A lot of firsts these 2 weeks – first lesson with Joel, first concert with Igor, first Choro School, first market, first (and 2nd) session at Espirito do Chopp, first rain, first recordings, first movie clips. I met up with Paulo on Friday the 9th & got a cellphone, a music stand, and went to see one of the places he teaches. Paulo thinks we should write a choro method together – how cool would that be! I hope there’s time to at least get started while I’m here.
The next day I go to Choro School. The first person I see there was Luciana Rabello – co-director of the school and Acari Records with Mauricio Carrilho, and cavaquinho-player extraordinaire. She remembers me from two years ago and greeted me with a kiss on each cheek – definitely the high point of the morning. She & I both thought I 
had told them I was coming, but the message hadn’t got through. So I was sent back down to the desk & got special permission to fill out the registration form late. And it was try-outs – something I hadn’t expected so I hadn’t brought any music. I noodled a bit for Pedro Amorim, the bandolim teacher, trying to remember some choro (I WILL learn some of these by heart while I’m here!)
And then I had to take the theory test in Portuguese. Well, I figured out that the first section wanted me to sort tunes by key and time signature. The 2nd section asked me to link each written melody with its name. Hah! – they were Brazilian folksongs that “all Brazilians know” according to Mr. Helpful-English-speaker. I imagine they were the equivalent of “Twinkle Twinkle” and “White Christmas,” but I didn’t recognize any of the names. I could solfege them, but you can’t put that in writing so that section was a bust. The last section involved sorting out & matching descriptions of chord sequences and my Portuguese does not yet include technical music terms. Luckily Pedro seemed to find me amusing as I went up & down stairs trying to do what they asked me to, and Marcia, the registrar, was a friend of Igor & figured out that I was the Marilynn he was playing with, so I got in on rep.
Sunday I went to the picturesque market at the end of my street where funny men and 
serious women sold me fruit & veggies for the week. In the evening I figured out how to get to Espirito do Chopp, worked up my courage, and grabbed the bus. The weekly choro session runs from 6:30 to 10:00, so I figured I could catch a set and get a bus home by 9:00, before they get scarce. I got off the bus on a pretty sketchy-looking street, hoping I had not made a big mistake. But walked bravely ahead, saw a somewhat familiar market complex, took a deep breath & turned in. After a couple of shaky minutes I was rewarded by the sound of choro and there were Deo Rian, Luiz Otavio Braga, and Sergio Prata playing bandolim, 7-string, and cavaquinho, respectively. I 
grabbed a table, ordered a beer, and started my recorder.
At the break I went up and talked to them. They all remembered me & I got names of places to hear choro sessions. Deo Rian is the other – besides Joel Nascimento – of Jacob do Bandolim’s disciples, and one of the revered elder statesmen of Brazilian bandolim. Luiz is an awesome 7-string player, and the head of the Music School at UniRio. Sergio Prata is the head of the Jacob do Bandolim Institute, and I think played cavaquinho with Jacob. As they were about to start the 2nd set, Deo offered me his bandolim & asked if I wanted to play. I said next time – I was way too intimidated at that moment. Caught a bit of the 2nd set & took a movie of them – kindof by accident, but it’s cool. I left a little after 9:00 and did catch the 511 home.
Monday I got the first calls on my cell phone. From Igor, to change our rehearsal time, from Marcia, to make sure I understood Igor, and from Alzi Platts in the USA, my Brazilian friend & concert organizer who is so excited that I am in Brazil! She promised to alert all her friends that I am here. It was nice to hear her speaking English – being limited by my lack of Portuguese is kindof isolating. But I am improving- at least my understanding. I still get odd looks when I speak. Wednesday 3/14 was my first lesson with Joel Nascimento – a main focus of my stay in Rio.
Got a cab to Penha– having been warned by my internet guy Handerson that it was “perigoso”. I know it, but that’s where
he lives. (It was my 4th warning in 3 days though about the danger of Rio, so I’m paying attention and making sure that I don’t get into unplanned situations since I’m nearly always alone. I definitely need to find a choro-loving friend with lots of time to go around with.) Had to make the first call on my cell phone because the cabby couldn’t find the address in his book. The one hour lesson lasted for 7, and was both exhilarating and discouraging, as all good lessons are. Paulo had warned me that Joel wanted me to change my instrument, but he also wanted me to change my pick and my entire technique as well. Haven’t been in that position for a few years – not since my European teachers Vincenz Hladky, Takashi Ochi, and Hugo D’Alton.
The good news was that I could understand him pretty well, because he likes to talk at length on a subject. Many times he would shake his head and mumble that 3 months was too little time. I recorded the lesson/lecture – all 4 ½ hours of it- and then the after-session where he played for me – first solo and then backed by the Jacob play-along CD set that Sergio Prata had been telling me about. It was a master class in choro variation and improv. He also played a live recording with Luiz Octavio – awesome. I’m taking my computer next week to import that one, and maybe his out-of-print first LPs too, that had a limited re-release on CD. I took a couple of movies, but had memory card issues and hadn’t brought a spare. Next time…
Friday 3/16 was concert day – a noon-hour deal in the “Music no Museu” series. I woke surprisingly nervous, played everything slowly, ate breakfast, watered the plants, got dressed, and took a cab, rather than the bus-metro combo, because it was hot & I was nervous. The Palacio Itamaraty was imposing & old & a Musica-no-Museu staff guy was waiting to show me where to go. Igor was already there, wearing red & blue plaid pants, an orange T-shirt, brown hippie beads & sandels. I had to smile – why do I always get the sartorically-challenged ones? Why can’t I once have a partner who shows up in a suave outfit? He was really nervous- I think a combination of the formal hall and under-practicing, and I found out later – having a gig the previous night that lasted until 4 AM. He had also 
forgotten his music stand. But he had memorized “Leave Something Unexplained” – no mean feat! So we figured out how to share one music stand.
The program that they handed us was almost totally wrong. In addition to just listing the pieces from my last CD instead of the program, it also said that I wrote “Eats of Here,” (hmmm that with “Champagne” would be a good combo) but it looked good. Somehow I wasn’t nervous anymore. The hall filled up, I played really well. Igor, who was announcing, skipped Bachianas on purpose – he was having trouble with the part, but we had to do it for an encore, which made me really glad, and he got through OK – at least well enough given that there was a loud fan going so the acoustics weren’t the best. We got a standing ovation- 2 actually. And cheers 
for “Brasileirinho,” practically a national theme-song here. And long applause for “Iara,” which I was playing with some of Joel’s advice in mind. Igor walked me to the metro – bad idea to catch a cab downtown he said – and I was home.
Put on my new bathing suit & went to the Urca beach for a little. It was windy, and soon began to rain. I wanted to go to see Rodrigo Lessa play in Lapa, but I hadn’t been there yet, and it’s a dangerous place if you’re alone, according to my Rio advisees. I think it’s just a divey area where students live, but I wasn’t up for any iffy stuff, so I stayed home a noodled on choro. The secret, I think, is to get in touch with my inner teen-age boy and just obsess on the riffs until I internalize them. So I’m “learning” songs off my Nadando CD. Pretty funny to have me be the one playing it all right who I’m trying to keep up with playing by ear.
The next day was Choro School – 9:00 AM! There were hundreds of people all sitting or standing around outdoors – some kind of plumbing problem so we couldn’t go into the classrooms. There was an hour of Luciana & sometimes others talking. I understood some words, but had to ask about the things that were happening on Friday at 5:00 or next Saturday at 3:00. Luckily one of the bandolims spoke English. We were supposed to have some music – Marcia said she sent it to me yesterday, but I hadn’t checked my email– but a lot of us didn’t have it so we crowded around a music stand and played a piece by Mauricio Carrilho “Olaria”. Amazing sound with horns and percussion and flutes and us pluckies.
Since the building was closed today was just a 200-person roda under the trees. We played some pieces that everyone knew & a couple I kindof did too – Naquele Tempo & E do Que Ha, so I figured out how to play them or played chords. My ear seemed to be working well & I felt cool – some people didn’t read or comp so they just kindof stood around. Some funny teenage cavaquinho boys came over & hung out & I checked out the rhythms they were playing. Pedro hung out too & played with us. It was very informal. So next time I’ll bring the music & a music stand and hope I don’t get into trouble for not doing the things that were obligatory that I didn’t understand.
Saturday afternoon I decided to take a break and take myself to the mall & go to the movies. My choices were somewhat limited & the best bet was seeing “Music & Lyrics” that turned out to have sub-titles, so I had a whole two hours of English which, unexpectedly, made me homesick and I missed my movie-going friends. And when I got out it was raining again so I traipsed the mile home in the dark and damp. When I got to my house though, Roberto, my landlord, who had been away all week, had arrived home so I got into a wonderfully mangled portu-glish conversation with him that raised my spirits again.
Sunday was market again, and Espirito session again. As I was leaving for the session I told Roberto that I was tired of going everywhere alone and feeling unsafe, and I was going to get some friends to go to sessions with ASAP. Well my “ghosts” must have been listening, because arriving at Espirito do Chopp I recognized a guy from Choro School who waved to me & I went over to sit with him and his girlfriend. Gustavo, who is a dentist, and Raquel. He speaks English and said they’re always up for going to shows in Lapa, I just have to call. And they gave me a ride home in their car. Wow – luxury! Deo was playing again, along with Sergio Prata’s son Thiago, and an old 7-string player – 
Gustavo thought he was introduced as Walter – who played with Pixinguinha and Jacob. A good-but-somehow-annoying flute guy sat in in place of Deo for way too long in the 2nd set (I stopped recording), and a cool tall cavaquinho girl sat in for the appropriate 2 songs in the 3rd set. So I added some new live recordings to the stash.
Still writing lots of sonnets and dreams, in addition to studying music, and trying to keep up my Portuguese lessons. I’m beginning to be able to find my way around and I think they recognize me in the grocery store. Here’s another sonnet, written after my first trip to Espirito do Chopp.
Rio is ferociously beautiful
its mountains and sea cradling a mix
of joy and poverty too old to fix
and no one expects that to change the pull
of blue skies and sweet fruit lull but don’t cure
and brown bodies bellies bulging over
their bikinis seem content it’s no ver-
sion of hell you might read about in your
books but the look of paradise is a
thin veneer over violent favelas
and beautiful girls-from-Ipanemas
step back into their postcards at night stay
here awhile and you’ll see both sides of it
how inexplicably the pieces fit
3/11
In the next couple of weeks there will more of the same. I’ve found the weekly upcoming events mag – Rio Veja – so I know what’s going on in town now. I’m hoping to hear Epouca do Choro, Jacob’s old band, play at Bar do Tom next Sunday, and maybe get to the choro session in Lapa on Friday. And a friend of Roberto’s is playing sax at a show at Modern Sound on Tuesday & we’re going with Sueli, also a sax player – she apparently has an all-girl sax quartet that plays samba. It’s raining now and I’ve spent all day in, playing, writing. Now off for errands and to mail this. Sniff the spring flowers for me & I’ll write again in a couple of weeks.
