Direct from São Paulo (and located above another Paulistano import, Astor), Studio RJ is the work of business partners and music lovers Ale Yousseff and Maurizio Longobardi, and their carioca counterparts Plinio Profeta and Luis Antonio Cunha, looking to bring a splash of beachfront colour to Rio’s live music scene. This particular corner of Ipanema has long been held dear by the city’s party people, home as it was to Barril 1800 for some forty years until 2007 and the Jazzmania phenomenon for over a decade in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Now the building once again has a music policy to shout about, determined to call to the stage a heady mixture of the best national and international bands and DJs, as well as the reinstating of Jazzmania on Tuesday nights. Essentially one large room with the bar along the side (complete with windows straight out onto Ipanema beach, there's also a smoking room with the same impressive view). The weekends start on Thursday with live music from 11pm before an ecelctic bunch of DJs descend for the post-midnight get down. The action starts at 7pm on Sundays, luring sandy drinkers straight off the beach and into the acoustically-impressive main hall.