Brazil-raised jazz drummer and bandleader Mauricio de Souza has been on a roll down the Shore since he got involved with the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation.
His performance at the Red Bank festival one June led to other club gigs, and he’s kept building off that base since that first festival gig four or five years ago.
The West Orange resident, who lives a few blocks away from Cecil’s Jazz Club, comes into Chico’s House of Jazz in Asbury Park Saturday night.
True to his roots, de Souza — who moved to New Jersey in part to study with his idol (the late) Joe Morello — will mix up the repertoire between classic jazz and Brazilian jazz classics, as well as some of his own tunes from his most recent release, “Here, There.’’
De Souza will be joined by bassist Gary Mazzaroppi, pianist Ben Winkelman and alto saxophonist Andrew Beals while they perform compositions by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Edu Lobo, Hermeto Pascal as well as Freddie Hubbard, and a handful of other prominent American jazz composers.
From the legendary Morello, who was nearly blind, de Souza said in a 2006 interview with this author that he learned sensitivity.
Morello’s former students include Max Weinberg, Mike Stern and Danny Gottlieb.
“From the beginning, he was a really wonderful teacher. He was very sensitive and everything he taught you made sense. He has been a major influence, a great teacher and friend,’’ de Souza said.
Morello was the recipient of a Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in the late 1990s.
De Souza and his quartet perform at 8:30 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 20) at Chico’s, 631 Lake Ave., Asbury Park.
Call 732-774-5299.
De Souza also performs at the Wine Loft in Long Branch on Thursday (Aug. 25) and at Moonstruck, 517 Lake Ave., Asbury Park, on Aug. 26.
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