Badi Assad” A New Definition of Bar(re)

"Badi Assad (born 23 December 1966) is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, percussionist and guitarist in the jazz and worldbeat genres. Assad was born in São João da Boa Vista in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, but lived in Rio de Janeiro until he was twelve. Assad studied classical guitar at the University of Rio de Janeiro and won the Young Instrumentalists Contest in Rio de Janeiro in 1984. In 1986, she joined the Guitar Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro, headed by guitar player Turíbio Santos as conductor. In 1987, she was named “Best Brazilian Guitarist of the International Villa Lobos Festival.” She released her first solo album, Dança dos Tons, in 1988. In 1989 she was selected out of two hundred women to perform as one of two vocalists in the play Mulheres de Hollanda, a musical written by Tatiana Cobbett, based on the works of Chico Buarque de Holanda. In 1994, she became associated with Chesky Records and produced the album Solo, followed in 1995 with Rhythms, which won Guitar Player Magazine’s readers’ poll for "Best Classical Album of the Year". Assad, who sings in English and Portuguese, was voted Best Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist by the editors of Guitar Player in 1995." Source: Wikipedia and badiassad.com

BY John Hill: