shows being alike by maintaining the spirit of jazz in an unconventional format with this extra visual layer.
Beautiful music from a talented lady and band