A year ago today the Choro Music blog was started by my friend and co-editor, Hans Koert. After beeing introduced to the Brazilian choro in the summer of 2005, Hans decided to make a blog devoted to this musical artform and related genres as part of his Keep Swinging website.I was asked to contribute with entries on the subject and aggreed, as I happened to be the one who introduced Hans to choro during our joint venture about Oscar Alemán in Copenhagen July 2005.
While in Copenhagen together with our mutual friend, Theo van de Graaff, we attended a concert with the Choro Brasil Scandinavia ensemble and enjoyed the music very much.
Soon after this event we heard rumors about a documentary on choro to be released on DVD, this put us on the trail of further investigations into the world of choro - the first result of this was my small contribution on Guitar Choro published as an article at Hans' website in March 2006, still accessable clicking here .However, it was not until June last year that the mentioned documentary on choro was released in Europe. Mika Kaurismäki's great film, 'Brasileirinho, Choro in Rio' (2005), was released in the DVD format for the European market during June 2006, and this event was the actual background of starting the Choro Music blog. Learn more about Kaurismäki's film from the official website, click headline, and read Hans' review in one of the first entries at the Choro Music blogspot.
Let's celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Choro Music blog enjoying a couple of excerpts from Kaurismäki's 'Brasileirinho' that have been uploaded at YouTube. The first fragment is from the start of the film - Trio Madeira Brasil performing Jacob do Bandolim's 'Santa Morena'
The secound fragment is a highlight from the filmed concert - Yamandú Costa playing 'Carinhoso' and accompanying the singing of the attending audience
Jo