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.
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 January 11, 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.
In 2008, the band released the album La Plata, recorded in the studio Iron Ore, after three years of their last record. The CD quickly become 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 Soup Opera “Caras e Bocas”,
In late July, the third single “Seis e Trinta" (Six-Thirty) was released on the radio and the music video came out in September. At the end of November 2009 is released the ballad "Único Olhar", the seventh track of La Plata. In 2010 and is released "Tudo me faz lembar você" (Everything reminds me of you) 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 the 15-year career. The "J15 - 15 Anos na Moral" is a kind of party with 5 hours of duration, 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.
