#choro

'Estrada Longa' performed by Yamandu Costa & Antoine Boyer

I brought Lia's guitar and Elisa's cavaquinho home to Brazil.

The 1924 Mason and Hamlin piano that spent some months in my basement in Woods Hole was in daily use in Porto Feliz. It (still) sounded great.

I met Raphael Sampaio, a friend of the family, and a monster trumpet player. Not bad on guitar either. The Meyer Ferreira house was full of music.

The day after I arrived was Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras. We went to a small, quiet, down-home parade in the nearby city of Tiete.

It was loud enough for me.

Elisa had been planning what to wear for Carnival for a while.

Carnival in Tiete was a mix between a parade and just plain old dancin' in the streets.

On Thursday, I had the privilege of being the live audience for the Trio Meyer Ferreira (formerly Choro das 3) World Wide Live Stream, every Thursday at 9 PM São Paolo time.

On Friday, we went into town for a Baile Tropical extravaganza at Casa Francisca, with a ten-piece orchestra featuring Raphael Sampaio on trumpet.

He sure could play!

One of the joys of coming to Brazil is getting to listen to a real roda de choro. Roda means circle or wheel. It's a jam session. An amazingly sophisticated jam session. Some of the people here include Arnoldinho on guitar (on the left), Stanley Carvalho (talking to Corina), Raphael on trumpet, Oksana and Ricardo (guests from Curitiba) looking on, Elisa (mandolin), Tia Luisa (behind Elisa), Lia (guitar), Bruno (trombone), Victor (cavaquinho), and Clodoaldo (pandeiro, back to the camera). In my experience, rodas are played in a nondescript space - here a condo multi-purpose room - with lots of food, beer, and usually more musicians than onlookers.

When the greatest players of chorinho get together in a roda, it's all about the joy of playing - alegria! Here Arnoldinho takes special joy in Marco Bertaglia's 7-string playing.

This particular roda de choro was in honor of Elisa's 33rd birthday.

I'm so honored, and blessed, I guess, to be able to hang out with some of the world's greatest musicians.

Like I said . . .

I delayed my trip home by one day because of the epic snow storm pounding southern New England. This allowed me to spend yet another afternoon with the Hamilton de Holanda trio. Here's Hamilton and Marcos in Big Rabello's amazing studio in São Paolo. I've been in the recording studio with Hamilton for several projects - for example, Bossa Negra, Collab with piano genius Gonzalo Rubalcaba. I was also in the audience for Hamilton's Live in NYC album. On this visit, they were working on a tune by Hamilton and his son Gabriel.

Choro Choi • "Between Faces"

Concept Artist

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