"The house had been full for an intense solo concert by São Paulo pianist Heloísa Fernandes performing eight elegant, intense originals that evoked a flavor that I'll summarize as Villa-Lobos meet Jarrett meets Meldau."
Ted Panken
London Jazz News
7 August 2023
“If Heloísa Fernandes didn’t exist, I think I would have to invent her. Surely she cannot really be real.”
Matt Cibula
All About Jazz
14 October 2005
“… Luminous and lyrical, Fernandes is beyond categorization. She is herself, and I’ll always be interested in any music she cares to explore.”
Tim Page
The Post and Courier
28 May 2008
“… One of her greatest virtues is an underlying impulse, a joy both sunny and sober, a contentment in the fun and freedom of making music, blended with the responsibility to play everything with meaning, even in the free improvisations …”
Arthur Nestrovski
Folha de São Paulo
18 March 2005
“The music of Heloísa Fernandes is elegant, sophisticated and original.”
Nuno Catarino
Publico (Portugal)
17 March 2010
“Brazilian pianist Heloisa Fernandes can tickle both the hearts of those with a quieter, more elegant classical palette and those whose survival is reliant upon jazz.”
Brian Gall
All About Jazz – review of Fruto
April 2009
“… Fernandes evokes old Brazil while simultaneously creating a new, shimmering, lyrical and textured sound that contains something of Brazil’s soul and much of the pianist’s heart.”
Adam Parker
The Post and Courier – review of Candeias
10 January 2010
“A small Brazilian bombshell just about demolished the Simons Center Recital Hall on Monday afternoon, and the loud and prolonged applause pretty much took off the rest of the roof.”
George Hubbard
The Post and Courier
27 May 2008
“Heloisa Fernandes is a wonderfully versatile and inventive pianist.”
Tim Page
The Post and Courier
28 May 2008
“… This pianist from São Paulo loves Bill Evans and old forró music and straight-ahead jazz and avant-garde jazz and classical music and life and love and children and peace and liberty and friendship, and it all comes across here on this stunning record. Better wake up, American jazzos, Brazil is KILLING you right now.”
Matt Cibula
popmatters.com
19 December 2005
“Clearly, this is flawless work from a major new artist.”
Raul d’Gama Rose
All About Jazz.com – review of Candeias
6 October 2009
“… She is an incredible pianist, an outstanding jazz musician with a marvelous taste for music …”
Kees Schoof
MusicaBrasileira.org – review of Fruto
April 2005
“Suddenly, without any warning, no change of the times, no particular herald, this disc arrives and puts the music of Heloísa Fernandes into the world, now richer and more beautiful, with the rest of us.”
Arthur Nestrovski
Folha de São Paulo
18 March 2005
“She was pure enchantment from the moment she entered, shook off her high heels, and delivered a rich whiff of Brazil – Villa-Lobos’s Abril transitioning into Jobim’s Double Rainbow – pedaling with her bare feet. There was an unexpected Corea-like simplicity to Fernandes’ interpretations of the Villa-Lobos and a rhapsodic grandeur to her Jobim.”
Perry Tannenbaum
JazzTimes.com
8 June 2008
“…. On Candeias, Fernandes, who is as well versed in Villa-Lobos and Corea as she is in Gismonti or Jobim, invites us inland.”
Perry Tannenbaum
JazzTimes – review of Candeias
May 2010
“… a masterful piece of music …”
“The album doesn’t serve as a history class but more as a class in how history can form the basis of contemporary music.”
“This is music to absorb, to undergo. The best way to listen to this album is to completely surrender and enjoy all the aspects of what this exceptional trio presents to us.”
Kees Schoof
Musicabrasileira.org – review of Candeias
September 2009
“It’s surely a sign of and accomplished performer when she can kick off her shows, share a warm, familiar laugh with an unfamiliar audience in a far-off place, and dazzle with every note all the while. It was a wonderful North American debut for Brazilian pianist Heloisa Fernandes.”
Jason A. Zwiker
Charleston City Paper
28 May 2008
“It’s almost impossible not to remember Egberto Gismonti when listening to Candeias, the second CD by pianist Heloísa Fernandes, born in São Paulo. This doesn’t happen by chance: both musicians ‘drink’ directly from the source in Brazil to develop their own language at the piano.”
“… Yes, she performs in a trio, but her music doesn’t have a close kinship to traditional jazz trios. It’s closer to the unclassifiable work of the master Gismonti, which is hardly ever described with such labels.”
Eduardo Trsitão Girão
Estado de Minas
21 August 2009
“Fernandes is able to convey so much of a storytelling sense with musical notes alone – universal tales of rising and falling, of the mix of carefree moments and somber thoughts that accompany any day.”
Jason A. Zwiker
Charleston City Paper
28 May 2008
“In addition to being an elaborate and delicate interpreter of well-known compositions, Heloísa Fernandes owns a technical intensity the equal of today’s best pianists.”
Mauro Dias
Estado de São Paulo
9 June 2001.
