Duo Choro na Manga

Choro was born in Rio de Janeiro late 19th Century and has since evolved into one of Brazil's most prominent and popular instrumental music forms. Today choro also has a significant presence outside of Brazil, in many countries there are choro clubs, concerts and rodas featuring both amateurs and professional musicians devoting their chops to choro. In the city of Turin, an important cultural center of northern Italy, the duo Choro na Manga do their part by helping to spread choro. Choro na Manga has Brasilian bandolinist Marco Ruviaro and Italian guitarist Fabrizio Forte as its members, the duo was born in September 2007. After a short period of weekly meetings, Marco Ruviaro and Fabrizio Forte had an extensive repertoire of instrumental music with sophisticated arrangements and a unique style of playing, the duo Choro na Manga was born. According to the official website of Choro na Manga, choro for a duo is more than just a simple combination of a soloist and an accompanist, the two musicians seek to exploit the resources of the two instruments and broaden the horizons to the maximum musically. Last year, January 2009 the debut cd of the duo was released containing 10 recordings made during 2008 in Turin.

The repertoire of the cd covers well-known choros by prominent composers like Pixinguinha, Jacob do Bandolim, João Pernambuco, Garoto a.o. (see tracklist at Choro na Manga's web), and the arrangements and execution of the chosen material are terrific. The duo does a great work to sound like a unity, the interplay between Marco and Fabrizio is excellent and elaborate - the cd is highly recommended as an example of the art of the duo in the field of choro. The cd is avialable for download in mp3 at Amazon, and you may also have access to the music at iTunes, for more info and audio examples check the website of Choro na Manga here

Marco Ruviaro was born in São Paulo (Brazil) and started studying music at age 11. He studied guitar and has a BA in guitar from the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). He is self-taught in choro but has participated in several workshops of choro led by teachers like Pedro Amorim, Joel Nascimento, Luiz Otavio Braga, Jayme Vignoli, Mauricio Carrilho and Luciana Rabello. In Turin, Marco conducts the Choro Club and is a member of the club's quartet besides taking part in choro events around the world; an interview with Marco (- in Portuguese) is to be found here

Fabrizio Forte, a native of Turin (Italy), started in music at age 15 when he began studying guitar and bass as a self-taught. After several years playing blues and jazz, in 1997 he had his first contact with Brasilian music by the noted composer and singer João Gilberto and has since devoted himself almost exclusively to Choro, Bossa Nova and Brasilian music in general. Fabrizio now teaches guitar at the Conservatory of Novara.

To give you an impression of duo Choro na Manga's interpretations of choro I'll insert some video extracts from a live concert earlier this year at Auditorio di Vinovo, Turin. - Here is first a performance of "Coralina" by Albertino Pimentel



Here's a performance of "Segura ele" by Pixinguinha


The duo also has a performance of João Pernambuco's "Sons de carillhões" extended with a quotation of "Asa Branca"


Finally, the last video from the mentioned concert has a rendition of Garoto's "Desvairada"



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