On the 4th of September 2000 an official document of the government in Brasil announced the 23th of April asDia Nacional do Choro, the date was chosen in honor of choro icon Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho, better known as Pixinguinha, (April 23, 1897 - February 7, 1973). Choro Day is celebrated on Pixinguinha's birthday - not only in Brasil, but it has become a tradition all over the world where Brasilian culture is an integrated part of local festivites. I recommend to check out local media for info about arrangements in your area. - Here we will celebrate Choro Day by inserting some videos featuring music by Pixinguinha - hope you to enjoy
From a live performance at Instrumental SESC Brasil earlier this year Trio Madeira Brasil - Ronaldo do Bandolim (bandolim), Zé Paulo Becker (violão), Marcelo Gonçalvez (violão 7 cordas) - plays "Cochichando"
From a live performance at Instrumental SESC Brasil last year Danilo Brito (bandolim) and his conjunto - Luizinho 7 Cordas (violão 7 cordas), Alexandre Ribeiro (clarinet), João Camarero (violão), Milton Mori (cavaco), Rafael Toledo (pandeiro) - play "Ingênuo"
Finally, from the same live concert Danilo Brito and conjunto perform "Um a Zero"
Earlier this month Ademilde Fonseca (b 1921), 'The Queen of Choro', turned 90 years old - an event that we also like to mark at this blog. Ademilde Fonseca was one of the first vocalists to actually sing choro, a remarkable contribution to this mostly instrumental genre of Brazilian music. She had her debut as a recording vocalist 1942 with "Tico-tico no fúba" - the well known composition by Zequinha Abreu with added lyrics by Eurico Barreiros accompanied by the regional/conjunto of Benedito Lacerda, a smash hit, which granted her the title 'Queen of Choro'. During the 1940s and 1950s she consolidated her success with vocal versions of popular choros and related music of the time, and she performed and recorded regularly with the cream of Brazilian top-musicians - even after her 80 years of age. A selection of her 78 rpm records is available at Instituto Moreira Sales and a discography of this output may be accessed here. - We have earlier published a career profile in English, still available here.
Ademilde Fonseca's 90 years anniversary and 70 years in show-business was celebrated in a TV hommage presented by journalist and music critic Tárik de Souza on the program MPBambas at Canal Brazil some days ago, and there has also been arranged a tribute concert in Rio with participation of choro musicians and 'The Queen of Choro' herself. Unfortunately, no video documentation of these events has been uploaded yet, but I found a video from an earlier performance featuring Ademilde Fonseca and Eimar Delvino Barreto in a vocal duet singing "Tico-tico no fúba" - enjoy it below!
It's great to know that choro music has been enriched by the vocal contributions of a great artist still going strong. Congratulations, Ademilde Fonseca!
New cd featuring the Danish-Brasilian trio Tresafinado is a magnificent example of the vitality of contemporary choro.
The Danish-Brasilian trio Tresafinado from Copenhagen is "(...) a rendezvous of three musicians: two classical musicians, flautist Pia Kaufmanas and guitarist Torsten Borbye Nielsen, and the Brazilian drummer and percussionist, Afonso Corrêa, who brings with him the wealth of Brazilian music with its vivacious, sensual rhythms" according to the official website of the trio
The trio presents its musical repertoire this way: "In a repertoire based on the Spanish and South-american music Tresafinado explores new possibilities, performing classical music together with other styles. The strong Spanish spirit of de Falla and the all-embracing musical language of Villa-Lobos is presented next to a Brazilian choro, a Venezuelian waltz or just a simple folksong." The trio was established 1998 and has performed with this repertoire that also was presented at Tresafinado's first cd titled 'Tresafinado - 3 Musicians'; audio examples available at the website, click here. - Tresafinado has also co-operated with larger ensembles and their second cd reflects this through recordings of religious music with participation of vocalists from Brønderslev Kirkes Pigekor; audio examples available here. .In 2008 Tresafinado was invited to participate in the ”IV Festival Nacional de Choro” in Brazil, which inspired guitarist Torsten Borbye Nielsen to compose several choros that were enthusiastically received by the Brasilian audience during the trio's performance and praised by the well known musician and producer, Mauricio Carrilho The result of this was that Tresafinado was invited to Rio in March 2010 to record some of this material in the studio of Acari records. The recordings from this session are now available on the just released cd, Lúdico, shown below
The title of the cd, Lùdico, which also is the title of one of the featured compositions, means 'to play' or 'play together'. Trio Tresafinado is accompanied by three well known Brasilian musicians on several of the 16 tracks on the cd: Mauricio Carrilho, Pedro Aragão, Luciana Rabello, and there is a guest performance by Nailor Proveta on a couple of tracks as well. The cd is produced by Mauricio Carrilho in co-operation with the trio. The main part of the repertoire consists of choros or choro related compositions, nine of them composed by guitarist Torsten Borbye Nielsen and arranged together with Mauricio Carrilho: Lembrancas de São Pedro (TangoBrasileiro),"Helene"(Choro Cancão),"Graciosa"(Waltz),"Pipocou!"(Polka), "Maria" (Waltz), "Valsa pro Proveta" (Waltz),"Lùdico" (Choro), "Ricardo no choro" (Choro) and "Festa"(Choro). The cd has two compositions by Mauricio Carrilho: "Maxixe pro Afonso" (Maxixe) and "Koala" (a Toada-Lundu), a classic by Radamés Gnattali,"Remexendo" (Choro), arranged by Carrilho and finally outside the choro repertoire two tangos from Astor Piazolla's suite "Histoire du Tango: Bordel 1900 & Nightclub 1960" arranged by Afonso Corréa, and "Viento y Madera" by the Costa Rican composer Fidel Gamboa arranged by Tresafinado. The Scandinavian imprint is further expressed in a reading of "A Fiddler in Rio", a composition by the famous Danish jazz fiddler Svend Asmussen written in 1954 as a tribute to Jacob do Bandolim and here performed by Tresafinado accompanied by Pedro Aragão (bandolim), Mauricio Carrilho (violão 7 cordas) and Luciana Rabello (cavaquinho).- The performance of the music is flawless and generates an intimate atmosphere, everything is well arranged and executed to the benefit of the beauty of the compositions - a very successfull meeting of kindred spirits and great musicians across The Atlantic. As mentioned, the cd is recorded in Acari's studio in Rio in March 2010 and it was released January this year on Tresafinado's own label (Tresafinado Records, T 1001) in co-operation with Gateway Music. The cd is available for purchase at the website of Tresafinado here and here; it may also be purchased from iTunes, here
Tresafinado has uploaded a video at YouTube with footage from the recording of the cd and featuring the audio of the title track, "Lúdico", inserted below to give you an impression of these highly recommended recordings - Enjoy!
Garoto (Anibal Augusto Sardinha, 1915-55) was a multi-talented musician playing various fretted instruments: banjo, cavaquinho, bandolim, violão, violão tenor and hawaiian guitar contributing on numerous recordings with his always elegant fretwork both as accompaniment and as a soloist. He also composed several pieces for the various fretted instuments he mastered, among his compositions, however, a single one stands out as an example of his deep roots in the choro tradition - the valse-choro "Desvairada" (- meaning 'wild' in English). "Desvairada" is a three part valse-choro played in 6/8 and has the form: ABBACCA, the piece containing several examples of appegios in double timing, very intricate to master. Garoto recorded the piece in 1950 for Odeon on a 78 rpm playing the bandolim, a video at YouTube has the original audio as soundtrack to still photography -
"Desvairada" has since become a touchstone for choro instrumentists to master, especially among guitarists allthough the piece originally was designated for the bandolim according to the recording by Garoto himself (- he never recorded "Desvairada" playing the violão, only the inserted audio above by Garoto is available). You may also listen to the original recording by Garoto in streaming audio at Instituto Moreira Sales or from the compilation cd shown below
As said, "Desvairada" has become a touchstone for choro guitarists, one of the first guitarists to cut his teeth on the composition transcribed for guitar was Raphael Rabello, who recorded the piece in a duo set-up together with Radamés Gnatalli on the shown cd below
Raphael Rabello also recorded "Desvairada" in a duet with Dino Sete Cordas and he always had the tune as part of his standard book in live-performance, here's a magnificent example of Raphael Rabello playing "Desvairada" in an informal and private setting
In 1991 Paulo Bellinati recorded a cd devoted to the guitar works of Garoto, among the 24 pieces transcribed for guitar by Bellinati also was a recording of "Desvairada", probably the best known interpretation of the piece copied by numerous guitarists ever since with the guidance of Bellinati's published score. At YouTube you can watch several videos featuring various guitarists struggling to master the piece, one of my own favorite videos has Yamandú Costa playing the piece in a near to impossible version, here documented from a live-tv spot
To end this small entry on a famous tune, I insert a video from a live-performance featuring Alessandro Penezzi (violão), Daniel Brito (bandolim) and Rogério Caetano (violão sete cordas) playing "Desvairada" in a trio setting, from a tribute concert to Raphael Rabello - enjoy!
On the 4th of September 2000 an official document of the government in Brasil announced the 23th of April as Dia Nacional do Choro, the date was chosen in honor of choro icon Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho, better known as Pixinguinha, (April 23, 1897 - February 7, 1973). Choro Day is celebrated on Pixinguinha's birthday - not only in Brasil, but it has become a tradition all over the world where Brasilian culture is an integrated part of local festivites. I recommend to check out local media for info about arrangements in your area. - Here we will celebrate Choro Day by inserting some videos featuring music by Pixinguinha - hope you to enjoy
