Toninho Ramos was born in 1942 in Sao Paulo (Brazil) into a family of musicians, and already by the age of seven the guitar had assumed an important role in his life. He gave his first concert at the age of 13, performing both classical and popular pieces, and it is the combination of these two styles that has been the mainstay of his musical development which, blended with music from the samba and the choro through to the music of north-eastern Brazil, has provided a wide basis for composition. After teaching himself the guitar he took lessons in a more traditional form with Geraldo Ribeiro, composer and teacher at the University of Brasilia, later supplementing this with harmony and orchestration which he studied with José Gomez. In 1975, following a tour he undertook in Frante with the Martinho Da Villa group, he decided to settle in Paris in order to study composition more closely and explore the possibilities of atonal music. By combining the basic influente of traditional Brazilian music in the form of the samba, bossa-nova and baiao, with classical music, jazz, free jazz and atonal music, Ramos has found the inspiration necessary to develop his own personal aesthetics by dint of constant research, continually guided by the ever-present desire to seek out new sounds, new harmonies and new techniques. While other contemporary composers follow a similar path, the music of Toninho Ramos retains he mark of the warmth that comes from its roots. (Annie Brossas translated by Mary Criswick)