Jota Quest

Jota Quest
Background information
Origin Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Genres Brazilian rock, pop rock, alternative rock, funk rock, power pop, post-disco
Years active 1996–present
Labels Epic, Sony BMG
Website http://jotaquest.com.br
Members Rogerio Flausino (lead vocals),
Marcio Buzelin (keyboards)
PJ, Paulo Roberto Diniz, Jr. (bass guitar)
Paulinho Fonseca (drums)

Jota Quest is a Brazilian pop rock band. The band was founded in 1995, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais as J. Quest, but due to trademark issues with Hanna-Barbera, they renamed themselves Jota Quest (jota being the Portuguese name for the letter j). The band members include: Rogério Flausino (vocals), Marco Túlio (guitar), Márcio Buzelin (keyboards), "PJ" – Paulo Roberto Diniz, Jr. (bass) and Paulinho Fonseca (drums). Jota Quest initially stood apart from Minas Gerais' musical tradition by garnering national success with pop rock and blue eyed soul-tinged pop. Eventually the band exposed its Clube da Esquina influences, including collaborations with Minas Gerais exponents Paulinho Pedra Azul and Milton Nascimento in Oxigenio as well as jams with 14 Bis and a collaboration with Roberto Carlos over his hit single "Alem do Horizonte". Jota Quest sold over 4,000,000 copies in Brazil, Latin America and Portugal.

Biography

1995 – 1997

The group played their first show as J. Quest inspired by the cartoon Jonny Quest, the idea bassist PJ (though none of the members was a fan of that Cartoon). At the time, the group played through the circuit of bars and schools of Belo Horizonte and gathered more than 2,000 people per show. With this, the band was gaining ground. Next the contract with Sony Music came, and then the first official CD was released in August 1996. The bar band's most successful song is their rendition of "As Dores do Mundo" ("Pains of the World"), a huge hit by Bahian soulman Hyldon in the '70s. It quickly entered the charts, followed by other singles, while the band toured Brazil. On this first tour, the band members came on stage wearing "black power" wigs. Another hit from their first album was "Encontrar Alguém" ("To Meet Someone"), a very disco. Even with the success, it took a while to they be shown on television. On 11 January 1997, they were invited by the presenter Xuxa to perform at what was then called "Xuxa Hits", belonged to Rede Globo television. It was the first performance of Jota Quest on TV.

1998 – 1999

The band's second release was De Volta ao Planeta ("Back to the Planet"), more conventionally poprock, spawning more hit singles, especially the signature song "Fácil" ("Easy" – no relation to the Commodores song). The album's title song was "De Volta ao Planeta" (the "Planet", in this case referring to Planet of the Apes) with monkey noises backgrounding its chorus. The album became a Brazilian best-seller. This tour was marked for the first Brazilian Solar Energy supplied live show, a project with Greenpeace. In 2009, the title track of the album was used in the hugely successful telenovela Caras & Bocas, resulting in the song receiving moderate airplay on Brazilian radio and a short stay on the national charts.

2000 – 2001

A relative commercial failure, due to the band's previous sales figures, their association with an Internet provider (which bankrupted) as well as advertising for Fanta. The band tried a new direction on its third record, an ecological oriented and experimental release called Oxigênio ("Oxygen"). It moved away from the dance floor, with increased production values, experimental songwriting and sponsored by the greatest Coca Cola marketing campaign in Latin America. The Brazilian Grammy winner singer Milton Nascimento recorded with the band on this album the song "Destes Tantos Modos". Although the album went Platinum it is largely considered a hodgepodge.

2001 – 2004

In 2001, they returned to their original formula with bass guitar grooves, funk rock guitar riffs and beautiful lyrics with Discotecagem Pop Variada ("Eclectic Pop Disco"), their fourth album. Jota Quest recaped the bar band feeling with hits like "Na Moral" (In The Groove) and the ballad "Só Hoje" (Only Today). In 2002 Rogério Flausino was invited by Disney to sing the Brazilian version of the Treasure Planet’s soundtrack. The song is called Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here in English). With the success of the last record, the Jota Quest recorded on days 1 and 2 May 2003, the CD and DVD "MTV live" at the Praça do Papa, in Belo Horizonte, broadcast by MTV Brazil. First live record of the group, "MTV live" gathered the biggest hits of the band and also had the special participation of Arnaldo Antunes and Thaíde. In the same year, they were the only ones in Latin America to be invited to participate in the soundtrack of the movie Spider-Man 2, that also had a version for the cartoon (re-recorded earlier by Ramones and Aerosmith). The lyrics were made by Rogério Flausino .

2005 – 2008

Ten years after launching the first CD, the band was consolidated in the Brazilian pop rock’s scenario. Altogether there were five CDs, thousands of shows and attendance records all over Brazil, presentations in the U.S. and recently in Europe, where they attended the opening of the Rock in Rio Lisboa (Lisbon), sharing the stage with Carlos Santana and Roger Waters. After four years without releasing a CD with new material, the group got isolated in his studio in Belo Horizonte to record the album Até Onde Vai (How far it goes), which arrived at the stores in October 2005, and since then, remains between the country's best-selling CDs. The album fused rock and funk elements and contained their cover version of Brazilian singer Roberto Carlos's "Além do Horizonte" ("Beyond the Horizon") which became a major hit. The album produced a further string of hit singles, all receiving heavy rotation on Brazilian radio stations, including: "O Sol" ("The Sun"), "Palavras De Um Futuro Bom" at the tail-end of 2006, and most recently "Já Foi" in the first half of 2007. This album was a 7th Annual Latin GRAMMY nominated. Lead singer Rogerio Flausino was also invited to sing in English on electronic dance act Layo and Bushwacka's 2006 album. In 2007, Rogério Flausino received the Multishow Award for being the best singer in Brazil. In the same year on 13 August, he became a father, having her first daughter, Nina. The "Até Onde Vai" toure were the longest one of Jota Quest.

2008 – present (2012)

In 2008, the band released the album La Plata, recorded in the studio Iron Ore, three years after their last record. The CD quickly became successful on the radio with the songs "La Plata", which was on the soundtrack of TV Globo’s soap opera "Cama de Gato", and the ballad "Vem Andar Comigo" (Come Walk With Me), very well played, and theme of the Soap Opera “Caras e Bocas”,

In late July, the third single “Seis e Trinta" (Six and Thirty) was released on the radio and the music video came out in September. At the end of November 2009 the ballad "Único Olhar" was released, the seventh track of La Plata. In 2010 "Tudo me faz lembar você" (Everything reminds me of you) was also released as the soundtrack of the film “Muita Calma Nessa Hora”.

In the second half of 2010, the Jota Quest launched to the Hispanic market their first Spanish album, entitled “Dias Mejores”. The album was released first in Argentina. In early March 2011, the Jota Quest announced a tour commemorating their 15-year career. The "J15 – 15 Anos na Moral" is a kind of five hour long party, where the band will present a three-hour show with three new tracks. The project will be released on CD / DVD. The “Quinze” collection was released in May and has two CDs and 30 tracks, among three hits and new songs. In early 2012, "Quinze" was awarded a Latin Grammy for Best Brazilian Contemporary Pop Album, the first Grammy award in the group's career.

Members

Discography

Demos

Albums

Live

Compilations

Hits

See also

References

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Brazilian certifications – Jota Quest" (in Portuguese). Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos. Retrieved 4 November 2012.