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by Chris McGowan &
Ricardo Pessanha In the late nineteenth century in Rio a new musical style emerged that would become one of the most creative musical manifestations in Brazil. Choro is primarily an instrumental form, and to a North American ear might sound a little like a small Dixieland jazz combo playing with strange rhythms, extreme melodic leaps, unexpected modulations, and occasional breakneck tempos. and jazz are both characterized by their use of improvisation and mixtures of African and European musical elements. Interestingly, choro's early development arguably predates that of both ragtime, which first appeared in the 1890s, and jazz, which emerged at the start of the twentieth century.The first chorões (musicians that played choro) began to play in Rio around 1870. The pioneering figure Joaquim Antônio da Silva Calado (1848–1880) founded the group Choro Carioca in 1870, the same year that he was appointed a teacher at Rio’s Imperial Conservatory of Music. Choro Carioca, the most popular choro band of that decade, was an ensemble that initially consisted of flute, two guitars, and a cavaquinho. The early choro bands usually followed Calado's format. The flute acted as the soloist, the guitar supplied the lowest tones with its bass strings, and the cavaquinho handled the rhythm. Other instruments would be added later. Choro musicians improvised upon European rhythms and melodies and developed a dialogue between the soloist and other instruments in which the objective was the derrubada (drop)—the moment in which the accompanying musicians could no longer follow the soloist’s creative and unpredictable riffs. Ernesto Nazaré (old spelling: Nazareth, 1863–1934) was an important early choro composer who helped solidify the genre, and the Pixinguinha (Alfredo da Rocha Vianna, Jr., 1898–1973) is generally considered the greatest choro musician of all time (as well a key figure in the history of samba). * * * One of the best choro albums ever is 1988’s Noites Cariocas, in which Altamiro Carrilho (flute), Chiquinho (accordion), Joel Nascimento (mandolin), Paulinho da Viola (cavaquinho), Paulo Moura (clarinet), and Paulo Sérgio Santos (clarinet and sax) perform seventeen choro standards. Classic choros were also covered on numerous albums in the 1980s and 1990s by Laurindo Almeida, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Arthur Lima, Charlie Byrd, Paulo Moura, Raphael Rabello, and Richard Stoltzman, while David Grisman released two volumes of Jacó do Bandolim choros on his own label. Mandolinist Mike Marshall and cellist Yo-Yo Ma both explored the genre in recent years. The first decade of the 21st century witnessed the rise of new, innovative musicians who took choro musical traditions to new heights. Two of the most important are mandolin-master Hamilton de Holanda (born in 1976) and guitar virtuoso Yamandú Costa (b. 1980). Cavaquinho player Henrique Cazes, born in 1959, cannot be considered a newcomer – he started his career in 1976 with the Coisas Nossa band - but he released his most innovative works in the ‘00s. A good example is the 2002 album Eletro Pixinguinha XXI, which features eleven Pixinguinha themes played with samples, loops and a cavaquinho connected to a MIDI synthesizer. Guitarist Caio Márcio and his band Tira Poeira, which has its base in Rio’s lively Lapa nightclub scene, stir up the genre with samba, Cuban, flamenco and jazz influences. Caio has also experimented with jazz-rock-choro fusions on his eponymous debut solo album. Two other notable young guitarists are Zé Paulo Becker, who interprets choro and other genres in the well-regarded Lendas Brasileiras, and Rogério Caetano, who won accolades for his 2006 debut album Pintando o Sete. Trumpet player Joatan Nascimento, who played with the Symphonic Orchestra of Bahia before releasing the album Eu Choro Assim, is a rising choro artist. And the group Pagode Jazz Sardinha's Club, with saxophonist-flutist Eduardo Neves, cooks up an original stew that mixes choro, funk, samba and maxixe. The new generation is giving choro a facelift, adding new life to a style that many considered old-fashioned. Although its mass appeal has gone up and down in cycles, choro remains a fundamental part of the musical vocabulary for most Brazilian instrumentalists. Excerpted from The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova
and the Popular Music Of Brazil (Temple University Press, 1998).
© Chris McGowan & Ricardo Pessanha, 1991 / 1998
Also see:
The
Brazilian Sound (U.S.) |
