Choro Music: Hamilton de Holanda

On the 15th of July the Hamilton de Holanda Quintet Brasilianos gave a concert at the Murray tent at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. His band features Hamilton de Holanda of course on the bandolim 10 cordas, the ten string bandolim, Gabriel Grossi on harmonica, Daniel Santiago at the guitar, André Vasconcelos at the bass and Marcio Bahia on drums.
Hamilton de Holanda, who dedicated one of his tunes to his newborn son, born a few days before this concert, played the music of his album Musica das nuvens e do chao in an energetical way. He also played some pieces from his new solo CD 01 Byte 10 Cordas - Hamilton de Holanda Ao Vivo No Rio, I will discuss later.

Although the circumstances for this performance were not very good, the group gave an excellent concert. Due to a delayed flight they were too late in Rotterdam and arrived just one hour before their concert at the festival. A guest appearance for Hamilton de Holanda with the Richard Galliano Tangaria Quintet was cancelled due to that fact. It was the last concert at the Murray stage for a partial filled tent with a lot of back ground noise from an adjoining concert. What a shame !

Hamilton de Holanda, born in 1976 in Rio de Janeiro, was raised in the choro tradition and became the most important bandolim player of the world nowadays. Critics in Brazil compare him with Jacob do Bandolim and that is, of course, a great compliment. His bandolim was rebuilded for him to a 10 string instrument. During the concert he showed that he is a skilled bandolim player that knows how to entertain the audience, most Brazilian immigrants, who wanted to hear their popular Brazilian instrumentalist. In Europe he is a rising star, especially popular in France. He is one of the musicians that play on the great film Brasileirinho, the documentary about choro music made by Mika Kasurismäki, a film everybody should have seen.

Hamilton de Holanda made several albums that should be obtained, although still hard to find in The Netherlands, but available on the internet. I found myself two of his last CDs in Rotterdam and I enjoyed the release of Hamilton de Holanda titled Musica das Nuvens e do Chao ( Song of the clouds and the earth) that contains twelve tracks with compositions of Brazilians composers like Baden Powell, Astor Piazzolla and Egberto Gimonti, but also an excellent played tune like Estacoes, he also performed during the concert. On this number Yamandu Costa plays as a guest on his violao 7 cordas, seven string guitar. Yamandu Costa is one of major choro instrumentalists of Brazil nowadays. It is a great CD that learns that this man and his music is a rising star. Try to find yourself a copy of this great album. The second album is a solo album, titled 01 Byte 10 Cordas - AuVivo No Rio and will be reviewed in a coming blog.

Hamilton de Holanda will be back for a tour this fall. He is to be heard in Groningen, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Find the dates at his website.

I love to share with you some film fragments of performances I found, solo as well as with his quintet. You can find more fragments on a previous Keep swinging contribution. Please, enjoy it.