Big Band Choro

Choro and choro-related music is usually performed by stringensembles, but there are renowned exceptions in the story of Brazilian popular music - one of them beeing the big band recordings and performances by the Orchestra Tabajara. This big band is lead by clarinetist Severinho Araújo (b 1917) and has been around for more than 60 years. With almost 13,000 performances worldwide, they figure in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest orchestra still in evidence. The Tabajara orchestra is considered similar to Glenn Miller's and also doubles clarinet and sax in the same way as Miller's. The Tabajara orchestra plays music from all over the world with a Brazilian swing, but excels also in choro. The recording of "Espinha de Bacalhau", a choro by Araújo, was a huge hit and is still considered the signature tune of Araújo and his big band.

More about Severinho Araújo including soundclips at AMG

More soundclips at AllBrazilianMusic

Jo