“Born paulista, with a heart of minero and bahiano for conviction”. The way Darlly Maia defines himself shows that his work carries a globetrotter brand.

Given Brazil´s huge dimension, living in different places like São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Bahia (like Darlly Maia has) doesn’t represent a change of country but a way of absorbing different cultural information. The determinant characteristic of Popular Brazilian Music - MPB as it is called in Brazil - is the variety of regional rhythms, artistic expressions and specific languages that compose it. The mix of all those elements gives it its force.

We could say that it has been a privilege for Darlly Maiato absorb elements from the different parts, which compose MPB’s mix.

In fact, the mixture of information and origins are a constant element in his musical formation as well as in the work he develops nowadays.

Darlly Maia has no academic musical formation. After being expelled from his first guitar class when he was eight, he unconsciously decided to learn music by himself and at his own rhythm.

He learned to play guitar as an autodidact among musician friends and playing in bars and clubs.

Since he missed the theory he transformed the surrounding reality, life itself, in his source of inspiration and learning. For him the different ways of his professional trajectory form the distinctive element of his work.

Instead of having to face the limits of technique he creates his own style, that people can enjoy or not, but which is without any doubt, unique.

After several years working as advertiser creator in Brazil, Darlly Maia decided to go to Barcelona to live exclusively of his music. After having left his native home, his intuition about the popularity of Brazilian music was proved right. He had thought that the beginning he would only play for Brazilians who miss their music. But he soon discovered that many more people enjoy Brazilian music.

During the first years in Barcelona, while he was beginning to promote his work as a musician, he created the Programme “Afinado com Brasil” broadcasted by Radio Estel during two seasons. He also created the production house Zaratustradedicated to the production of concerts and musical circuits. In 2002 Darlly Maia created the group Trio Forróbódó and he began the important job of promotion and presentation of "forró", a type of Popular Brazilian Music very popular and funny, born in the north east of the country and almost unknown to the big audience outside Brazil. With Trio Forróbódó he travelled all over Europe spreading out the forró and its magic.

In 2006 Darlly Maia started Drum&Brazz Project with producer Darwin Barboza. With this work he explores the whole richness of Brazilian music and its classics in up to date versions, fusing the particular harmonies of acoustic Brazilian guitar with urban filters and sounds. At the end of 2008 he launched the first album of Drum&Brazz Project onto the European market.

During all those years Darlly Maia never stopped to present his ‘solo’ show of “Voz e Violão”, which made history in Barcelona. It is an intimate concert in which the communication with and the closeness to the audience is a key element, which creates a very special ambience. While he travels to promote his disc Drum&Brazz Project or to act with Trio Forróbódó he performed more than 400 concerts at the Elèctric Bar, a well known musical location in the city and reference of live music, especially for such a fluctuant market as is music nowadays.

In 2012, Darlly Maia moves to Switzerland, where he continues his work to promote Brazilian music in the world.

In this period, he publishes different materials and performs many concerts. All the details are in the Chronology section of this biography.

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