Biography
Born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1985, Dani Gurgel has been professionally working on music and photography since her early teens. She was born in a musical family, with a saxofonist father and a pianist mother. Dani had lived most of her life on instrumental music, until her debut as a singer and composer. She was a saxophone player at Tom Jobim University's big band, conducted by Roberto Sion, and at Zimbo Trio's support bigband, even a bass player at Quincas, a composers' group with Tó Brandileone and Vinicius Calderoni. That's when she started composing her own music, during college. Even though she started to sing later, listening to Flora Purim and Chick Corea on ‘Return to Forever’, she has Elis Regina's strenght and Luciana Souza's instrumental voice as standards. Since the beginning of her musical career, Dani Gurgel has been developing her compositional work and aggregating her generation.
During two concert seasons in São Paulo, in 2007, the series ‘Dani Gurgel e Novos Compositores’ (Dani Gurgel and New Composers) not only introduced Dani Gurgel as a singer and composer, but made place for the union of young musicians with a common objective. During the series, Dani recorded an e.p. with four songs: one of her own, and three that were in the series. The album, known as the ‘compact’, wasn't just a rehearsal for the production of a future ‘long-play’, but a solid work, in times of digital distribution, that opened many doors. It is available for digital sales by Tratore.
Dani's compositional project ‘Da Pá Virada’, of songs composed with Debora Gurgel, won Prêmio Nascente (Universidade de São Paulo) in 2007, what resulted in a series of concerts around the state, on the university's campi, and an album, "Nosso", recorded using the financial help given to the winner of the prize. The album has, along with Dani's music, compositions by young brazilian musicians. Nascente Prize, organized by USP, has had winners as André Mehmari, Chico Pinheiro, Iara Rennó, Fábio Torres and Nhambuzim, when they were students of the university.
Dani won the prize for popular music, and the special Tutoring proze, given to only one participant among all areas (music, theater, litterature, audiovisual, visual arts, design).
Produced by Thiago Rabello and Dani Gurgel, Nosso ('Ours') brings many songs that were discovered and grown during the projects 'Dani Gurgel e Novos Compositores' and 'Da Pá Virada'. Dani Gurgel's first 'long play', second album, Nosso has 15 different composers on 11 songs, all of them searching for a spot in the music business.
On her latest concerts, Dani Gurgel has been presenting it, along with some of her new compositions, including the lyrics for Maria Schneider’s ‘The “Pretty” Road’, in portuguese ‘Estrada Bela’.
In 2008, Dani acted as a curator and lead singer with Tom Jobim Orchestra, conducted by Roberto Sion, in a concert that presented the music of Brazil’s new generation of songwriters. It included songs by Vinicius Calderoni, Caê Rolfsen, Rafa Barreto, Tó Brandileone, Leo Bianchini, Conrado Goys, Ricardo Barros, Dani Black, Breno Ruiz, Zé Edu Camargo, Michi Ruzitschka, Giana Viscardi and Dani Gurgel;arrangements by Debora Gurgel and Roberto Sion, conductor, and instrumentalists Thiago Rabello, Daniel Amorin, Debora Gurgel, Michi Ruzitschka and André Kurchal. This concert was created by Dani and Roberto Sion, inspired in 'Dani Gurgel e Novos Compositores'.
Dani is preparing a new album,also with producer Thiago Rabello, with the financial help of PAC (Programa de Ação Cultural), which is an organ of São Paulo State Government. The album will have the participation of composers considered 'new' by the simple rule of having one single album recorded, or none. It is expected to be released in July 2009.
photography
Dani Gurgel has been photographing music since she was 13 years old. Not only for capturing images, her work is focused to be a musician, with a camera as an instrument. Dani Gurgel has been a musician since she was four, developing her musical career paralell to photography.
Music and photography run together for a common objective: music photography from the point of view of the musicians themselves, and not a cold editor.
Among some of the album covers Dani has photographed are Mônica Salmaso (Noites de gala, samba na rua), Rafa Barreto (Rafa Barreto), Ray Kennedy (The Music of Arthur Schwartz), Tó Brandileone (Tó Brandileone), Quatro a Zero (“Choro Elétrico” & “Porta Aberta”), Pau Brasil (2005).
Dani Gurgel also designs many album covers that come with her photos. Some albums with both, her photography and design, are Chico Pinheiro e Anthony Wilson (Nova), Duo Paticumpá (Duo Paticumpá), Luciana Araújo (Luciana Araújo), Fábio Cadore (Lúdico Navegante) ,and her own two albums, (“Dani Gurgel” and “Nosso”).
Nowadays, Dani is based in her own studio, located in Vila Madalena, an artistic neighbourhood of São Paulo, Brazil. Dani Gurgel shoots album covers, portraits, still and advertising. In 2008, she shot campaigns for clients as Wet'n Wild, Caipirinha One, Azeite Gallo, Cola Pritt, Lindenberg and many others, that may be seen in the advertising portfolio.
university
Dani Gurgel is majored in Social Communications and Advertising by Universidade de São Paulo (Escola de Comunicações e Artes). Her graduation thesis analyzes the changes on music and photography due to the digital revolution. Today, everyone is a content producer, amateurs with resources to produce audiovisuals a lot more warm and interesting that many professionals. It started with the urge to understand deeply the reasons and perspectives of this area Dani had been for so long. In the end, an experiment was performed: 25 volunteers photographed a concert using only amateur equipment.
That work, entitled 'Fotografia e Música - do vinil ao mp3, do filme ao celular' (Photography and music - from vinil to mp3, from film to mobile), may be downloaded in a full pdf, in portuguese.
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