Marco Santos about 'Ode Portrait':

'Ever since i remember, music had always a strong impact on me. Devoting myself on it was the simplest way to find the best of myself in life. Over the years my intimate relation with it got stronger and the affinity got more delicate, growing into a state of being, a state of approaching life. Some beautiful years passed, playing with many great musicians, and being involved with a wide range of musical scenes, I was always composing but just leaving my compositions on a shelf… Till a moment where i felt the need to express my voice loudly as a musician, but also as a human being...



Since then i've been giving the proper time to compose and the right attention to my compositions, where all of them come from a inner-need to share my message to the world. Within this message there is a strong awareness to the time we live in now, to the tendencies of society where the system mostly build us to individuality. And here, i see music as one of the most powerful 'tools' in order to unify people.



'Ode portrait' comes as an audible picture that speaks about emotions and perspectives in life, not with an autobiographical function but as a vision to the world through my eyes. Bringing awareness to how and where we find ourselves on the things we do. In this way I feel a relief composing and sharing this music coming out by it self, without the need to categorize it, but just being for what it is as a result of what I am.

The Band



Boris Oud

Boris Oud, born in Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 24 march 1986, started playing bass guitar at the age of 14 and added double bass at the age of 19. Besides completing his jazz bachelor studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory in 2011, Boris has always been active in different music genres such as latin music, pop, funk, rock and improvised music. Boris has worked with various artists and bands, including Romulo Rodriguez, Gerardo Rosales, Peter M van der Linden, Alex van Holstein, Bluefish, Senses Wide Open, Tom Beek, Eefje de Visser, Rob van Bavel and many more. Currently he is working on several projects, including the Piero Bianculli Band, Peter Zwerver, Erman Dirkcan trio, Huseyin Badilli, Jung Hyung An quartet, Savoy Room and most recently the Marco Santos project 'Ode Portrait'.



Laurens Hoppe

Laurens grew up in a musical family, playing the keys since he was seven years old. During high school he got the opportunity to receive lessons from Rembrandt Frerichs, now a renowned jazz pianist. Rembrandt introduced him to jazz and to Rob van Kreeveld, who took him up as a private student in his teenage years. After graduating secondary education, he auditioned for the Rotterdam Conservatory, where he studied jazz piano with Rob van Bavel. During his years there he met up and played with many different people and nationalities, including Marco Santos in his later years. After graduating the Conservatory he took up teaching, but the ache to play grew again after hooking up with Marco Santos for the project.



Rui Silva

Rui Pedro Reis da Silva, born in 1977 in Castelo Branco Portugal, got his first guitar from his brother at the age of 16. Inspired, he began his studies at the Hot Club jazz school in Lisbon in 1998, having lessons with Nuno Ferreira, Andre Fernandes, Pedro Madaleno, Afonso Pais, Joao Moreira, Pedro Moreira among others. In the year of 2000 he represented the Hot Club in the international jazz schools meeting (IASJ) in Paris conducted by David Liebman. In 2001 started studying at the Royal Conservatory (jazz guitar) in Den Haag (Netherlands) where he had lessons with Aef Alberts, Wim Bronnenberg, Peter Nieuwerf and John Rooco among others, finishing in December 2005. During, he also attended workshops and master classes with Mike Mainieri; Barry Harrys; Kurt Rosenwinkel; Michael Brecker and Chris Cheek. After finishing the Conservatory Rui remained living in the Netherlands (Den Haag) and has been active working as a professional musician, playing in different groups and diverse styles of music, including jazz, improvised music, brazilian, world, reggae, funk, etc. which he has been performing in venues, halls and festivals in the Netherlands and around Europe.