Événement

As Três Meninas

As Três Meninas, ("The Three Girls"), is a recently formed group of accomplished musicians:
Fabiana Passoni (vocals), Stephanie Ozer (piano), and Ami Mollinelli (percussion) playing the
most intoxicating danceable music from Brazil and the Americas from Samba, to Bossa Nova and Jazz. Unfortunately, Ami will not be with us this show but we are adding menina Tomoko Funaki on Bass for this performance. Special guest Phil Thompson (drums) will also join us for the evening. We hope to have another surprise or two. Stay tuned!

Fabiana Passoni, born in Poços de Caldas, Brazil, began singing when she was 6 years old. In New York City, Fabiana began singing jazz fused with the older rhythms of Brazil (bossa nova, baião, and samba). Her CD's "É Minha Vez" and "Naturalmente Brasil" feature her distinct, sultry and exciting voice. Passoni's live performances celebrate Brazilian soul and culture with its relentless zeal for life! Her awards include "Best Brazilian Female Singer living in the U.S" (Brazilian International Press Awards) and "Talk 2 Brazil's 2012 Person of the Year".

Stephanie Ozer, Jazz pianist and composer, traveled to Rio for her CD "O Começo: New Beginnings in Brazilian Jazz" to record with star vocalist Leny Andrade. Ozer is a unique talent reflecting the powerful influence of Manfredo Fest. Nominee for Best Jazz Artist of the North Bay, Stephanie Ozer has performed in ensembles of jazz, rock, Klezmer, and gamelan, as well as her specialty - Brazilian jazz. She worked for a decade with vocalist Kathy Moore in an award winning jazz duo, opening for Abbey Lincoln and Phoebe Snow in Ann Arbor, Michigan and performing at the San Jose Jazz Festival, Michigan Womans' Music Festival, the Vancouver Folk Festival, the National Womans' Music Festival, The Jazz School (Berkeley), and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.

Tomoko Funaki was born in Japan into a musical family. Like her mother, a violinist for a
symphony orchestra in Japan, Tomoko began as a classical musician studying violin with the
Suzuki Method at the age of 4. She moved to the United States to attend college and lived in New York and SanFrancisco, where she continued to perform and expose herself to a broad range of musical genres. It was during this time that she first discovered her passion for jazz. After moving to San Francisco in 2002, she began studying upright bass and quickly immersed herself into the San Francisco jazz scene, studying and performing with many Bay area luminaries. She has also been involved in jazz education programs such as Stanford Jazz Workshop and SFSU ICA The Generations Jazz Project in recent years.