Choro Music: Nicolas Krassik

A blog like this Keep Swinging web log wants to share my fasination with visitors for certain musical styles or for musicians who don't walk the beaten tracks. This time I want to share with you the music of Nicolas Krassik, a French violin player. I got a great CD, Nicolas Krassik- Na Lapa, of him that has a lot of aspects to enjoy.

Nicolas Krassik has been the subject of an extensive blog made by Joergen some months ago. You can read his contribution here. Nicolas Krassik, born in France, who studied classical music on the violin and played jazz and classical music on his instrument in his homeland, travelled to Brazil in 2001 searching for new sounds, for new musical inspirations. He found it in a bar called Semente, in Na Lapa (Rio de Janeiro), the title of the album, where he heard musicans like Yamandu Costa playing the Pixinguinha tune 1 x 0 . During his visit he learned more about the Brazilian music in general and the choro music in particular. He became inspired by the rich Brazilian music traditions and moved to Brazil where he is now part of the group of popular choro musicians.

When you listen to the CD Na Lapa you hear Nicolas Krassik playing, being a skilled musician, with his roots in classical music ( like the intro of Lamento Sertanejo ) and jazz and passioned by the Brazilian choro music. The music is great - it is not a copy of the traditional choro music as it is played for years by numerous bands like nowadays dixieland band try to imitate the New Orleans style - no it is a new sound - on a higher level then pure imitating the traditional sounds. That's why I like this CD and his music.

I want to share three fragments with you - all three with musicans named in this little blog. The first fragment is by Yamandu Costa playing Disparada. Yamandu is the musician that inspired Nicolas Krassik to stay in Brazil. The second fragment is a small filmed documentary and performance of Pixinguinha himself; this fragment has historical value. Pixinguinha is one of the most important composers and performers in choro music. The last fragment is Nicolas Krassik at a festival last year. Maybe not the best example to illustrate his capacities, but nice to learn how he became part of Brazilian tradition. Mind that Joergen also posted a fragment where you can see Nicolas Krassik playing.