GUITAR CHORO

part five

 A select List of Recordings

by

Jørgen Larsen

Returning to my own experience with choro so far, I’ll comment on a couple of recordings more highlighting the guitar before ending this article. The above mentioned Rafael Rabello recorded a magnificent sample of ‘classic’ choro showing off the development of the style together with a highly estimated member of the old guard of choro, former member of Jacob do Bandolim’s famous Época de Ouro and 7 string guitar ace, Horondino Silva known as Dino 7 Cordas. The recordings were made in Rio 1990/1991 and have been released 1994 on a still available CD (Milestone, MCD-9221-2). The 11 tracks on the CD have compositions by classic choro composers such as Pernambuco, Nazareth and Pixinguinha besides a definitive solo reading by Rabello of Garoto’s “Desvairada”, the piece-de-resistance of guitar choro today. Around half of the tracks have Rabello and Dino in a duo setting exchanging some of the best guitar interplay ever recorded, the remaining tracks are with a classic choro ensemble or solo spots showing off Rabello’s amazing fretwork and sense of the guitar choro tradition.  

Jørgen Larsen

The “ Pisando em brasa” CD (Kuarup, KCD 114, iss. c. 1995 and still available) is a recording featuring another leading member of the old guard of Brasil choro, Francisco Soares de Araújo (b. 1928) better known as Canhoto (- meaning ‘lefthanded’) from Paraíba of the North Eastern Pernambuco region of Brasil. This CD has Canhoto leading his own regional (choro ensemble) playing music mostly by Canhoto himself, exemplary samples of classic choro in an up-to-date performance. A couple of tracks have guest staring by Paulinho da Viola, another renowned guitarist,cavaquinho player and spokesman in favour of the old virtues of choro. Canhoto’s abilities as a guitar player are remarkable, he uses his conventional 6 string guitar in the lefthanded position without changing the position of the strings (- the same way as played by Maybelle Carter and – Jimmy Hendrix!), but if you didn’t know this fact, you could not tell from the outcome of his playing, which is just marvellous and highly skilled, subtley reflected in the title of the CD meaning ‘dancing on coals’. Another recording by this remarkable guitar great of choro is also worth mentioning here as a similar example of his virtuosity, “O violão brasileiro tocado pelo avesso”, released by EMI of Brasil in the same serie of reissues as the above mentioned CD by Garoto. The CD is EMI, 5936322, released 2003 and still available.

Jørgen Larsen

Links:  Rafael Rabello

Guitar Choro part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six