Hamilton de Holanda Trio

The bandolin occupies a special place in the world of Brazilian music, and Hamilton de Holanda is the undisputed king of the diminutive instrument. Making his SFJAZZ debut, he’s a fiercely melodic improviser who delivers flashing, exquisitely crafted lines on his custom-made 10-string mandolin-like bandolin. 

He’s also a prolific, award-winning composer whose far-flung explorations have expanded the bandolin’s purview beyond choro and Brazilian jazz. Over the past three decades de Holanda has recorded with Brazilian guitar maestros Yamandu Costa, Raphael Rabello, and Diogo Nogueira, earning a series of Latin GRAMMY nominations, while collaborating with an array of major creative figures, including pianists Chick Corea, Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, bassist esperanza spalding, Snarky Puppy, and rockers Dave Matthews and Coldplay. Holanda’s 2024 Sony Music Brazil duo recording with Rubalcaba, Collab, received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album.

He’s joined by his sensational trio with pianist Salomão Soares, a brilliant improviser who draws from classical music, jazz, and the vibrant traditions of Brazil’s northeast, and drummer Thiago “Big” Rabello, whose ability to integrate Brazilian rhythmic complexity within a jazz context gives the trio a singular and irresistible propulsion.