Segunda Vez Second Time (Adventure Music, 2014)
Choro, considered one of the first wholly Brazilian popular musical styles, emerged around 1870. Ripe with energetic syncopation, bright melodies and easy improvisation, choro was a means to reinterpret the European waltzes, polkas, schottisches and modinhas of the day the Brazilian way. Mandolinist Mike Marshall & Choro Famoso have pulled together a worthy choro CD Segunda Vez or Second Time on the Adventure Music label, set for release on August 14, 2014.
With previous offerings that include Mike Marshall & The Turtle Island Quartet, Mike Marshall & Caterina Lichtenberg, Mike Marshall’s Big Trio, Psychograss: Now Hear This, Brazil Duets and Mike Marshall & Jovino Santos Neto: Serenata, Mr. Marshall & Choro Famosa gives Brazilian music fans a listen to some of the heavyweights of the choro movement like Ernesto Nazareth, Jacob do Bandolim, Mauricio Carrilho, Waldir Azevedo and Moacir Santos.
Brimming over with the virtuosity of Mr. Marshall on mandolin, Andy Cornnel on clarinet and soprano saxophone, Colin Walker on 7-string guitar and Brian Rice on pandeiro and percussion, Segunda Vez is rich and rewarding from the sassy sweet opening track “Bole Bole” through to the simmering closing track “Bola Preta.” Tight, neatly worked tracks like “Alumiando,” “Mistura e Manda” and “Queira-me Bem” speak to the musical prowess of Mr. Marshall and Choro Famoso, but it is lush tracks like “Sensivel” and the shimmering “Sete Estrelas” that pack a punch, eking out an underlying lusciousness that comes across as wholly Brazilian in flavor.
Other goodies include the delicately plucked “Murmurando,” the sultry “Uma Noite no Sumare,” the lazy pleasure of “Paraiso” and the Ernesto Nazareth composition “Tenebroso.”
Segunda Vez is possessed by a razor sharp musicianship and a buoyant charm. Vivacious as any Brazilian beauty and as refreshing as a Rio sea breeze, Segunda Vez is a vivid glimpse into the history of Brazil’s musical landscape.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
