Vinicius Cantuária & Chico Pinheiro

A Rio de Janeiro-raised pop hitmaker who reinvented himself in Brooklyn three decades ago as a supple Brazilian jazz singer/songwriter, guitarist Vinicius Cantuária has carved out a singular niche on the international music scene. A longtime favorite at SFJAZZ, he returns on the heels of his 2024 Sunnyside Records release, Psychedelic Rio, in an intimate duo performance with the masterful Brazilian guitarist and composer Chico Pinheiro.

After writing several multi-million-selling MPB (música popular brasileira) standards for the icon Caetano Veloso, Cantuária decamped for New York, where he quickly became a cult figure via collaborations with a startling array of artists, including David Byrne, Melody Gardot, Norah Jones, Arto Lindsay, Angelique Kidjo, Marcos Valle, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Many jazz fans discovered him through tours and recordings with Bill Frisell, like the supremely cosmopolitan 2003 album The Intercontinentals and the entrancing 2011 session Lágrimas Mexicanas.

A collaborator with Cantuaria on his 2015 tribute to Jobim, Chico Pinheiro is a sublime guitarist and bandleader who has contributed to recordings by Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour, Kurt Elling, Luciana Souza, Romero Lubambo, Placido Domingo, and Paco D’Rivera.

On his latest release, 2024’s Psychedelic Rio, Cantuária expands bossa nova’s ravishing melodies and contained dynamics with a jolt of intensity and power inspired by his heroes, Miles Davis, Ched Baker, Bill Evans, and Antônio Carlos Jobim.