Choros by Paulinho da Viola

Paulinho da Viola (b 1942) is a renowned and highly respected exponent of the original Brazilian samba tradition, a successful performer and recording artist. He is also a well known producer of musical shows and recordings besides being a composer and an accomplished songwriter. Paulinho da Viola is the son of Cesar Faria, renowned guitarist with Epoca de Ouro - the handpicked choro ensemble accompanying Jacob do Bandolim during the 60s. From an early age Paulinho was influenced by the music of choro greats like Pixinguinha and Jacob do Bandolim, who would gather at his father's house playing music and socialising, however, his own career as a musician and songwriter was directed by the samba schools he attended as a youth, and to the public he is generally known as a contemporary sambista playing cavaquinho, guitar and singing his own samba ballads. Nevertheless, during his long career Paulinho da Viola has been strongly involved with choro, too. In 1973 he wrote and produced a musical show, 'Sarau', which re-introduced the Epoca de Ouro ensemble to the public with great success - this show is actually considered by many to be the starting point of the choro revival in Brazil during the 1970s. Moreover, he became close friends with Chico Soares (aka Canhoto da Paraíba) and launched his come-back being a producer of Canhoto's solo album from 1975. In 1976 Paulinho issued a double album, which contained his own choro compositions together with compositions by i.e. Pixinguinha, and he has always been a tireless spokesman in favor of the original virtues of choro, combining tradition and contemporary influences in his own performance. Learn more about Paulinho da Viola's career from his official website in both Portuguese and English, click here

Recently I borrowed the shown cd, 'Choros de Paulinho da viola' (Acari, AR-16, iss. 2005) by Marcia Taborda containing 13 choro compositions of Paulinho da Viola arranged for solo guitar. The cd is produced by Luciana Rabello, who also participates as a cavaquinho player on some tracks together with Maricio Carrilho on 7 string guitar, Kiko Horta on accordion and Luciana Requíão on bass guitar accompanying the solo guitar playing of Marcia Taborda. The music has a relaxed atmosphere and is a sheer pleasure to be listening to, highly recommended. Marcia Taborda (b 1965), who has studied with Turibío Santos, is an excellent solo guitarist and an accomplished arranger of the pieces, which furthermore are available in written music as a pdf-file on the cd, pointed at guitarists, who would like to play these pieces, too. Tracklist and discographical info available, click headline or here

To give you an impression of the compositions on the cd I found a video performance featuring the arrangement by Marcia Taborda of Paulinho da Viola's "Valsa da vida", here performed by Ovidiov

Jo