Aside from being a place-of-lodging, repose and respite, Encanto de Itapoan is (we would like to think) something of an Apollonian oasis.  We breath and talk music, play and record music, and we are overjoyed to host kindred spirits...

Slack-Key Hula Bluesman

In Salvador's Cana Brava Records

Meet Pat Cockett, guest, great guy, and ukelele & slack key guitar player in Taj Mahal's Hawaiian band, Hula Blues...

At the left, with Taj and the band

The Man The Man's Website

Pat and several of his Hawaiian friends have their own band, beautiful Na Pali...

Listen to Pat Cockett's" Kealia"

Stairway to Heavenly

Jimmy & Jimena Page

Okay, we can't claim the honor of having had Jimmy Page as a guest...but we can claim the honor of having had his better half (wife Jimena) here.  And given that we're proud of our tenuous connection with the legendary guitar player, we're even more taken with the Pages' worthy project, Action for Brazil's Children (the ABC Trust).  More information is available via their website, at http://www.abctrust.org.uk.

An Angel for the Dispossessed

Deb Davidson & Dewey Jeffries

Deb Davidson's gift for singing follows her heart, and her heart is with those who haven't the fortune in life to be possessed of what so many take for granted...a roof overhead and regular meals.  And like so many don't, Deb does what she can within the purview of the gifts she has been given...taking to the homeless via her organization Joy Through Music hope, comfort, and love you can get up and sway (and even shimmy and shake) to.  The spirit also needs to be fed!

Our Diva of Sheringham

Liz Ashton -- from Sheringham on England's Norfolk coast -- is a semi-professional jazz singer with a particular affinity for the music of Brazil (see her article here in the Sheringham newspaper, and note the guy with the big smile in the photo! Liz's own webpage is here).

"Semi-professional" does not preclude talent and passion, and we feel a bit poorer in both when Liz and her husband Tony are not around...her music and their vibrancy are missed.

Jazz on a Plate

No, this is not a Renoir...it's jazzy moqueca on the beach at Itapoan

Don Raye (second from left above, sitting next to his wife Jackie) is a jazz drummer (and quite a raconteur as well!) who played for some years in the backup band for glowing doowop group the Platters. Only you, Don, Only You...

High Flying Low Notes

Chris D'Alleva - Paul Socolow - Tom Orf

Tom Orf is possessed of a wonderful baritone which he is of late adapting to the music of Brazil, and Paul Socolow is a bass player who's played with everyone from David Byrne to Charlie Byrd to Laurie Anderson to Suzzy Roche to Herbie Mann... right now he's playing with Vinícius Cantuária.  And Chris D'Alleva... well not everyone who stays at Encanto de Itapoan has to be a musician!

Erudite Polyrhythms

A break from the books...er...drums

This is Dr. Julie Hill (first row, second from left), Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Tennessee at Martin, together with members of her Brazilian percussion workshop.  We were happy to host them last June and look forward to seeing Dr. Hill again!

The Divine Tetê!

Her Instrument Lies Behind Her Smile

Thrushes, swifts and swallows...exotic avian fauna of the vast Brazilian Pantanal...all and more live in the unmistakable voice and vast range of songstress, instrumentalist, and composer Tetê Espindola.  She and husband/composer Arnaldo Black are always welcome guests at Encanto de Itapoan when they are in town!

Arnaldo, Tetê, Octacilio ("Tatá"), and Bia

Others on the way!