|
 Every ensemble brings a different set of insights to great music, so it's impossible to hail any single group as offering everything. Yet there is one that has such implicit warmth that you get the feeling you're witnessing musicians playing in the privacy of their own homes rather than performing publicly.
Originally a simple gathering of friends who wanted to play music outside the traditional jazz and popular repertoire, the Los Angeles Choro Ensemble has over the past five years, proven to be a most successful aggregation. Their subtlety and quickness of response gives the impression that not even an earthquake could disrupt their rhythmic stability or shake the absolute certainty of each player's conviction. Heard on Ted Falcon's CD Memórias do Brasil, their imaginative ensemble sound offers a wonderful display of instrumental bravura totally devoid of superfluous embellishment or sentiment. Falcon, one of the few North American musicians whose work reflects a profound admiration for the Brazilian style of mandolin playing, began his career playing violin and guitar in the most commercial circles (Korn, Weezer, Suzanne Vega, The Cure) and was even the concertmaster for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Having decided to take a more creative path, Falcon became involved with choro. His new CD, Memórias do Brasil, sets out to explore the stylistic scope as well as the compositional diversity of the genre. Falcon is of the generation that grew up alongside the influence of artists like Jacó do Bandolim and Hamilton de Holanda, and certainly these players are almost tangible presences on his CD. Constantly changing color, character, and perspective, the recording takes listeners to the heart of choro. There is not a low point in the entire program, and the players' musicianship and enthusiasm for this venture shines through every bar. With his own blend of rock intensity and jazz exploration, Falcon's playing and semi-jazz approach are entirely gratifying and have many virtues, commencing with a good choice of material.
From Pixinguinha to Hermeto Pascoal, the music is tightly organized, each player contributing a clearly-defined personality to his role. Pacing is excellent, with different guests giving different slants to the music on each track. By transferring these rich harmonic and beautifully melodic conceptions from their fingers to their instruments and ultimately to the listener, Falcon, together with the supple and responsive Los Angeles Choro Ensemble, rekindles one's faith in both the past and the future of choro. For those whose interest is now aroused, rather than simply reading about this group, you have an opportunity to hear them bring out the choro repertoire at the CD Release Party on May 31, 2006, at the Vic for Jazz in Santa Monica, in the Los Angeles area, in California. Journalist, musician, and educator Bruce Gilman has served as music editor of Brazzil magazine, an international monthly publication based in Los Angeles, for close to a decade. During that time he has written scores of articles on the most influential Brazilian artists and genres, program notes for festivals in the United States and abroad, numerous CD liner notes, and an essay, "The Politics of Samba," that appeared in the Georgetown Journal. He is the recipient of three government grants that allowed him to research traditional music in China, India, and Brazil. His articles on Brazilian music have been translated and published in Dutch, German, Portuguese, Serbian, and Spanish. You can reach him through his e-mail: cuica@interworld.net.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.