As has occurred so usually previously, Berkeley is forward of the cultural curve.
Choro, an instrumental Brazilian custom that was among the many first New World musical kinds to mix European instrumentation with African rhythms, has discovered new audiences in recent times removed from South America. It’s a playful, virtuosic idiom that’s additionally shared in neighborhood jam periods by the use of a century-deep repertoire of requirements.
The East Bay has been a choro hotbed for many years, ever since Oakland mandolinist Mike Marshall found the Nineteen Forties recordings of choro revivalist Jacob do Bandolim and went on to create the band Choro Famoso.
In the meantime, probably the most conspicuous manifestation of this rising musical motion returns with the tenth Berkeley Pageant of Choro April 17-20.
Produced by flutist Jane Lenoir and percussionist Brian Rice, half of the Berkeley Choro Ensemble, the competition focuses on bringing the best musicians from Brazil to the Bay Space. This 12 months’s roster introduces a few of the most completed girls within the style April 18 at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Albany.
The live performance includes a quartet with São Paulo-reared Clarice Solid, a Grammy-nominated percussionist primarily based in Los Angeles. Two different members, saxophonist/flutist Daniela Spielmann, a famend choro artist for the reason that late Nineteen Nineties, and pianist Sheila Zagury, a number one choro scholar, solid shut artistic ties whereas performing collectively over 20 years in a Rio de Janeiro-based duo. Rounding out the foursome is well-traveled Boston cellist Catherine Bent, who has carved out a job for an instrument not related to choro.
“This has always been our primary goal, to bring Brazilian choro musicians to the Bay Area and have them perform at our concerts, workshops and rodas,” mentioned Lenoir, saying the time period for a jam-session-in-a-circle as “ho-da,” a la Brazilian Portuguese. Choro is pronounced with a tender ch, extra like shoro.
“Catherine isn’t Brazilian, but she’s one of the great innovators, a world-class cellist who plays with everyone,” Lenoir mentioned.
In its first foray to the South Bay, the competition concludes April 20 at Orange Music Studio in San José with a live performance by the visitor quartet and a roda de choro led by the artists.
“It says something to us about how popular choro is that we’re presenting the finale in San Jose,” Lenoir mentioned. “For years all of our events were up here, and I’m so happy the scene has grown so much.”
Within the South Bay, choro has associates in excessive locations. The Orange Music Studio occasion is co-presented by the San Jose Choro Membership, which was launched by flutist Kim Walesh, who has thrown herself into musical pursuits since retiring as San José’s deputy metropolis supervisor, and Mark Dinan, not too long ago elected vice-mayor of East Palo Alto.
Walesh bought turned onto Brazilian music enjoying samba percussion with Bloco do Sol San José on Mexican Heritage Plaza. She fell in love with the highly effective Afro-Brazilian rhythms, however ravishing Brazilian melodies caught her ear whereas attending California Brazil Camp in Cazadero when she got here throughout a roda.
Choosing up her flute for the primary time since highschool, she waded into the world of choro, learning with flutist and Brazilian music devotee Rebecca Kleinmann and Rio-born guitarist Ricardo Peixoto (the only real Brazilian member of the Berkeley Choro Ensemble).
Attending two of the summer season music packages dedicated to the type, Choro Camp New England at Smith Faculty and Centrum Choro Northwest Camp in Port Townsend, Washington, Walesh took the complete plunge, learning with Israeli clarinet star and famend Brazilophile Anat Cohen and Daniela Spielmann, the Brazilian flutist and saxophonist featured on the Berkeley Pageant of Choro.
“The way you learn is playing in a roda, a circle, seeing how the melody is passed from player to player,” Walesh mentioned. “You get to understand chord progressions and learn when it’s an appropriate time for improvising.”
After a number of years of commuting to the East Bay for rodas, Walesh teamed up with Mark Dinan on the finish of 2023 to start out a San Jose session. Assembly the final Sunday of the month, the rodas draw between 10 to 30 folks, a few of whom are “coming from Berkeley, San Francisco and Monterey to play,” she mentioned.
“Some are jazz players who like the structures and melodies. Other are like me, classically trained, used to reading notes. Everybody loves the tunes, these beautiful choro standards.”
FESTIVAL OF CHORO
Scholar Ensemble and Neighborhood Roda: 7:30 p.m. April 17 at Hillside Membership, Berkeley; free
Girls in Brazilian Music: 7:30 p.m. April 18 at St. Albans Episcopal Church, in Albany; $35; www.berkeleychoro.com
Grand finale: 3 p.m. April 20 at Orange Music Studio, San José; $25-$35
Tickets and extra data: www.berkeleychoro.com
Initially Printed: April 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM PDT
