Humberto Gessinger

Engenheiros do Hawaii

In late 1984, he formed a rock band with two friends from the architecture college at UFRGS, Carlos Maltz and Marcelo Pitz, to play in a parade made by students. The band decided to call themselves Engenheiros do Hawaii [Engineers from Hawaii], which made fun of the surf wear that most Engineering students sported at the university campus - far away from the nearest beaches.

The band released their first album in 1986, although they had already appeared in a 'promising bands' collection of BMG Music at 1985. With the departure of Marcelo Pitz in May 1987, Gessinger started playing bass and the band recruited Augusto Licks as lead guitarist. After the departure of both Licks (1993) and Maltz (1996) from the band, it entered a brief hiatus while Gessinger played along his newly-formed band, Humberto Gessinger Trio. Engenheiros do Hawaii later joined back in 1997 with the Trio's formation (Humberto playing bass, Luciano Granja on guitar and Adal Fonseca on drums). In 2001, with yet another new formation of the band (Paulinho Galvão on guitar, Bernardo Fonseca on bass and Gláucio Ayala on drums), he returned to lead guitar.

Pouca Vogal

After the band stopped its activities, Gessinger joined the friend and musician Duca Leindecker, former leader of the band Cidadão Quem and created the duo Pouca Vogal, in wich they played both musics from Engenheiros, Cidadão Quem and new compositions from both. The duo lasted 4 years, till both singers decided to go on with their solo careers.

Solo career

In 2013, Humberto Gessinger released Insular, his first solo album, and first album composed solely by new songs in ten years. He recorded musics along muscian friends from Rio Grande do Sul and former Engenheiros do Hawaii members. The album's tour was played in a "power trio" format: Gessinger back on bass (also playng keys and accordion), Rodrigo "Esteban" Tavares on guitar and Rafael Bisogno on drums. The tour's recording became a DVD, "Insular Ao Vivo", released in 2014.In 2015, he was nominated for the 16th Latin Grammy Awards in the Best Brazilian Rock Album category. In 2016, he released a LP, "Pra Ficar Legal", re-recording old songs and starting a new tour. Fernando "Nando" Peters, former Cidadão Quem member, took over the guitars in the same year, with Tavares leaving to dedicate himself to his solo career. He released another LP in 2017, "Desde aquela noite" [Since that night], while celebrating the 30th anniversary of his second album, "A Revolta dos Dândis". He intends to record a DVD over his new tour, "Desde aquele dia".

Personal life

Gessinger was born and raised in Porto Alegre,RS, along with his sisters and brother. At the age of 14, his father died from a leukemia. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Gessinger has been married to architect Adriana Sesti, whom he liked since high school, and dated since college - architecture, to wich they both went. They had their daughter in 1992. Clara Gessinger appeared, as a baby, in several videos promoting the band's then-latest release Gessinger, Licks & Maltz. She would later duet with her father in the band's MTV Unplugged and Novos Horizontes albums.

Years after Carlos Maltz left Engenheiros, they re-started chating and befriended. This resulted in musical partnerships: Humberto recorded song along Carlos in the latter's solo album (Farinha do mesmo saco, 2001) and "Folia de Reis EP" in 2017; and Maltz made a cameo in Engenheiros do Hawaii's MTV Unplugged (2004), Novos Horizontes (2007) and the to-be released Desde Aquele Dia DVD tour (2017).

Gessinger is also a bookwriter and a selftaught musician.