Lucas Arruda’s born in 1983, in a Brazilian state called Espírito Santo, near Rio de Janeiro. Coming from a musical family (his dad and older brother are musicians) he started playing and listening to music very young. At the age of 13, he was also playing professionally already.
After studying electric guitar and playing in various bands, Lucas passion quickly turned into Rhodes and keyboards, expanding his musical range of skills. At the same time he started a project called Du Black, with his older brother Thiago, quickly receiving various local support from people like Ed Motta, William Magalhães (Banda Black Rio), Robert Lamm (Chicago) or Hyldon (Brazilian soul legend).
From the growing notoriety obtained, the band began to work with various other artists and singers such as Tamy Macedo, or Bossa Nova’s legend, Leila Pinheiro, leading Lucas to build a recording studio with Thiago in 2011. Now 2 years after he launched this home-studio, here comes “Sambadi”, first solo album by Lucas Arruda!
On this recording he also started to team up with Fabricio di Monaco (Modo Solar), who clearly became a fundamental piece, as Lucas relates: “Fabricio introduced me to Pascal Rioux at Favorite Recordings, as they released his EP few years ago. He’s a brilliant musician and a great human being.”
In Lucas’ words, Sambadi is highly inspired by Rio de Janeiro. As for the musical side, the album almost sounds like a tribute to his longtime heroes like Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Marcos Valle, Azymuth, or Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti. And Lucas also humbly concludes: “I really hope to honor all the guys who influenced me.”
Sambadi will come out on April 16th 2013 as a deluxe 180 grams vinyl housed in an old-school tip-on jacket and a digipack limited CD edition.
BUY THE ALBUM HERE
- Osunlade (Yoruba Records): “Lovely and smooth!”
- DJ LeFto (BBE / Wordwide Underground): “”Love how this reflects the sound from back in the days…, great job Lucas!”
- Mike Chadwick (JAZZ FM): “What an album, congratulations!”
- Mark Milz (“Furtherin Fusion” @ Radio Corax 95.9fm (Germany)): “Really feelin’ that moody vibes….fantastic one !!!”
- Anthony Valadez (KCRW): “Dope! Thanks for the LP!”
- Jay scarlett (Ampsoul/On3 Radio): “Great release from Lucas Arruda. Sambadi is already doing the round on the warm up sets. Summer music has arrived.”
- DJ Tomas (Friday Night Session /Google Play / Voltage Music): “Fantastic album! The playing is tremendous throughout. Will definitely be playing these tracks out and on radio.”
- Simon Harrison (Basic Soul Radio Show): “This is a wonderful, wonderful LP!!”
- m.path.iq (We Are… / Strut / !K7): “What a beauty. Seriously can’t believe what I hear. This is getting better with each tune. Contender for Record of the Year.”
- Merijn Tiemessen (Wicked Jazz Sounds): “Great vibes, let the summer begin!”
- DJ Psycut (22tracks / Jazz Attitudes): “One of my best Fusion Lp since a long moment. Remembers me the best 70’s LP’s I know.”
- Toshio Matsuura (TOKYO MOON / InterFM / UFO): “Both mix are nice! will support. “
- Mad Mats (Local talk / Raw Fusion): “Beautiful jazzy brazil vibes :)”
- Simbad (Various .Worldwide . Brownswood): “This is nice !! Feelin the original, a bit of sunshine for the winter.”
- Steve Owen (DJ / iTunes UK): “Lovely mellow sounds”
- Miles Bonny (Innatesounds): “Mizell Brothers 2013! Love the remix.. funky broken beat shit. Always dig Patchworks”
- Julius (Laid Back radio): “es! A release filled with sunshine to cope with the grey weather. Thank you.”
- Dj Scribe (I Love Vinyl (Ilovevinyl.Org)): “Nice. Quality stuff.”
- DJ Rahdu (BamaLoveSoul.com/Editor-In-Chief): “Sambadi is one of those tracks destined to be listened to on dusty vinyl with appreciation. Beautiful instrumentation and vocals with an undeniable groove, it’s perfect!”
- James Barrie (Audio Texture-Radio): “Pure summer vibes on the main cut, can imagine playing it on a nice warm beach session”
- Robert Lochmann (Radio X): “very nice jazzfunk tracks. both of them get my full support”
- Soulist (What The Funk): “Lovely smooth , Lucas Arruda is a great discover for me. “
- Mars Blackmon (Radio Grenouille): “Wweet surprise for 2013 !”