The composer, guitarist and trombonist Emiliano Sampaio has lived in Austria since 2012 and founded the Nonett Mereneu Project with top musicians from the Austrian scene back then. The nine-piece band released three albums and their last production was “Music for Large Ensembles Vol II” with expanded instrumentation involving string orchestra, harp, oboe, frech horn and classical percussion.
The band received a four-star review and won the 2014 Best Small Jazz Combo award from Dowbeat Magazine.
In 2016 the Mereneu Project was in Brazil for the first time, in Emiliano's homeland, to play at the largest jazz festival in Brazil, the Savassi Festival.
“You only know Sampaio´s pieces when you've really heard them to the end. Hardly anyone else brings so many new ideas into jazz.”
— Hans Jürgen-Schaal, Jazzthetik Magazine - 2020
“Mr. Sampaios´s originality is undoubtably putting a huge smile on the faces of Gil Evans, Moacir Santos and Rachmaninoff. Simply put: musical poetry in motion”
— Luis Bonilla - 2016
"Emiliano Sampaio's passion for communication conveyed through music and art is really remarkably expressed here. Music for large ensembles Vol. II inspires with a journey through the most diverse landscapes and scores with a high degree of finesse on an instrumental and compositional level!"
— Alexander Kochman - 2020
Credits: Simon Reithofer
Credits: Jazz Redoute
