Milton Banana Trio

The trio was formed after Milton Banana returned to Brazil from the United States (where he had accompanied João Gilberto on the occasion of the famous concert at Carnegie Hall) and from Italy (on a tour aimed at introducing bossa nova to Italians). In 1964 the trio performed at Ramon-Dini's (rua Cesário Mota, 312), arousing great interest. The line-up consisted of Milton Banana on drums, Wanderley on piano and Guará on bass. The group, characterized by an extraordinary swing (balanço), was therefore in great demand to accompany singers (such as Elis Regina, in 1965). During the period in which the group was under contract with Odeon the line-up was affected by a certain variability: in some albums the bassist is Mário (6) or Azeitona and the pianist Cido Bianchi. In 1969 the trio performed for several weeks with Jorge Ben and Os Originais Do Samba at the Sucata, Lagos, and in 1970 with Baden Powell in a production of Miele (3) and Boscoli. In the 1970s the trio was a regular guest at the Piaf (rua Visconde da Pirajá, 497), a restaurant owned by Jorge Ótimo. At the end of the 70s the group moved to RCA. Unfortunately, on the albums released in this phase the staff are not mentioned. 1978 journalistic sources mention Claudio on double bass and Cido Bianchi on piano (with the addition of Eraldo and Edson on guitar). Later, the bassist was Tião Neto and and the pianist José Luiz Duarte (Zé Luiz). With this line-up, between 1986 and 1988, the trio performed regularly at Le Rond Point Bar (then Rio Jazz Club), the bar of the Hotel Meridien (Copacabana - Av. Atlantica, 1020).