Michel Tasky

Before Brazil, Michel already played piano and had learned to sing jazz on a student exchange in the United States. In Rio, his artistic career ran for years alongside his work as an economist and public-health specialist: almost two decades in humanitarian work, a borderless spirit he carried into his music.

Bossa nova was the way in. Then came the samba-canção of the Cantoras do Rádio, choro (four years at the Escola Portátil de Música, cavaquinho in hand), the roots samba of the city's best rodas, and street carnival, saxophone in hand. In 2004, a year-long weekly residency with the Meninas da Serrinha at Bar Cultural Sacrilégio led to a European tour with the group Água de Beber, including the Music Village in Brussels.

He sang in the clubs that defined an era (Mistura Fina, Rio Jazz Club, Jazzmania, Vinicius Bar, Semente, Casa Julieta de Serpa) as well as at Sala Baden Powell and the Centro Cultural de Referência da Música Carioca, and led countless samba circles at Trapiche Gamboa, where he shot the video for “Partiu”.

On record, he translated MPB gems into French on Accord d'Accord, dove into roots samba on Deu Samba (Seven Music / Universal Music), and gathered sambas that play with France on Um Malandro em Paris, selected by the Quintas do BNDES programme, performed in Brussels and broadcast on the Stingray channel in several countries.

After the pandemic, a move to Lisbon and an accident that kept him off stage for a while, Michel is back with Alma Apressada, his first all-original album, and is now recording Les Rides du Temps, in French.

A singer and pianist, he also plays cavaquinho, accordion, melodica, pandeiro and saxophone.