A Banda
Biography A Banda
A Banda
is an acoustic group playing popular Brazilian music, founded by Julien Doumenjou. Their repertoire covers a wide range of styles: sambas, choros, bossa, waltzes... from the 1920s and 30s: Pixinguinha, Noel Rosa... to the 70s: Edu Lobo, Toquinho, Chico Buarque... including many classics by Tom Jobim and Baden Powell.
Julien Doumenjou
Born in 1975, Julien Doumenjou is a composer, arranger and performer. He sings, plays guitar, piano and banjo. In addition to training in musicology, he has taken jazz classes at the C.I.M and the Bill Evans Piano Academy. He studied harmony with Bernard Maury, piano with Emmanuel Bex, singing with Anne Ducros, guitar with Edouardo Makaroff from the "Gothan Project", banjo with Kieran Hanrahan and orchestration with Laurent Couson, Claude Lelouch's regular composer-arranger.
Julien Doumenjou has been performing on the French scene and in different countries for the past twenty years. Pianist-arranger for the "Big bang du 19e". Pianist and musical director of the play "Peau d'âne" for one year, at the Théâtre du Nord-Ouest. Co-author of the musical comedy "Vampire" played at the Trianon. Author and interpreter of the group "Jefferson" alongside musicians such as Magic Malik, Stephane Belmondo, Pierrick Pedron or Vincent Artaud with whom he recorded the album "Sweet Rendez-vous". He founded "Tra la la", a vocal quartet of French songs. In Egypt, for four years, he was pianist-arranger for the "Riff Band" and the "Urban jazz quartet". In the United States, he accompanied, as a banjo player, the folk singer Bill O'Neal for one year. Back in France, he mainly led three bands: "Jive at Five" a vocal swing band with singer Camille Bertault, "The bitch and the boys" a tribute band that highlights the vocal art of Brian Wilson, and finally "A Banda", a quintet of Brazilian popular music that he has been directing for four years and with whom he recorded two albums, "A Banda em Paris" and "Saudade" with Jean-Marc Sauvagnargues the drummer/singer of "Fatals Picards".
He crossed Bossa Flor's path in February 2020 by participating in a concert by Emmanuel Donzella (and Andrea Monteiro), an encounter that would be followed by other projects, including of a recording in the album « Brassens dans tous ses états » (2021).
