Armandinho - Choro & Soccer

Armando Neves (Armandinho) (1902-1974) is regarded as one of the most important figures of choro developed in the city of São Paulo. Learning to play the violão by ear, he never learned music theory. Initially a soccer player, he worked as a professional for Ponte Preta and Guarani. When he switched to the Corinthians he was relocated to the city of São Paulo, and in 1919 abandoned soccer. In that city, he studied violão with his brothers, José Matoso and Joaquim Matoso, and in 1926 with Larosa Sobrinho. Musically illiterate, his gifted intuition allowed him to write sophisticated compositions.

In 1926, Sobrinho took him to Rádio Educadora Paulista, where Armandinho formed the first regional of the city of São Paulo. The group participated in the first radio broadcast between Rio and São Paulo that year. The next year, he joined 'Os Turunas Paulistas', a group led by violão virtuoso Canhoto (Américo Jacomino) who was considered the best of the period. In 1928, he performed with João Pernambuco, João dos Santos, Levino da Conceição, and others. In this year he assumed direction of the Rádio Record group, remaining there until 1956, a period when the radio enjoyed local projection. In 1930 he played for Paraguayan virtuoso violonista Agustin Barrios and recorded two 78 rpms through Parlophon with Larosa Sobrinho. An accomplished accompanist, Armandinho recorded just one solo album, a 78 for Decelith, in 1938.

Above info excerpted from a profile by Alvaro Neder in AMG.

Examples of the compositions by Armandinho are available in one of the programs by Fábio Zanon for Rádio Cultura of São Paulo in the series 'O Violão Brasileiro', the program may be downloaded in MP3 from Fábio Zanon's weblog, click here

As mentioned above Armandinho had a career as a professional soccer before devoting his interest and talent to music. From Zanon's radio feature on Armandinho I learned that one of his choro compositions, 'Choro nº11 - O Dono da Bola', is dedicated to the worldfamous Brazilian soccer virtuoso, Edson Arantes do Nascimento aka PELÉ. I found a video performance of this piece, unfortunately audio and image quality is not the best, but this is what is available. Hope this performance by Danilo Oliveira of "O dono da bola" may give you an impression of the Armandinho choro, anyway.

Jo