PURPLE HOUSE by Carl LeBlanc & Geovane Santos

"Purple House" is the culmination of a ten-year-long friendship and musical mentorship between me and my mentor, New Orleans modern jazz guitarist Carl LeBlanc.

I met Mr. LeBlanc during the winter of 2012 while I visited New Orleans for a few weeks. Then recently graduated from music college with a degree in classical guitar, deeply entrenched in the quest to learn how to play jazz in the style of Django Reinhardt, and re-enrolled in college to pursue a degree in music education, I had no idea I would find my artistic identity as well as an academic career path that would eventually project me back to my Afro Brazilian roots through the way of New Orleans.


"Guitarist and vocalist Carl LeBlanc is one of the most respected and versatile performers in New Orleans. Adept at traditional and modern jazz on both guitar and banjo, he has played with Preservation Hall and his own band as well as reaching into the avant-garde with the Sun Ra Orchestra. He is a veteran player with impeccable chops.

Geovane Santos is less well known, but since moving to New Orleans from his native Brazil in 2015 to attend grad school in jazz studies at the University of New Orleans, he has built an impressive career in a relatively short time. His first release, Jobim, put a new spin on Brazilian samba classics. He has credited LeBlanc with influencing his career path.

Together they have released an impressive album that looks back to some of the great modern jazz guitar duet albums from the1950s and ’60s. LeBlanc plays electric guitar and sings on one cut, the Billy Preston classic “I Wrote a Simple Song,” and pulls off an uptempo solo version of the New Orleans trad standard “Li’l Liza Jane.”

Santos plays seven-string guitar and classical guitar while contributing four originals of the album’s eight tunes, including the jaunty “Lavender Street Parade,” which seems destined to become a new New Orleans standard. The two guitarists seamlessly integrate tasty solos as they take turns comping chords.

Upright bassist Nick Benoit joins on one cut, “Mr. Jonas,” which opens with a funky bass line before the guitars join in. Benoit adds so much sound to the proceedings that I would love to have heard him on more tunes on the album. He even takes a monster solo, revealing a powerful tone and a graceful touch.

Though the album is mostly upbeat, one song, LeBlanc’s “Blood of My Sons,” reveals a world-weariness through its tender single note lines and gently strummed chords. It conjures concentrated images, like the best ballads do, especially during the subtle harmonics closing the cut.

Produced by Santos and recorded over three days in the summer pandemic lull of 2021, Purple House is a delightful collaboration between mentor and former student."

Jay Mazza's review of Purple House on OffBeat Magazine
https://www.offbeat.com/music/carl-leblanc-and-geovane-santos-purple-house-independent/

Geovane Santos, an Afro Brazilian from Belo Horizonte currently living in New Orleans, is a guitarist, vocalist, composer, researcher, videographer, and educator.

Awarded the 2017 Louis Armstrong Foundation Jazz Composer Award, Santos’ creative work and scholarship explore the intersectionalities of race, transculturation, culture appropriation, and processes of narrative building in music.

gpstheguitarist.com