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 Born
in Rio de Janeiro in 1978, Jorge Bezerra, Jr. began playing percussion
with Candomblé's tambores, in Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies.
He received his first professional gig in 1993 with Afro-music band "Lemy
Ayo" where he was the artistic director. In 1995, he arranged
and led another popular Afro-Cuban band called "Orunmila".
Upon arriving in Paris in 1998, Jorge played all types of drums, particularly
religious Afro-Cuban drums like batas and candomblé atabaques,
which he specializes in.
To date, Jorge has participated in a great number of world tours with
such notable world music artists as Tupinago, Bebel Gilberto or St.
Germain, Ben Sidran and others. He has traveled to 40 countries and
performed more than 100 live concerts. In 2004, Jorge was the most
acclaimed musician in "Baku Jazz Festival"(Azerbaidjian)
and won the first prize.
Jorge began to make a name for himself with the Joe Zawinul Syndicate,
which gave him the chance to share the stage with Herbie Hancock, Ernest
Hungly, Monty Alexander, Ernest Hungly, Idrissa Diop, Carlinhos Brown,
Angelique Kidjo where he won a solid platform in front of press and
public alike. More recently, he's played with Wayne Shorter and Marcus
Miller, and as a key musician with the Syndicate prior to Joe Zawinul's
passing; he toured worldwide performing over 300 shows in few years.
Bezerra was also Carlos Santana's special guest and played with Clementine
(Blue Note) for five years. Jorge also joined Jovanotti in Italy in
his last tour, which was captured on the DVD "Buon Sangue Tour".
Today, Jorge divides his time between Jazz, Brazilian and Afro-Caribbean
music, playing with famous musicians like Javier Campos or Miguel "Puntilla" Rios
in Afrekete's Band.
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