Choro: Brazilian Popular Instrumental Improvised Music PDF

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CHORO: Brazilian Popular Instrumental Improvised Music Clifford Korman City Coliege ofNew York / The New School University New York, New York The nineteenth century in the Americas was a time of profound transition. Former colonies which had declared independence began their lives as sovereign natio...

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CHORO: Brazilian Popular Instrumental Improvised Music Clifford Korman City Coliege ofNew York / The New School University New York, New York The nineteenth century in the Americas was a time of profound transition. Former colonies which had declared independence began their lives as sovereign nations, slavery was abolish ed and for the most part officially eradicated, and the beginning ofurbanization transforined economic, social, and cultura l landscapes. In the United States, elements of the genres and styles of minstrel shows, vaudeville, brass bands, field songs, blues, opera, and ragtime combined and evolved into jazz and popular music ofthe twentieth century. tu Cuba and other regions ofthe Caribbean a parailel development ofnational popular musics occurred, at times intersecting with the ongoing growth ofAmerican jazz. The sarne is true for Brazil. Viewed iii a somewhat simplistic way, European dance, instrumental, and vocal genre were gradually appropriated and transformed by exposure to Afro-Brazilian traditio ns of performance practice) Historians of Brazilian popular music generally agree that the flrst choro 2 bands appeared in Rio de Janeiros working class neighborhoods in about the year 1870. The ensembies were small, and almost always included finte as melody instrument, cavaquinho (akin to the ukulele; soprano guitar) to provide rhythmic and hannonic support, and guitar to provide counterlines and bass lines 3 (baixaria). Choro ensembles used the baliroom dance forms import ed from Europe and popular in Brazilian “high society” (poilcas, schottisches, tangos, and waltzes), and transformed them into pieces considered characteristically Brazilian in nature. The subdiv ision of the cormnon binary meter into a continuous stream of sixteenth notes was distributed among three fundam ental parts: embellished and varied melody, syncopated accompaniment rhythms and apolyphonic texture created by the voice-leading ofthe accompaniment and contrapuntal bass melodies. Structurally, a good choro was expected to contam three sections comprised oftwo to four measure phrases and maintain the rondo farmat; the sections were genera lly related by use of the subdominant, dominant, and relative or parailel major or minor keys as contrasting tonal centers. Some of the important composers and practitioners of early choro were Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ernesto Nazareth, Anacleto de Medeiros, Joaquim Antônio Calado, Henrique de Mesqu ita, Irineu Batina, Joao Pernambuco, and the most famous, Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho, nicknamed “Pixinguinha”. Popula r choros include Um a Zero, Tico-Tico no 4 and Segura Ele. The twentieth-century Brazilian classical compo Fuba, ser Heitor Vilia-Lobos wrote bis own set of choros, reflecting a nationalistic movement to establish art forms and styles characteristic of the couutry, and to bring “low” art into the “high” art circles. Over the ensuing decades ofthe late nineteenth and early twentieth centuri es choro developed as au instrumental, virtuosic genre, and the best players were expected to display improvisation al skills. The improvisations were not of the type generally associated with American jazz, in which the soloist uses a fixed harmonic form to generate new melodies. tu early choro, the soloist usually added virtuosic embellishmen ts or variations to the performance, and the musicians responsible for the counterlines and accompaniments improv ised those parts. As in any oral tradition, an accepted practice and standard repertoire developed and carne to be expected from a musician considered a 5 chorão. An important encounter and intersection with popular music and dance of the United States occurred iii the first decades of the twentieth century. Whether by direct transmission or indirectly through exposure to cultural developments in Paris, Brazilian musicians learned of ragtime, one- and two- steps, foxtrots, and early jazz. With the arrival and rapid growth of the recording and radio industries, this process was accelerated; by the early 1920’s Brazilian ensembles bearing the label jazzband appeared. tu the 1930’s and 1 940’s, American swing, baliroom niusic, and fim music was well known in the cities of Brazil; the late 1 940’s and early 1950 ‘s brought bebop, cool jazz, and hard bop. Each ofthese developments irnpacted on the development of choro, whether ia a positive or negative sense. Some influences were embraced; others consciously avoided for both esthetic and nationalistic reasons. The purpose ofthis paper is to discuss the role ofimprovisation ia choro. To provide context 1 will briefiy present au overview of the emergence and development of choro from its incepti on to the present day, considering historic trends including the advancement of technology, the presence of United States culture, decolonization and resultant nationalistic movements. Following that 1 will discuss the structure and content of choro, with a primary focus on the role of improvisation. It is there that 1 believe that jazz educators and practit ioners will fmd a history and performing tradition of great interest. lt parallels the history of North-Ameri can jazz and exhibits similarities ia terms of the 185

transmission of an oral tradition, a development of a musical language, and the importance of self-expression within a coilective perforrnance. lt differs through use of distinctive phrases and phrasing, an Afro-Brazilian rhythmical sensibility, and a standard repertoire unique to the genre. My intent is to iliuminate an improvisational popular music tradition, with similar roots to jazz, that has developed along different paths to become a unique, dynamic and contemporary genre.

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HISTDPJCAL OVERVIEW The story ofchoro’s emergence and development is best told by dividing it into phases. Pre-choro “Se eu tivesse de apontar uma data para o início da historia do Choro, não hesitaria em dar o mês de julho de 1845, quando a polca foi dançada pela primeira vez no Teatro São Pedro. A chegada dessa dança, vinda da Europa central via Paris, foi cercada de grande expectativa graças ao impacto causado em Lisboa dez meses antes.” ff1 had to specifS’ a date for the beginning ofthe history of Choro, 1 wouldn’t hesitate to give the month of July, 1845, when the polca was danced for the first time in the Teatro São Pedro. The arrival of this dance, cóming from central Europe by way of Paris, was surrounded by great 6 expectations, thanks to the impact caused in Lisbon ten months before.” Rio de Janeiro, the city in which choro was bom, had been the principal city of the Portuguese colonies in the Americas since 1763. It was the port of arrival for the colonists, many Africans brought by the slave trade, and irnmigrants from other European countries. From 1802-1822, it was the center ofthe Portuguese Empire when João IV fled Napoleon’s advances; upon the king’s retum to Portugal his son assumed power and declared Rio the capital ofthe newly declared “Empire ofBrazil”. The Republic of Brasil was established in 1889. With the arrival ofthe Portuguese royal family Rio was transfonned into an imperial capital, which had a profound affect on its cultural life. Salons and concert spaces were built, and the latest trends ofEuropean life quickly arrived to the city. The arrival ofthe poilca, as quoted in Cazes above, was an important event in the development of Brazilian popular dance and music. The combination of a quick tempo, melodies which contained large intervallic leaps, and a suggestive dance resulted in its rapid and strong presence as the rnusic ofthe day. Brazilian musicians began to incorporate the repertoire and spirit ofpolka, along with other salon dances, into their performance practice. 1870-1902 By 1870 Rio de Janeiro was becoming amodem and rapidly expanding urban center. There was a need to filljobs in service and transportation industries, creating an influx of imrnigrants and freed slaves. Neighborhoods were built or sprung up to house new rniddle and lower classes; much ofthe development of popular Brazilian music occurred in these areas. At ffie sarne time, two other musical traditions were active and vital: the presence ofEuropean Classical music was evident through music schools and concerts, and military and civil brass bands were comrnon. Flutist Joaquim Antônio Calado began to adapt the salon repertoire to and compose for the ensembie offlute, cavaquinho, and guitar and require the baixaria counterline. Clarinetist/saxophonist Anacleto de Medéiros led civilian brass ensembles that incorporated the standard repertoire and performed new compositions; in both these ensembies, the roles of melody, rhythmic accompaniment, and counterpoint were maintained. Most pertinent to the subject ofthis paper,the tradition of ffie roda de choro (choro circie) began. Similar to a jam session, the roda is an informal gathering of chorões where new material is presented and the standard repertoire is played for the enjoyment of the participants and guests. It was and is still common for a roda to take place in someone’s backyard; today they occur in restaurants or small clubs as well. Tamara Livingston writes in her dissertation: “Choro musicians tend to considér that ‘real’ choro only happens in the roda, which to them indicates a circle offriends where you are free to do whatever the music calis for. It is within the roda that the musical tradition of choro has been passed on from the 1 870’s to the present day, and it serves an important social function as well as musical fimction: to pass 011 not only the repertoire, technique, and style of choro, but the ethos ofcamaraderie, humility, and deference which are prized qualities among chorões.” 7

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The roda, then, serves as a cauldron through which the oral traditio n is practiced and passed on, and in which the balancing of individual and coilective aspects ofthe genre are forged. 1902- 1922 The year 1902 brought the advent ofthe recording industry in Brazil. This marked the beginning of a the mass mediation ofthe genre, bringing its usual positive and negative consequences. The best choro ensembies were recorded both as “house bands” and performers of their original works. As the industry grew, and with the subsequent introduction ofphonographs and the radio industry, choro entered a period ofprofessionalization and codification. The improvisational aspects of the roda were superceded by the development of written arrangements and virtuoso performers; the genre became more presentational than partici patory. In 1922, Pixinguinha traveled with his group “Os Oito Batutas” to Paris, and choro became known in this cultura l capital ofEurope. The group hadthe opportunity to see and hear the “jazzbands” of black musicians ofthe United States. Upon their return to Brazil, the Batutas were faced with the accusation that they had been overly-influenced by Americanjazz performance and arranging practice. This was a manifestation of the polemic over the increasing presence of the power and culture of the United States in Brazil; it is a discussion too complex to consider with any depth in this paper. Suffice it to say that from the decade of the 1920’ s on, through recordings, radio, increasing ease of travei, and the eventual advent of flim and television, musicians in Brazil had ample opportunity to hear and perform in the developing language called jazz from the United States. 1922-1950 As both jazz and the mass-media industries evolved, and with the eventual political aliiance of the United States and Brazil, an exchange of information began; jazz, big-ba nds, and the American bit parade repertoire arrived in Brazil while samba and choro arrived to the United States. Iii Brazil, the polemie over the positive and negative effects of American influence continued. Arrangers Radamés Gnatta li and Severino Araujo begin to orchestrate Brazilian songs in an identifiably “American” style; lhe less harmo nically complex sound of choro ensembies was somew hat overwhehned and the genre began to drop in popularity. A somewhat humorous story of saxophonist Paulo Moura iliustrates the point: “A Tupy era melhor pra quem gostava de música. O grau de experimentação nos arranjos era de tal ordem que um dia a direção da rádio fez uma circular aos arranjadores avisando: ‘São proibidos acordes americanos’, preocupados que os ouvintes estranh assem”. “(Radio) Tupy was better for they who lilced music. The degree of experimentation in the arrangements was ofsuch a levei that one day the administratio n ofthe station circulated a message to the arrangers advising ‘American chords are prohibited’, worryi ng that the listeners would flnd them strange.” 8 1950-1970 Though important chorües such as Jacob de Bandolim and Waldir Azevedo were active in the 1950’s, the popularity of chore was on the wane. This was the decade ofmodemism, ofhigh hopes for Brazil’s economic miracl e, ofAmericanjazz instrumentalists and crooners, the rise of bossa-nova. and the begirinings of a Brazilian response to the hard bop ofMorace Silver and Art Blakey. After the militar y coup of 1964 effectively ended the bossa-nova era, international pop and rock had a strong presence amongst young Brazilian composers and performers. M6sica Popula r Brasileira (Brazilian Popular Music) prevailed, combining elements of international and Brazilian contemporary musical trends. Though rodus may have existed, they were not very popular. There were occasional Chore Festivais or concerts commemorating an important historical momen t in lhe history of chore, but it’s popuiarity as a popular genre was ata low point. Iii spite ofthis, lhe seeds were planted in lhe 1 970’s for a very vital revival which is presently in fuil swing. 1 970-present Often with funding from lhe Ministry of Cuiture, Choro Clubs were begun through Brazil, The Club in Brasília has proved to be particularly important in lhe current era. Members of a young generation of musician dedicated themselves to serious study of the chore tradition, Group s including Fina Flor de Samba and Camerata Carioc a revisited important works of the genre, and began to bring a new energy and vision to it. At present, a number of 187

1 dynarnic ensembies including Rabo de Lagartixa, No Um Pingua de Agua, Dois do Ouro, Agua de Moringa, and Trio Madeira Brasil are participating in a dynamic and forward-Iooking choro movement. CHORO A14D IMPROVISATION “É importante lembrar que o choro traz consigo o mesmo elemento que permitiu ao jazz atingir seu grande desenvolvimento: improvisação. Esta é sua grande força. A alegria contagiante de brincar com a música...” It is important to remember thatthe choro contains tbe sarne element which permittedjazz to achieve its greatest development: improvisation. This is its great strength...the contagious joy ofplaying with the music... (Lindolpho Gomes Gaya, 1977 as response to a Jose Ramos Tinhorao, a representative of the traditionalist school of thought during 1 Festival Nacional do Choro-Brasileirinho) 9 It is quite common, when reading the work of Brazilian music historians, musicologists, journalists, and critics, to encounter mention and discussion of improvisation. From the perspective ofjazz educators and practitioners, this is a “loaded” word, and fmding it applied to a genre that lies outside the jazz tradition begs the question: in what sense is it being used? 1 have found tbrough research and listening to available recordings that improvisation exists on a nuber of leveis and is applied to different aspects ofperformance: a. embellishinent b. fiuidity of time and rhythm feel amongst ensembie c. baixaria (10w counter-lines) d. arrangement e. dynamics f. creation ofnew melodic lines “Um a Zero” : the transformation of a standard Iii order to iliustrate a number of improvisational devices available to the choro practitioner 1 will consider the piece “Um a Zero”, which is a standard ofthe repertoire. Beginning with the seminal recording of Pixinguinha (tenor saxophone) and his partner Benedito Lacerda (fiute), 1 will extract passages from five recordings to illustrate a number ofcornrnon improvisational devices of choro performance. 1 will point out motives and passages that remam the sarne, and where they differ as the performers vary, embellish, or depart from the melody and the comrnonly known elements of the contrapuntal and rhythmic figures. this is by necessity a very small sample drawn from the many possibilities available; 1 believe they are at least representational. To begin, Examples 1 and 2 in the appendix contain portions ofthe melodic une as played by Lacerda and the contra ° as improvised by Pixinguinha. t canto Example 3, from the recording of Raphael Rabelio and Horondino da Silva (Dino Sete Cordas), begins with a percussion solo which foreshadows the well-known contra-canto ofB. The cavaquinho then responds with a repetition of the figure before embarking on an improvisation over the first sixteen measures of the harmonic progression of section A, In terms of arrangement this was probably a premeditated decision; however the melodic content appears improvised. A short blues phrase (an interesting surprise!) is evident in bars 21-22. Example 4 is Dino’s contra-canto at the first Letter B of the sarne recording. He begins with a clear reference to Pixinguinha’s part at the same structural point; Pixinguinha’s line has become part ofchoro’s common vocabulary and is frequently used as a starting point. In ensuing bars, Dino creates his own line. In Exaniple 5, from the recording “Pixinguinha de Bolso”, Henrique Cazes adds triplet subdivisions, small variations and embelljshments to section C. Bars 4-7 and bar 12 are clearly spontaneous “flights offancy”.

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In Example 6, from the coilection ‘Café Brasil”, virtuoso flutist Altamiro Carrilho departs from the rnelody in bars 5-7, and returns at bar 8. From bar 17-24, he improvises a new melody over the harmonic progression. Example 7 iliustrates the subsequent A section, in which Ronaldo de Bandolim creates shiffing accent patterns through use of hemiola. It is difficult to transcribe to paper, but the ensembie clearly follows him through the newly divided time stream. It is a perfect example of a fluid and spontaneous group improvisation. CONCLUSION How, then can we compare the emergence and development of choro iii Brazil and jazz in the United States? Clearly there are differences between the two popular instrumental traditions. The use ofblues structure and expression, the procedure ofsoloing “overthe changes” and use ofthe “silenttheme tradition”, the use ofriff, standard song form, and the appropriation ofgospel and soul, and the triplet-based subdivision are all absent iii the Brazilian tradition. The confluence ofinfluences present in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bra.zil resulted in another unique set ofelements which formed its contemporary sound: Portuguese contributions of art and folk song genre including modinha and seresta; the use of a variety of instruments of the guitar family, (six-string, seven-string, cavaquinho, guitarra portuguesa); the popularity in the nineteenth century of the poilca and Italian opera; Afro-Braziia n rhythmical sensibilities, rhythmic phrases, instrurnents, performance practice, and dances including lundu; and the difficult to trace influences of expression and phrasing that may have come from the unique nineteenth- and twentiethcentury immigrant communities ofBrazil (Italian, Arabic, Jewish, Spanish, German). Nonetheless, there are enough conimon elements between the two traditions that provide ground for comparison. Both result principally from a confluence of colonial and African-based cultures; both are a consequence of decolonization and definition as anation, abolition, industrialization, urbanization, and mass-mediatechnologies. Both exhibit a standard repertoire, a vocabulary of phrases and phrasing passed on principally by oral tradition ,and both include, to varying degrees, aspects of self-expression within a coilective performance and components and the spirit of iniprovisation iii their performance practice. Here, 1 thinlc, we reach the crux ofan important issue: how do we define “improvisation” as it applies to popular music traditions beyond th...