News

Between February and March, a big festival happened in Tacoma, WA, with many performances of Bluegrass music, lots of solo artists and groups.

But Bluegrass was not the only music style, others were present, such as Mike Marshall’s style, the eclectic North-American mandolin player. He performed new pieces with his group Big Trio, and other pieces, including Choro music, with myself.

I was there, presenting Brazilian music (what a big responsibility, isn’t it?). I played some pieces solo, other pieces shared with Mike Marshall and other with Choro Famoso, whose father is the mandolinist I was just telling about. The group is formed by Colin Walker, in 7 strings guitar, Andy, clarinetist and Brian, rhythm player.

Besides the performances, we did some workshops to a big group really interested in learning more about Brazilian Music.

And how people get fascinated by it!

For me, it was not a surprise, because I had noticed, in earlier trips to the USA, that a good motion about Choro music was happening there. Thanks to North American initiatives such as the release of two albums of Jacob do Bandolim, a master of the mandolin in Brazil, by Acoustic Disc, the label renowned mandolin player David Grisman.
It can seem just a little step, but a North American label did this before any other Brazilian one (the fact was published in an important Brazilian newspaper).

Other initiative was the release of books of Choro by Adventure Music and other publishers, with the good will of North American musicians, again.

And it was this way that, in one of the evenings, we did a huge Roda de Choro (a Choro jam session) with all those non Brazilian musicians for hours.

It was so touching to me to see the enthusiasm in their faces and how they felt charmed hearing and playing Carinhoso, by Pixinguinha, for the first time.

I would like to thank Brazilian Culture Ministry for making this possible.