Rossini Ferreira

Recently I had a copy of the shown cd, 'Um Aló para o Six' (Kuarup, KCD 098), featuring the great bandolimist, Rossini Ferreira and his choro ensemble. The cd contains 20 tracks, most of them recordings of Ferreira's own compositions: choros, waltzes and maxixes in the classic style. When listening to the cd, the music reminded me of the recordings by Época de Ouro - the sound and high class performance of the tunes is very alike and a sheer pleasure to share and enjoy. Unfortunately, the cd is no longer available in the catalogue of Kuarup records, but it's definitely worth searching for and highly recomended, if you love classic choro.

Rossini Ferreira (1919-1981) was from Pernambuco (North-East of Brazil) and started playing the bandolim as a teenager and was soon to be a master of the instrument, acknowledged by his peers. In 1959 he and other musicians from the Pernambuco region headed for Rio to share experiences with and join rodas de choro at the home of Jacob do Bandolim, and shortly afterwards Ferreira moved to Rio and stayed there for some years, taking part in the musical life of Rio. Later he would return to Pernambuco to join the Orquestra de Cordas Dedilhadas de Pernambuco, the famous string ensemble from Recife specializing in arrangements of Pernambuco's music. Ferreira took part as one of three bandolimists in the recording of a LP by Orquestra de Cordas Dedilhadas de Pernambuco in 1984, later re-issued on a cd by the FUNARTE foundation. The shown cd above is the only solo release of Ferreira's own recordings.

To give you an impression of Ferreira's music, I found a short video performance by Grupo D'Improviso playing 'De galho em galho' - a composition by Rossini Ferreira

Jo