Victor Assis Brasil was the best Brazilian jazzman of his generation, having being praised by international critics.

Born on August 28, 1945, Brasil showed early evidence of talent for music, excelling at the harmonica and the drums. At age 12 he gave his first concert at the harmonica. Gifted his first saxophone by his aunt at the age of fourteen, in 1961, at age 16, he was presented with an alto saxophone. In 1965, while already a professional, Brasil recorded his first album, Desenhos, with highly favorable reviews, consolidating his pioneering role as a Brazilian jazz musician. His next conquests were the achievement of third place at the 1966 International Jazz Contest in Vienna, Austria, and of the Best Soloist award in the Berlin Jazz Festival, which granted him a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music (Boston, MA).

During the following four years he spent in the U.S., Brasil wrote most of his 400 works. Also from that period are his albums Trajeto, Victor Assis Brasil Toca Jobim, Esperanto, Victor Assis Brasil Quinteto, and Pedrinho, his last one. At a time in Brazil when the smooth n’ easy groove of the bossa beat no longer reflected the inflamed politics of a nation under the cosh of military dictatorship, Victor Assis Brasil morphed Jobim’s soothing originals into raw, deep jazz cuts, with the help of Brazilian legends Edison Lobo, Helio Delmiro and Edison Machado. The album’s influences spans both American continents, finding a meeting point for Latin jazz and North American post-bop, with Roberto Quartin’s perfectionist approach to sound elevating the already incandescent music to divine new heights.

His last three years of life were marked by noted international performances. Victor Assis Brasil’s tragically short life is a better known story. He passed away in 1981 aged just thirty-five.

Alvaro Neder -All Music Guide