24 year old João Barradas stands unique in the jazz world. A virtuosic young accordion player, virtually peerless in contemporary jazz, his unique talents have already garnered significant praise from across the globe, most notably from fellow musicians. US Pianist Gil Goldstein considers him to be the most convincing jazz improvisers he has heard to date on the instrument. Nelson Cascais refers to Barradas as “A musician extraordinaire, technically gifted with an immensely creative and sophisticated phrasing”. High praise indeed, but Barradas is no stranger to the spotlight having won countless accordion competitions across the globe since his early teens. His prodigious talents were recognised early, and now in his mid twenties, he has already established himself as a major force in improvised music, working with established contemporaries like Avishai Cohen, Mark Turner & Greg Osby. The Accordion is not an instrument readily associated with jazz, the chromatic button accordion even less so, and although it is a popular instrument across Southern Europe, particularly in folk circles, Barradas is now poised to imprint his unique talents on the contemporary jazz world.

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