Natalie Cressman & Ian Faquini
Natalie Cressman & Ian Faquini Bio
“Her trombone is world-class, but her singing voice is another thing entirely, an empathic entity that channels the ages. Cressman’s is a flawless act that can only get better with time and age. Yep, I smell a Grammy — someday.”
— Dave Good, San Diego Reader
“Faquini is an uncannily masterful composer”
— Paul de Barros, Seattle Times
Describing the musical partnership of Natalie Cressman and Ian Faquini as a duo is accurate, but their collaboration contains multitudes. She’s a trombonist, vocalist and songwriter from San Francisco. He’s a composer, guitarist, and singer from Brasilia. Together they’ve honed a singularly expansive creative communion encompassing their love of the Brazilian songbook, jazz, Impressionism and sophisticated pop songcraft.
Their original material features lyrics in Portuguese, French and English set to music drawing from a vast stylistic spectrum. With sumptuous two-part vocal harmonies hugging Brazilian-accented Portuguese accompanied by trombone and acoustic guitar, Cressman and Faquini’s richly orchestrated sound seems to emanate from a much larger ensemble.
Slated for release on GroundUP Music September 26, 2025, Revolução is Cressman and Faquini’s 4th full-length release as a duo and represents an effort to capture the intimacy and honest simplicity that one experiences when hearing them play live. The 12-track album is a meditation on universal themes of love, loss, and the simple daily rituals that make up the fabric of the human experience.
The duo’s first two albums together, 2019’s Setting Rays of Summer and 2022’s Auburn Whisper, fueled the rapidly growing recognition of their gorgeous sound, including a finalist nomination for “Duo of The Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2023. Their third album, Guinga, pays tribute to the legendary Brazilian composer, guitarist and vocalist, who has mentored Faquini for two decades. Guinga himself joins the duo on five tracks. Focusing on his lesser known tunes, the project also includes three songs featuring Guinga’s lyrics set to music by Faquini.
Their past releases received critical praise and topped many “best of” lists in their respective years. Together Cressman and Faquini have played their music across the US in venues ranging from intimate house concerts to performing arts halls and jazz festival stages such as the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Jazz Aspen Snowmass. They’ve also toured internationally in Brazil, Japan, Portugal, Spain, and Italy.
IAN FAQUINI
Ian Faquini writes exquisitely sophisticated Brazilian pop music in the omnivorous tradition known as MPB (música popular brasileira), which has often been deeply influenced by jazz. Born in Brasília and raised in Berkeley, Faquini is a protégé of Guinga, the revered Brazilian guitarist and songwriter whose tunes have been recorded by dozens of MPB stars.
In 2014, Faquini released his debut album with flautist Rebecca Kleinmann, Brasiliense, which features his original compositions reflecting his love of jazz and Impressionism and his growing mastery of Brazilian musical forms. He followed up with 2016’s Metal na Madeira, a collaboration with acclaimed vocalist Paula Santoro, who hails from Minas Gerais. Conjuring the physical and cultural landscape of Brazil’s northeast with maracatu, frevo, baião, xote, and toada rhythms, the project features an all-star cast of collaborators, including Brazilian saxophone great Spok (leader of Recife’s Spok Frevo Orquestra), Bay Area multi-reedist Harvey Wainapel, trombonist Jeff Cressman, keyboardist and accordion player Vitor Gonçalves, bassist Scott Thompson, drummer/percussionist Rafael Barata, and pandeiro master Sergio Krakowski. Since then, Faquini has focused on his partnership with trombonist, vocalist, and lyricist Natalie Cressman, with whom he has recorded 4 full-length albums and two EP’s.
With a singular set of skills, highly personal compositional style, and lush harmonic palette, Faquini is one of the most respected guitar players in the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s also a brilliant accompanist, which has made him an in-demand collaborator with vocalists around the U.S. and Brazil. Beyond his work with Guinga, he has performed with some of the most illustrious figures in jazz and Brazilian music, including Chris Potter, Spok, Lee Konitz, Fleurine, Brad Mehldau, and many others. Faquini has performed throughout Europe, Japan, Brazil and the United States, including Montreux Jazz Festival, Enjoy Jazz Festival, Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Birdland (NYC), and The A Trane (Berlin).
After spending his early years in Brazil, Faquini moved to Berkeley at the age of eight. A member of the renowned Berkeley High School Jazz program before going on to study at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, he joined the CJC faculty immediately after graduating. He is also on the faculty at California Brazil Camp, working alongside musical legends including Ivan Lins, Guinga, Chico Pinheiro, and Spok.
NATALIE CRESSMAN
Possessing a voice as cool and crystalline as an Alpine stream, Natalie Cressman draws inspiration from a vast array of musical currents. A prodigiously talented trombonist, she’s spent the last 15 years touring the jam band circuit as a horn player and vocalist with Phish's Trey Anastasio, while also performing around NYC with jazz greats Wycliffe Gordon, Nicholas Payton, Anat Cohen, Dave Douglas, and Peter Apfelbaum.
Deeply versed in Latin jazz, post-bop, pop, and Brazilian music, Cressman has released three albums under her own name as well as three acclaimed duo albums with Brazilian-born guitarist Ian Faquini, her primary musical partner over the past decade 2019’s Setting Rays of Summer, 2022’s Auburn Whisper, and 2024’s Guinga, a tribute to the revered Brazilian composer and guitarist. Their fourth album, Revolução, will be released in fall of 2025 via GroundUP Music. Cressman’s trombone prowess has earned her widespread recognition. In 2019, 2023, and 2025 Downbeat awarded her “Rising Star Trombone” honors in the magazine’s annual critics’ poll.
Drawing on her love of groove, cool R&B and jazz, Cressman released the solo albums, Unfolding (2012) and Turn the Sea (2014), followed by Etchings in Amber (2016), a gorgeous duo album with guitarist Mike Bono that introduced Cressman as a formidable musical force without her horn. She released The Traces EP in 2017, which expanded her creative reach into post-production with meticulously crafted soundscaped tracks inspired by R&B and indie pop. Her passion for groove music hasn’t diluted her love of jazz. In 2016 SFJAZZ commissioned her to develop music for a concert celebrating the legacy of jazz trombonist/arranger Melba Liston. When she’s not performing her own music, Cressman can be found collaborating with some of the most illustrious figures in rock, funk, jazz and beyond such as Carlos Santana, Aaron Neville, Dave Matthews, Phish, Big Gigantic, Escort, The Motet, and Umphrey's McGee.
Her mother, Sandy Cressman, is a jazz vocalist who immersed herself deeply in Brazilian music, collaborating with many of the country’s most respected musicians. Her father, Jeff Cressman, is a recording engineer and trombonist who recently concluded a two-decade run with Santana. Natalie quite naturally began studying trombone with her father, but set out to be a dancer rather than a musician. An aspiring ballerina until her junior year of high school, she changed courses when an injury sidelined her dance aspirations.
Her parents provided entrée to a number of enviable opportunities as a teenager, but Cressman's own prodigious gifts continued to merit her presence in any number of high-profile settings. She soon found herself playing salsa with Uruguayan percussionist Edgardo Cambon e Orquesta Candela, Latin jazz with Pete Escovedo's Latin Jazz Orchestra, world music with Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, and globally-inspired avant-garde jazz with multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum, a close family friend. These days, she’s blazing new musical trails with Faquini, creating sumptuous songs where jazz and the Brazilian songbook intermingle.
Music
Revolução (2025)
Recordings act as sonic snapshots in time, individual chapters in the ongoing autobiographies musicians compose throughout their careers. Listening to albums has forever been one of the most accessible ways we relate with musicians, embracing any variety of creative efforts that shape the soundtracks of our lives. But even within the intimacy of the best examples of recorded music, a peculiar sense of distance exists. Most often it’s the length of space between a recording and its release date, but at times it’s also how removed listening to an album can feel from experiencing the music live.
Having toured internationally for years, trombonist Natalie Cressman and guitarist Ian Faquini have done well to master both studio and live environments. This duet’s continued exploration of Brazilian music is informed by the impressive breadth of knowledge, nuance, personal flair and intimacy they bring to both their albums and live performances. With their latest album Revolução (Revolution), Cressman and Faquini have collapsed the distance between studio and stage, crafting a recording that’s as poignant and vivacious as any of their live shows. “We were really intentional about recording this album as if it were a live performance,” Cressman shared, “as we tried being much more organic than, say, a super produced recording.”
Pushing past the most common contemporary interpretation of the word, Revolução is a meditation on the rituals, emotions and behaviors our lives habitually revolve around. Love, loss, relationships, and other whimsical qualities of our human nature unfold like pages of a colorful but well worn graphic novel. These serenely balanced musical vignettes also set the stage for the indigenous imagination Faquini and Cressman cultivate while showcasing their own brand of Brazilian contemporary folk music. Within a world full of distractions, Revolução dives into the power of simplicity and the enduring quality of human-scaled musical narratives that can be remarkably empathic even if you don’t understand Portuguese.
But comprehending even bits of Portuguese makes Revolução that much better. Take for example Cem Mil Réis (One Hundred Thousand Réis) written by the legendary Brazilian composer Noel Rosa. Here samba swings urbane with tongue-in-cheek lyrics describing a woman's request to her partner to fund a new dress and drum. Playful bickering floats above Faquini’s gentle guitar, interrupted only by Cressman’s jovial solo. Choreographed like a melodic sundial, Faquini’s Contradança (Contradance) speaks to the metaphoric dance of time and the arc of rhapsodic movements that sustain us.
“My throat asks for water and my eyes ask for your gaze!” introduces Faquini’s splendid rendition of Tenho Sede (I’m Thirsty), the gorgeous ballad from renowned Brazilian collaborators Dominguinhos and Anastácia. Northeast Brazil’s Baião rhythm makes for the fast and furiously percussive Capenga Mas Não Cai (Limping But Doesn’t Fall) with lyrics by Brazilian singer-songwriter Iara Ferreira. An anthem to overcoming life’s obstacles, the song skillfully leverages the innate lyrical nature of Portuguese. Slowing down to a more somber note, De Mão Cheia (Hands Full) features Cressman’s sentimental tone as it narrates maneuvering through overwhelming days complicated by physical or emotional hurdles.
Influenced by the role religion plays in Brazilian culture, Dizia Maria (Maria Said) describes the dreamlike quality of staying present in the moment. Throughout the song “Maria” becomes a touching pseudonym for any partner, friend, relative or religious deity you might share those special moments with. One of only two instrumentals on the album, Blues for James is a tribute to saxophonist James Casey, a bandmate and close friend who passed from cancer while Faquini and Cressman were recording their previous album Guinga. Sorrowful but sweet, Moda de Viola (Viola Style) pays homage to the caipira viola country style of guitar common among many of Brazil’s self-taught traveling musicians.
After exploring so many songs about love and loss, Revolução pivots to Natty's Waltz, a buoyant tune Faquini wrote with Cressman in mind featuring the kind of patinated melody especially well suited to her voice on the trombone. Composed while on the road shortly before the pandemic hit, the album’s title track Revolução describes basic rituals we take for granted when distracted by the persistent chaotic nature of our lives. Here again Iara Ferreira’s lyrics align perfectly with the sonic quality of Faquini’s musicality.
As death and dying are rarely easy to discuss, Vigil unfolds as Cressman’s tale of struggling to find the right words to describe her grandfather’s passing. For Cressman, this form of vigil can feel endless as “you’re holding on to their memory and the force they played in your life.” Revolução’s final appeal takes the form of Rio-Mar (River-Sea), a song about casting away fears and doubts by “sending your sorrow to the seas,” all while reclaiming hope’s compass to continue maneuvering through life. Evocative of Brazil’s indigenous faith rituals, the song also reminds us to stay connected to nature while remaining true to the essential nature of who we are.
Change agents come in all shapes and sizes. Small in size but intimate and intentional in the ways they shape their sound, Ian Faquini and Natalie Cressman continue to hone a signature style of illuminating an eclectic variety of Brazilian music. “I don't think we're uniquely Brazilian,” Faquini told me. “I think where we're unique is the blend of American influences within a Brazilian way of interpreting music.” Reaching back historically while paving a way forward with their sparse but sophisticated approach, Revolução finds Cressman and Faquini manifesting their own artistic authority within today’s phrenetic cultural landscape. As Cressman sees it, “The world is only getting more and more mechanized and our music can be a source of healing and therapy from all that noise.”
Without originally seeking to apply any specific meaning to Revolução, Cressman and Faquini stitched together a series of songs whose compositional serendipity profoundly speaks to the alluring peculiarities of our humanity. Each song revolves around reaching audiences with music that carries the opportunity to excite, entertain and heal. “It's very tangible,” Cressman explained, “and I can feel it sometimes when the song ends as people sigh or just let out this really emotive relief.” Revolução reverberates with many such moments, quiet introspective apertures where this dynamic duo’s music remains as potent and inspiring as ever.
Michael Ambrosino writes about music and culture, producing and hosting a variety of Jazz programs on 33third.org.
GUINGA (2024)
"Nítido e Obscuro / Geraldo No Leme" available March 15th.
An Old-Fashioned Christmas (2023)
With a rare appeal that extends beyond generations and borders, a classic holiday song has the ability to evoke a spectrum of emotions – from wistful memories of family gatherings to the unadulterated joy of Christmas morning.
That superpower is what propels the Nancy Langhorne Foundation, which runs by the motto “Fighting Cancer with Christmas.” Since 2017, the Norfolk, VA and Brooklyn, NY-based non-profit has raised significant funds for cancer research and free screenings for the uninsured through their annual “Christmas Eve Eve” concerts on December 23rd, while their label, 12/23 Records, releases limited-edition holiday records.
This year, 12/23 is partnering with trombonist, singer, and songwriter Natalie Cressman and guitarist, composer, and vocalist Ian Faquini – a Bay Area couple whose acclaimed releases blend Brazilian musical traditions with modern jazz, folk, and pop. It’s a natural move for the duo, who, as self-proclaimed “Jews who love Christmas,” have been spreading joy with a series of virtual yuletide performances since 2020. Available as a 7-inch record, or digitally via GroundUp Music, An Old Fashioned Christmas was fittingly recorded last Christmas Eve. Steeped in nostalgia, the four-track EP finds the Brazilian-American duo performing songs that not only conjure personal memories but have also touched countless others over the years.
Side A features a trio of mid-century favorites, beginning with the Walter Kent/Kim Gannon wartime classic, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Written from the perspective of a soldier who is spending the holidays away from his family, the song’s bittersweet lyrics mirror the duality that the season represents for so many. “It’s a happy, hopeful time, but also a time of longing,” explains Natalie. The duo deftly expresses those complex emotions through an intimate live take, in which Natalie’s vibrant soprano vocals are accompanied only by the warm tones of Ian’s acoustic guitar.
Similar in tone is the wistful standard, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” written by Hugh Martin for the Judy Garland-led musical film, Meet Me In St. Louis. “It’s one of those songs that you hear all the time without really thinking about it,” Natalie notes. “But when you listen to the lyrics, you realize how sad it is.” The couple’s reflective, instrumental rendition captures those nuances, as Ian’s languid guitar intertwines with a rich chorus of layered trombones.
The pair closes out Side A with an ethereal performance of “An Old Fashioned Christmas,” a lesser-known Jimmy Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn tune, originally recorded in 1964 by Frank Sinatra. Natalie first heard the song when she was living in New York, across the country from her family. “The lyrics ‘I’d trade that whole Manhattan skyline/The shimmering steel and chrome/For one old fashioned Christmas back home’ really hit me at that particular time,” she recalls. Today, it still resonates. “The song sums up the feelings that I have around Christmas time – which is of happiness and childhood memories, but also of being caught up in the shuffle and wishing for simpler times.”
Side B pays homage to Ian’s Brazilian heritage with a fresh, samba-infused take on Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” from The Nutcracker. The guitarist, who moved to California when he was eight years old, recalls the juxtaposition of tropical temperatures with images of a bundled-up Santa and his reindeer. “I think people forget that half the world celebrates Christmas in the summer,” he laughs. That joyful, sunny flavor permeates the duo’s interpretation of the ballet’s famous waltz.
Initially, the musicians intended to perform a straightforward reading of the piece – assuming that their biggest challenge would be adapting the orchestral arrangement into a duet. “It was late at night and we had been inching our way through the original version,” recalls Natalie. “We just started goofing around, performing it as a samba.” Before long, the pair realized that they had something special.
Ian notes that their reimagined version “Just worked better in a duet setting. When I was working out the arrangements, there were some parts that just felt impossible. We were going to miss a lot of different voices from the orchestra.” But, Natalie adds, “Somehow, performing it as a samba gave it some space to be different. It took on a life of its own.”
That unique perspective is what makes An Old Fashioned Christmas so special, says Richard Langhorne, Director of the Nancy Langhorne Foundation. “I love that they chose to shine a new light on ‘Old Fashioned Christmas,’ a great, deep cut that many people probably don’t know about. I also love how they approached ‘Waltz of the Flowers,’ infusing the classic Tchaikovsky track with their Brazilian influences. Natalie and Ian are very talented, very nice, and I’m very fortunate that they wanted to participate in this project.”
An Old Fashioned Christmas marks the third collaborative project by Natalie and Ian, who unknowingly played their first notes together as children at Brazil Camp – an annual week of masterclasses taught by the South American country’s most revered musicians. By the time the two artists reunited as adults at the Northern California retreat, they had each forged their own successful careers. In addition to individual solo projects, Natalie performed in Broadway orchestras and toured with acts like the Trey Anastasio Band, Lettuce, and Umphrey’s McGee, while Ian became a faculty member at Berkeley’s California Jazz Conservatory and has long been counted among the Bay Area’s foremost authorities on Brazilian music.
The couple, who celebrated their engagement earlier this year, have previously released two acclaimed albums together: 2019’s Setting Rays of Summer and 2022’s Auburn Whisper. They are currently working on their next project, which will honor the music of legendary Brazilian composer and guitarist, Guinga.
All proceeds from An Old Fashioned Christmas will benefit The Colorectal Cancer Alliance and Eastern Virginia Medical School's Hope’s Clinic, providing free colon cancer screenings to those in need.
Auburn Whisper (2022)
Auburn Whisper—the latest album from trombonist, singer, and songwriter Natalie Cressman and guitarist, composer, and vocalist Ian Faquini—not only serves as a testament to the couple's symbiotic musical partnership but also to their resilience during unprecedented times. Written and recorded in 2020, Auburn Whisper finds the two artists blending traditional Brazilian rhythms with modern, expansive arrangements—reflecting on people and places they miss while discovering joy within the present moment.
Some might say that Natalie and Ian were destined to meet in the majestic redwood forests of Cazadero, CA. There, musicians from around the world gather annually for Brazil Camp—a week-long retreat that offers masterclasses from the South American country's greatest talents. As children, Natalie and Ian accompanied their parents to the camp, where they unknowingly played their first notes together at seven and eight years old, respectively.
Raised in the Bay Area, Natalie was surrounded by music. Her father, Jeff Cressman, is a renowned trombonist, producer, and engineer, while her mother, Sandy Cressman, is a jazz singer and passionate interpreter of Brazilian music. Ian, meanwhile, was born in Brasilia and relocated to Northern California when he was eight. As a young guitarist, Ian's interests were centered firmly on rock music. But that changed at 15 when he met the legendary composer and guitarist, Guinga, at Brazil Camp. “We hit it off immediately,” recalls Ian of his mentor. “When I met Guinga, I switched my entire focus to Brazilian music.”
Over the next decade, Ian and Natalie forged successful careers on either side of the country. In New York, Natalie became an accomplished trombonist and vocalist, recording a variety of solo projects, performing in Broadway pit orchestras, and building a following in the jam, funk, and jazz circuits with acts like the Trey Anastasio Band, Peter Apfelbaum, Big Gigantic, and Umphrey's McGee. Remaining in the Bay Area, Ian established himself as one of the region's foremost guitarists and authorities on Brazilian music. In addition to releasing his own music, Ian joined the faculty at Berkeley's California Jazz Conservatory and became an in-demand collaborator—often working with Jeff and Sandy Cressman.
But it was Brazil Camp that would eventually unite the two musicians as adults. The title track of Auburn Whisper details those early days together in the forests of Northern California. “The magic and beauty of the redwoods just fit with those feelings of opening up to somebody, musically and romantically,” shares Natalie. The song also includes a nod to Guinga, who, years before, had a premonition that the duo would become involved.
Ian and Natalie's relationship flourished and, in 2019, they released Setting Rays of Summer. While they intended to spend much of the following year touring around the acclaimed album, the global pandemic changed their plans. Returning to California, the couple channeled their disappointment into songwriting. They settled into a comfortable routine, which included weekly recording sessions at Jeff Cressman's home studio. The process, Natalie recalls, “was all very organic. Without any commitments or restraints, we were able to take the time we needed to realize these songs and bring them to life.”
That freedom also allowed the pair to take a more hands-on approach as producers and, for Natalie, to broaden her work as an arranger. “The arrangements took on a big role in the overall sound of the album,” notes Natalie, who typically writes the duo's English lyrics, while Ian composes the melodies. In contrast to the stripped-down, live tracking of Setting Rays of Summer, Auburn Whisper found the duo revisiting each song, building layers of lush, nuanced trombone and multidimensional vocal harmonies. “With the extra time, we were really able to pay attention to detail,” adds Natalie. “Normally, it would have taken us years to write this music.”
Many of the songs on Auburn Whisper were influenced by the unique era that they were written in—and the rainbow of emotions that arose during lockdown. Threads of yearning and lament intertwine with joyful memories and introspective contemplation. “Segredo De Dadá,” for instance, finds Ian longing to visit his grandmother (nicknamed “Dadá”) in Copacabana. When he sent the expressive song to Guinga, the composer felt his own sense of saudades for Brazil Camp, which was canceled amidst the pandemic. Inspired, Guinga added lyrics, conjuring surreal, juxtaposed imagery of Rio and Northern California. Similarly, the poignant “Rear Window” (named for the classic Hitchcock film), paints a scene of isolation and desire. At the other end of the spectrum, the dreamy “Already There”—which the couple dubs their “Pandemic Anthem”—is about accepting one's current state of being and bravely facing the unknown.
Indigenous Brazilian folklore also permeates the album, thanks to Iara Ferreira—a frequent collaborator of Ian's, who wrote the majority of Auburn Whisper's Portuguese lyrics. “Iara's words just meld so beautifully with the music,” admires Natalie. “She always ties in a really fitting meaning that goes with the vibe of the song.” Among several examples is the spritely opening track, “Afoxé pra Oxum,” which references Oxum—the goddess of rivers, waterfalls, and fresh water. Set to a foundational ijexá rhythm, the meditative track incorporates a traditional chant to the deity, who is also a symbol of fertility, beauty, and wealth.
“Brazilian music and culture is a mix of African, European, and indigenous traditions,” explains Ian. “Indigenous words are part of Brazilian Portuguese and contribute to the rhythm of the language, so I'm always thinking about that when writing songs.” One particularly percussive vocal performance can be heard in “Curandeiro,” in which the duo sings about a healer who cares for the Mundukuru people of the Amazon. The song also marvels at human beings' vital connection to nature—another prominent theme of Auburn Whisper. The bright “Benção de Iansá,” meanwhile, offers a blessing to Iansá, the goddess of winds, storms, lightning, and fire, who is frequently called upon to ease the pain of life's difficult moments.
Reflecting on the turbulence of the pandemic, Natalie and Ian certainly conjured their own inner strength—growing together as both artists and as a couple. “With the year that 2020 could have been, there was certainly a feeling of loss. But it ultimately gave us time to be creative—something that we rarely have when we're touring,” shares Natalie. “Together, we were able to get back to the heart of why we really love music.”
