Biography

Ze Luis (Jose Luis Segneri Oliveira) is a composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist, playing woodwinds, guitar and percussion. Originally from Rio de Janeiro, he relocated to New York City where he is an in demand composer and producer.

A leading saxophonist in Brazil in the 1980s, Ze Luis has performed and recorded with–and arranged and composed for–many of the biggest names in Brazilian music, such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tania Maria and Cazuza to name a few, and has been featured as a composer, arranger, producer and instrumentalist on hundreds of recordings, including albums, film soundtracks and advertisements. He worked with Gilberto Gil on the original score of director Carlos Diegues’ film Subway to the Stars, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was the Brazilian entry at the Academy Awards in 1987.

Ze Luis continues his longtime association with Bebel Gilberto on her latest album, All In One (Verve), nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album, on which Ze is credited as flautist and arranger. In 2011, he was co-producer and arranger with Bebel Gilberto of the song “Samba de Orly”, which appeared in the motion picture Rio and on its soundtrack album.

As a solo artist, Ze Luis produced the self-titled Ze Luis EP and two albums of his compositions, Guarani Banana and Caiapo. He has also written the soundtracks for “Beyond The Streets”, a short movie selected at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and “Color Thief” awarded best short film at the 2013 Madrid Film Festival, and contributed four songs to the ecology-themed Green Heart compilation. Acclaimed in the American press, Ze Luis and his work have garnering enthusiastic coverage in DownBeat, Saxophone Journal, Rhythm and Jazziz, among many other publications.