FERNANDO XAVIER

Since the mid 90s, Fernando Xavier has been busy in the task of spreading the culture of harmonica through out the region of Campinas SP, till then, a dead zone for those interested in the instrument. Self-educated in most of his journey, he received orientation from various musicians such as: R. Gianesi, Márcio Maresia, Robson Fernandes, Sérgio Duarte, L. F. Lisboa, Marcel Rocha and Mark Hummel in Oakland (California).

His versatility yielded him participations in pop, rock, country, sertanejo, gospel and MPB [Brazilian Popular Music] recordings. He was member of the following bands: “Mississippi Breakers” (band that inaugurated the Delta Blues); “Bluesmoke” and “Dubalacu Blues”, with which he was with Flávio Guimarães and André Christovam at the Blues Festival of São José do Rio Preto in 2004, among others. In 2006, he shared the stage with the Argentinean harmonica player J. J. Troche at Delta Blues Bar.

In 2001, he was invited to the “IV Harmônica & Blues Projeto Brasil”; in 2003 to the “Festival Internacional de Harmônica III”, for the opening of Mark Ford’s presentation at SESC Pompéia.

As a teacher, he has been developing his course for ten years with intense concern with all the aspects of the musical theory and diatonic harmonica techniques, with the aim of educating musicians that may urge on the image of the instrument with responsibility. Xavier is a teacher at the Carlos Gomes de Campinas Conservatory, where he organized workshops with Peter “Mad Cat” Ruth and Mark Hummel. He is the creator and co-organizer of the “Gaita in Concert”, one of the big harmonica festivals in Brazil, held from 2001 to 2004, where his students and great names in the domestic scene performed.

In 2004 he had contact with Otavio Castro and since then he has been engaged in the study of chromatism in diatonic harmonica in C and its application in the Brazilian music.

“Fernando Xavier is spreading the sounds of Blues Harmonica to the masses in Brazil, he is opening up the world to what’s out there for folks to learn on this humble instrument” Mark Hummel

 

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