Customer Reviews

Mandolin Master Of Brazil: Original Classic Recordings, Vol. 1

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The cd is great, and lots of people from Brazil, the home of Jacob do Bandolim, are buying it through internet, because the local industry doesn't pay attention to the artist. So, I am patching here a note from to the Brazilian ones, I am patching here a note (in Portuguese language) from Paulo Eduardo Neves, the creator of the homepage 'Página do Samba e Choro' ...one of the best places to visit if you love Brazilian samba and chorinho. There, he says that both cds (number 1 and 2) are jewels that everybody should get.The man is one authority in samba and choro, so it's a good opinion to follow. --------- "A inexistência da obra do Jacob em CD é uma vergonha nacional. Até hoje, a única edição decente das obras do Jacob foi feita nos EUA. O bandolinista americano David Grisman se apaixonou pela sua música e bancou a edição dos discos. A qualidade da remasterização é impressionante, põe no chinelo tudo o que já se lançou em CD do Jacob por aqui. São dois CDs, o volume 1 e o volume 2" -- Paulo Eduardo Neves, Agenda do Samba e Choro.

Although not as popular as it once was in its native country Brazil, Choro music still lives on thanks to a devoted audience which, fortunately, manages to continually gather listeners from newer generations (like yours truly). These two volumes are a must-have for anyone interested in this style of music in its purest form, or plain lovers of gorgeous instrumental music. Jacob was not only arguably the best mandolinist Brazil has ever had, but also a fierce defender of Choro in its purest form, a great composer and an interpreter and researcher of the Choro repertoire, recording and playing not only standards of the genre, but half-forgotten tunes from the repertoire of Rio's old "chorões" (choro musicians) as well. Showcasing songs by Jacob himself, brazilian choro giant Pixinguinha and Ernesto Nazareth, the two volumes contain all the songs from Jacob's best album, 1966's "Vibrações" (vibrations), which many consider to be the best Choro album ever.

Choro music is one of the great twentieth century musical families of Brazil (along with samba, tropicalismo, forro, and others). This is some of the very best of it: soaring, imaginative, lyrical lead mandolin playing against a background of rhythmic guitars and percussion. This music has African, Latin, and European echoes and overtones, it is sophisticated and sometimes romantic, and comes in a variety of moods. Jacob Do Bandolim, the mandolinist, is passionate and exact, enormously inventive but respectful of the limits of musical form. Even if you don't think you like the mandolin (I didn't) you should listen to this record: it will make you a believer. If you love mandolin music this is absolute world-class stuff.

i discovered Jakob de bandolin by visiting Brazil last year,geting strange and sweet feeling of some thing unreal,forgoten or not arived yet,while listen his cry,whisper on mandolin.

This album of popular Brazilian "choro" style music, played by the supreme master of the mandolin percolates from beginning to end. Choro means "to cry", ironically, this the happiest music I have ever heard. Even the slower tempo numbers have a lilt and a swing. Whenever I play this CD I listen to all 21 cuts and am left with wanting more, in which case, I follow that with the 22 cuts of Vol. 2. When I say supreme master, I'm talking across all genres, including any classical mandolinists I've heard. It's not just a matter of agility, Jacob do Bandolin seems to find every color and inflection possible in an instrument that in other hands comes across as rather limited. I suppose the closest referent to choro music would be the swing jazz of Gypsy violinist Django Reinhardt (which, by the way, I can only take in small doses.) The collection was produced by banjo picker David Grisman as a labor of love, and whose own invention is a mixture of bluegrass and Gypsy jazz he calls "dawg music". The remastered sound is excellent, so buy the CD and don't go downloading low-rez files off the internet, youngsters. (On the other hand, Acoustic Disc's collection of guitarist Oscar Alende shows evidence of overuse of noise reduction, which no matter what any sound engineer tells you also removes some of the music, and sounds like someone put a pillow over the speakers. I'll take my sound straight up, ticks, pops, hiss and all.)

It is good that this set of classic choros are again available; I had purchased them in 1991 and 1994 when bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman first issued them. Choros, a unique musical form known for is speed, virtuoso solos, and tight ensemble work, arose in late 19th and early 20th centuries and is having its second renaissance. It is a form that refuses to disappear. With its sometime syncopation and its 16th notes in 2/4, choros resemble ragtime and is equally joyful and rhythmic. In its early years, it was performed informally by a trio or quartet of flute or bandolim (Brazilian mandolin) , 7-string guitar or guitars, and pandeiro (Brazilian tambourine), but by mid century, large formal bands and orchestras were playing choros. Among its greatest stars was Jacó do Bandolim (Jacob Pick Bittencourt), who lived between 1918 and 1969, and composed 130 pieces, many of which are still performed. One of his most popular appears on Volume 2, Noites Cariocas (1957). The two volumes consist of recordings between 1952 and 1966. I personally prefer Volume 1 but both are excellent. Listening to these works, you can appreciate why he was a popular musician and band leader: he has incredible dexterity, improvisational skills, and a talent for harmony. Today many samba bands include choros. If you obtain these albums, you will understand why.