Some Choros recorded by us

[Bruce Clausen]

Nice to hear you and the band again, Michael. Great tunes and a good group feel, plus some excellent mandolin moments. I especially enjoyed your Chorando baixinho, one of my favourites going back many years. Keep up the good work!

[Michael Wolf]

Thanks, Bruce. Good to hear from you. The group worked out quite well last year and we had some nice gigs from time to time. It was only meant for one gig at a music school where the guitar player is teaching, at first. It´s nice to have these different tone colours and people seem to like it, too. Do you still play a lot of choro these days, Bruce?

[Bruce Clausen]

Like a lot of us, I'm not playing much at all these days, Michael. A few years ago I was still playing jams and gigs of all sorts. Then I "retired" to Vancouver Island, and it's been pretty slow for me (which I like), even before the big corona slowdown. But I still keep in touch with some choro people on the mainland, and we've played a few nice concerts in the past year or two. The personnel varies, so sometimes we have flute, sometimes accordion, electric guitar, Cuban percussion (!), etc. For a gig last year I had to finally learn Bole Bole, Tico Tico and Santa Morena. But there's a few dozen other standards I've played over the years. Some of us have come from the jazz background, so we also do some bossas (A Felicidade, Chega de Saudade, Wave, etc.). A couple of Brazilian singers we've played with know lots of sambas and Brazilian pop hits, and that's fun too. We mostly seem to start the night with Doce de Coco, and end with Um a Zero.

A great percussionist has moved over here recently, and I'm hoping we'll be able to get something started together when the dust settles, whenever that may be.

Thanks again for posting your clips, Michael. Best wishes to you and the whole group!