Mistura & Manda - Lloros

Mistura & Manda, Lloros, RGS Music (2016)

Choro is a genuine Brazilian instrumental music style that originated in Rio de Janeiro during the late 19.th Century and the music has a strong and living tradition in Brazil even today. In recent years choro has also had a still growing attention and audience outside Brazil, today choro is performed by devoted and skilled musicians both in USA, Europe and other parts of the world including several South American countries. Here I'll present the Argentinian choro ensemble Mistura & Manda from Buenos Aires and their new CD Lloros that was released internationally last month.

Mistura & Manda quartet (photo by Mariano Frisoli)

Mistura &Manda (- named after a famous choro by cavaquinho player Nelson Alves, who  played in the Grupo de Chiquinha Gonzaga and was one of the founding members of Oito Batutas in 1919 together with Pixinguinha and later performed with Pixinguinha's Guarda Velha) is a choro quartet from Buenos Aires. The ensemble was established twelve years ago and the present formation consists of Gabriel Trucco (flute and piano), Sebastián Luna (bandolim and cavaquinho), Esteban Ibáñez (acoustic guitar) and Ariel Malerba (percussion). The quaret has released a CD in 2011 titled Choro Vivo including music by Brazilian choro composers such as Pixinguinha, Ernesto Nazareth, Jacob do Bandolim a.o.. You have the opportunity to listen to this album in full length at Sound Cloud, here 

Mistura & Manda, Choro Vivo , RGS Music (2011)

The new CD by Mistura & Manda, Lloros, contains music composed by Argentinian musicians including members of the ensemble and may be considered a special issue being the first collection of choros composed by Argentinian artists. Among the compositions are contribution by Horacio Salgán and Roberto Grela, both best known as tango musicians, further Eduardo Falú, Atahualpa Yupanqui and Rudi Flores - well known interpretors of Argentinian folk music tradition, and besides contributions by members of Mistura & Manda the Argentinian swing guitar legend Oscar Alemán is also represented. The CD has twelve tracks and in some of the recordings Mistura & Manda is extended with guest appearance by Trío Turuna from Rio de Janeiro: Marcilio Lopes (bandolim), Jayme Vignoli (cavaquinho) and Paulo Aragao (8 string guitar), other guests participating are Juan Falú (guitar), Rudi Flores (guitar) and Niní Flores (accordeon). The music at the disc is excellent and well performed by all involved, highly recommended as a great example of how the choro style has been adopted by Argentinian artists. The CD is available for purchase as mp3 download here ,and below I'll insert some examples of the presented music uploaded at YouTube.

The first track at the CD is a choro by Horacio Salgán titled Choro en Fa sostenido and the performance featuring Mistura & Manda and Trio Turuna was filmed during the recording in studio and has been uploaded at YouTube

From the same studio recording was also Tango Brasileiro by Rudi Flores filmed

Another composition by Horacio Salgán, Un chorinho a la antigua, was also filmed during the recording of the CD, Mistura & Manda is again extended with Trío Turuna

As mentioned, swing guitar legend Oscar Alemán is also represented in the repertoire of the disc, and to end this small presentation of Lloros by Mistura & Manda, I'll insert the ensemble's version of Alemán's choro titled Casi negro, which has been uploaded at YouTube as an audio video together with several of the remaining tracks at the CD.

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Jo

choromusic.blogspot@gmail.com