Celebration

This week my friend, Hans - co-editor and supervisor of this blog - is celebrating that his keepswinging-blogspot has reached the magical number of 1000 entries since its start in February 2006. An amazing effort considering the fact that he has been posting always well researched and engaging posts on a daily basis about music and other passions that keep him swinging and have attracted readers from all over the world to visit his blog regularly. I congratulate you, dear Hans, with the blogentry no 1000 that has been published today, and I sincerely want to encourage readers of the choro-music blogspot also to pay your keepswinging blog a visit - a list of all posted subjects is to be found by clicking here

Had it not been for my friendship with this remarkable man and blogger extraordinaire, this blogspot devoted to the Brazilian choro music probably would not have been published in this part of the world, I guess. It was Hans' idea to make a blog about choro music, which he loves just as much as I do, following an unstopable enthusiasm for new inputs regarding swinging affairs. By coincidence I happend to be the person, who had the pleasure of introducing Hans to the subject, but had it not been for his encouragement and belief in my limited knowledge and ability, I had not dared to join in and write about a culture I only know of as an outside spectator, inspecting my own reactions from meetings with a musical universe of joy and passion, an authentic culture almost unknown in the Western part of the world dominated by American culture. Thank you, Hans, for your back-up and for the passion we are sharing here regarding choro music!

Last week I received the shown cd, "The Best of Ernesto Nazareth", just released by ChoroMusic.com, a sample-cd promoting the project of spreading knowledge about choro music by publishing written scores and enclosed recorded music to be used by musicians interested in getting started with playing choro. I have mentioned the project by ChoroMusic.com earlier, an excellent effort encouraging serious musicians to get involved with choro taking advantage of the written music and the play-along cds accompanying the sheet. If you are a musician interested in choro, this is a fairly good way to engage into choro by using the music-minus-one (- you're the soloist) method, I recommend a visit at the website of ChoroMusic.com to learn more about the project and music already published, click logo below

The shown cd should be available from ChoroMusic.com shortly, I had my copy sent from their division in São Paulo, Brazil (- thanks a lot to Isabella Leite for manufacturing my request and to Daniel Dalarossa, president of ChoroMusic.com, for directing me a free copy) - the cd is being released both in Brazil and the USA at the same time. Even though you are not a musician, this cd is worth your money, the music and arrangement of 16 compositions by Ernesto Nazareth, Rei do Choro are just excellent and well performed by a team of skilled musicians. Among featured soloists are Daniela Spielmann (soprano & tenor sax), Izaís do Bandolim & Milton Mori (bandolim), Nailor Proveta & Luca Raele (clarinet), Daniel Allain, Daniel Dalarossa & Toninho Carrasqueira (flute). The soloists are accompanied by a regional featuring Arnaldinho do Cavaco (cavaquinho), Edmilson Capelupi (violão de 7 cordas), Lula Gama (violão) and Betinho Sodré (pandeiro). The recorded compositions by Nazareth include famous pieces like 'Ameno Resedá', 'Apanhei-te Cavaquinho', 'Brejeiro', 'Odeon', 'Escorregando' and 'Batuque' - all composed for the piano, but here arranged for choro ensemble from the original scores. Moreover, two unpublished compositions by Nazareth, 'Zizinha' (1889) and 'Ideal' (1905) are also included - both very well arranged and performed like the rest.

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To end this, I insert a couple of videos celebrating some of Nazareth's most popular pieces - here is a solo guitar version of 'Odeon'

Finally, here is Marco de Pinno Quarteto from a live-performance playing 'Apanhei-te cavaquinho'

Jo