Assanhado-No mandolin content

[tkdboyd]

Been digging Carlo Aonzo Trio "A Mandolin Journey" and rediscovered Assanhado. I used to play it, fell out of my playlist. Went to YouTube to hear some other versions and found this:


Absolutely love the harmonies in this.

[DougC]

Ah...such a nice video. The camera angles and close-up's are wonderful and the ensemble work, team work, is shown on their faces. And great music too. I envy their team of audio guys, camera men and film editors.
And what is that little guitar like instrument called again?
I think the harmony is in 'thirds', for the music theory folks here.
Very cool. Thanks.

[Martin Ohrt]

Man, that's great music! :D
And, Doug, you're right, it's nicely filmed, too!

[DSDarr]

Ah...
And what is that little guitar like instrument called again? .

cavaquinho

[Jess L.]

... what is that little guitar like instrument called...

cavaquinho

Thanks, I'd wondered too.

Nice tremolo on that cavaquinho, for instance at 1:29 and 2:47, very mandoliny.

[DougC]

cavaquinho

I think they did a great job of miking the instrument, as they did with all of the instruments. It is difficult to match the volume of horns and drums in a band like this.

It seems to have much respect from the other players. And the cool part is that it is not 'in the background' but 'right up there' doing rhythm and little solos with the horn players.

On Wikipedia it says that a cavaquinho is the instrument brought to Hawaii by Portuguese sailors where it became the ukulele.

Wikipedia:
It is a very important instrument in Brazilian music, especially for samba and choro. The standard tuning in Brazil is D-G-B-D (although D-G-B-E and the mandolin tuning G-D-A-E are also used for soloing). Some of the most important players and composers of the instrument's Brazilian incarnation are: Waldir Azevedo, Henrique Cazes, Paulinho da Viola, Luciana Rabello, Alceu Maia, Mauro Diniz and Paulinho Soares. The samba cavaco is the connection between the rhythm and harmony sections, playing the rhythm comping. It is played with a pick, with sophisticated percussive strumming beats.