Luíz Americano - Clarinet Choro (2)

Luiz Americano (1900-1960) is regarded one of the Brazilian masters of clarinet choro. Alvaro Neder writes about Americano in a career profile in AMG:

Luís Americano was a virtuoso of clarinet and a fundamental composer in the genre of choro. His classics are present in every self-respecting choro discography, and he has been re-recorded extensively by choro interpreters worldwide. Son of band conductor Jorge Americano, Luís began his musical studies on clarinet and saxophone very early. He joined the Army as a musician and was transferred to Rio in 1921. He was discharged the next year, when he became a professional musician, playing in nightclubs and dances. Americano joined the most important orchestras of those times, such as with Simon Boutman and Romeu Silva. He began to record in the '20s for Odeon and worked for American drummer and bandleader Gordon Stretton, with whom he toured Argentina in 1928. He stayed there, joining the Adolfo Carabelli Orchestra. In 1930, he came back to Rio, where he joined Rádio Mayrink Veiga's orchestra and formed the American Jazz Orchestra, which recorded for Victor. In 1932, he began to write great choro hits that firmly established him as a major composer (such as "É do Que há"), along with his exceptional capabilities as a clarinetist. In the same year, he joined Grupo da Guarda Velha. In 1936, he formed Trio Carioca with Radamés Gnattali (piano), Luciano Perrone (drums) to play American standards in the choro idiom. In August 1940, he was one of the talents chosen by Pixinguinha for Stokowski's recordings representing Latin America, where he interpreted his "Intrigas no Buteco do Padilha," "Tocando pra Você," and "Luís Americano no Lido" (Native Brazilian Music, Vol. 2 and Columbia album Luis Americano: Tocanda Pra Você). In 1950, Americano joined Rádio Nacional as a supporting musician with its varied ensembles and orchestras, where he worked and composed until his death.

Sound-clips available here

Jo

Abel Ferreira - Clarinet Choro (1)

Abel Ferreira (1915-1980) is considered one of the most important names in the choro genre.As a true maestro of the clarinet he excelled his skills in various orchestras and was featured on radio. Throughout the 1950'ies and 1960'ies he accumulated a good deal of international experience, touring both Europe and USA. Throughout that period, the choro genre showed a decrease of interest from audiences, but Ferreira managed to keep himself in good shape, ready to profit on the revival of choro in the '70s as one of the most important names.An excellent improviser, Ferreira had his best moments in recordings with the Cinco Companheiros (where he played with Pixinguinha, among others). His most successful compositions are the choros "Chorando Baixinho" and "Acariciando."

A career profile including soundclips at AMG

More soundclips at AllBrazilianMusic

Jo

Big Band Choro

Choro and choro-related music is usually performed by stringensembles, but there are renowned exceptions in the story of Brazilian popular music - one of them beeing the big band recordings and performances by the Orchestra Tabajara. This big band is lead by clarinetist Severinho Araújo (b 1917) and has been around for more than 60 years. With almost 13,000 performances worldwide, they figure in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest orchestra still in evidence. The Tabajara orchestra is considered similar to Glenn Miller's and also doubles clarinet and sax in the same way as Miller's. The Tabajara orchestra plays music from all over the world with a Brazilian swing, but excels also in choro. The recording of "Espinha de Bacalhau", a choro by Araújo, was a huge hit and is still considered the signature tune of Araújo and his big band.

More about Severinho Araújo including soundclips at AMG

More soundclips at AllBrazilianMusic

Jo

Brasileirinho

A year ago I was introduced to Choro music by my friend Jørgen Larsen, co-editor of his blog. In Copenhagen (Denmark) we joined the group Choro Brasil Scandinavia in a concert and a jam session with Jacob Fischer, a Danish jazz guitarist and his trio.

During the period that followed Jørgen fed me with choro music from the early days with names as Jacob Do Bandolim, Pixinguinha and Azevedo.

As in need of information Jørgen pointed me to a book, called Choro, a Social History Of a Brazilian Popular Music.
We found out that a documentary was made about Choro music, called Brasileirinho, by the Finnish film maker Mika Kaurismäki. It appeared to be difficult to obtain a copy, but last week the DVD was finally released in Holland and so I got mine.

My copy ( the Dutch version - spoken in Portuguese with Dutch and French subtitles) of

Brasileirinho contains a DVD and a CD with the soundtrack ( Up to now I haven't listened to that one).

Brasileirinho isn't a choro history or something like that - it introduces and follows a group of choro players, who talk about there common passion of choro and how this kind of music is integrated in their daily life. There is a lot of music in it - and one could compare it with the well known Buena Vista Social Club documentary in which Wim Wenders follows a group of Cuban musicians. The musicians tell about their instruments, about how they got involved in choro music, We follow them at rehearsals or discussions about harmonic structures and for me it was striking to learn how much choro and jazz have in common.

The documentary ends with a concert, on choro day, 23 april (the birthday of Pixinguinha), in which all musicians, from young to old, play their music.

Of course Jørgen will present us an extensive review later,as soon as he has his copy - I'm sure. He's the expert of the two of us.

In the mean time I'd suggest - get yourself a copy of this great portrait of Choro music.

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Zequinha de Abreu - The Composer of 'Tico-tico no fúba'

Zequinha de Abreu was born in Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, SP, in 1880, the first of 8 children, and was reportedly playing tunes on a harmonica by the time he was 5. At the age of 10 he was playing flute and clarinet and writing tunes in his first band. But his mother wanted him to be a priest, and his father a doctor, so he was sent away to school in Sao Paulo. By the age of 16, however, he had run away from the Episcopal Seminary and gone back to Santa Rita, deciding on a career as a musician. He was directing his first orchestra by the time he was 17. It soon became known as the best in the region, and he continued to perform at dances, parties, and accompanying silent films for the next 20 years. Abreu married when he was 18, and supported his family (he would have 8 children) with the orchestra, by writing choro, marches, tangos, waltzes and other music, and by working a variety of political jobs, like secretary of the City Council.

In 1919, when his father died, Abreu moved his family to Sao Paulo. There he continued as a popular, much-requested performer in bars and cabarets, and began going door-to-door to demonstrate his compositions and sell the sheet music. He also worked as a "sheet music demonstrator" at Casa Beethoven, playing songs for people looking to buy music. At the time, before radio and the recording industry were established, this was an important way for composers to create interest in their own music by playing it between requests.

While working at Casa Beethoven, Abreu met Vincente Vitale, who had recently started a music publishing house. In 1924, Vitale published Abreu's waltz "Branca," which was a huge success, and the two began a lifelong collaboration. Vitale became the exclusive publisher for Abreu's music, and actually paid him a monthly salary just to write music, a very unusual arrangement for a composer at that time.

During his lifetime, Zequinha de Abreu was a popular musician who enjoyed regional fame for his music. He was said to be quiet, happy, kind, and humble about his own success. He was involved in music for his whole life, performing, giving piano lessons to children, writing and selling his compositions, improvising for hours on the piano, and accompaning the performances of two of his own children, Durval and Dermeval. He died in 1935, at the age of 54, and it would be 7 years before Carmen Miranda made his "Tico Tico" an international hit. Although none of his other pieces has approached the popularity of "Tico Tico," Zequinha de Abreu was certainly not a one-hit-wonder. His influence on Brazilian music during his lifetime – through his performances and his association with Vitale Publishing – is indisputable.

"Tico Tico" [composed 1917] has been a perennial favorite with instrumentalists for over 60 years, and is probably the most frequently recorded choro of all time.

Excerpt of web article on Abreu

Career profile at AMG including soundclips

61 versions of 'Tico-Tico' available here

Jo