Jose Neto

THIS DESCRIPTION OR BIOGRAPHY IS INCOMPLETE.  IT IS CENTRED AROUND THE PERIOD OF THE ARTIST'S WORK WITH MELT2000/B&W MUSIC

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1954, José Neto is perhaps the most exciting guitarist since Hendrix. Encouraged to play by his musical family, José first picked up a guitar at the age of 12 and, within two years, he was playing professionally. At 15 he began classical training at the Sao Paulo Academy of Music, but Jimi Hendrix was always his true inspiration. This sensibility, combined with a love of African music, informs his uniquely inventive, fluid playing style.
 Neto spent the mid 1970s teaching guitar at the Brazilian Music School and touring with his own band, Plato, before coming to America in 1978. There, he successfully auditioned for a coveted gig with Harry Belafonte, with whom he recorded Something to Hold on CBS. Moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1982, José formed his own band while continuing to work with such artists as Tania Maria and Paquito D'Rivera.
 In 1985 he joined Airto Moreira and Flora Purim  in recording their album Humble People and stayed with them for the ensuing tour. The three Brazilians have been frequent collaborators ever since. Airto and Flora guested on his first solo album in 1987, Mountains & The Sea - recorded using only acoustic instruments at a beautiful adobe-style church built in 1936 in Montecito called Our Lady of Mount Carmel - and the couple have appeared on all José's subsequent solo recordings.
In 1989 José Neto toured the world with Harry Belafonte as the musical director of a 12 piece band and recorded an album with him called Paradise in Gazankulu. The experience of working in Africa with Belafonte and the renowned South African trumpeter, Hugh Masekela, had a profound influence on José's musical development, which was compounded in 1990, when he formed a permanent alliance with Airto and Flora and with Gary Meek as one quarter and the principal composer of  Fourth World.
 The four piece format required José to play both lead and bass guitar and he achieved this with the aid of the Paradis - an electric nylon guitar with inbuilt sub-bass, which gives a unique sound. With the Paradis, José has developed his own style of playing, dispensing with the plectrum and using thumb nail and four fingers to create chords, octaves and runs that almost defy belief, resulting in a unique barrage of stomach churning bass runs, cascades of semi acoustic tones and spine chilling lead lines.

Jose recorded two albums with MELT 2000 and was a major contributor to the OUTERNATIONAL MELTDOWN SERIES in Johannesburg 1994.