ElisaBandolim
Jacob do Bandolim's Love at First Sight
by , Feb-16-2023 at 10:11am (3880 Views)
I am very happy to announce that I will be sharing my love for Choro here on the Mandolin Cafe. I will do my best to tell you all a little bit of the history of Choro music, the bandolim, and bandolim players here. It couldn’t be a better day to begin, since we celebrate both Valentine's Day and Jacob do Bandolim's birthday this week!
With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to tell you a story about Jacob do Bandolim and his "love at first sight."
The year was 1931, and Jacob was thirteen years old. He had only just started to learn to play the mandolin. One day, when he was walking back home, he heard a piece of music that hypnotized him immediately. A clarinet was playing lead. The same album was played over and over (just two tracks because it was a 78 rpm), coming from an apartment in a building close to his street.
Jacob was transfixed. He sat down on the curb and stayed there listening carefully over and over to this piece, trying to learn it, to memorize it. This record was the first Choro Jacob had ever heard. The piece is called "É do que há," by Luiz Americano. The record was playing at Valentina Biosca's apartment, and she was one of the directors of the Victor recording label!
Listen to "É do que há," by Luiz Americano performed by himself below: I like to say Luiz Americano is the Brazilian Sidney Bechet or Sidney Bechet is the American Luiz Americano.
When the music stopped, Jacob rushed home to his mandolin, trying to remember and reproduce "É do que há." It took weeks until he was finally able to play his first choro.
So, who was Luiz Americano ?
His full name was Luiz Americano Rego, and he was born on February 27, 1900, in Aracajú, in northern Brazil. He was a pioneer in the music, one of the first to introduce the clarinet into choro. At the age of 13, he began taking clarinet lessons with his father (Jorge Americano) who was a band conductor. Later, he joined the army and started playing the clarinet in a military band. Some time later, he was transferred to Maceió, and later to Rio de Janeiro. When you hear a clarinet accompanist in a recording by Carmem Miranda, Francisco Alves, or Orlando Silva, it is usually Luiz Americano! He was also one of the first people to play on the first radio station in Brazil, Rádio Sociedade.
In 1927, Luiz recorded his first album titled at Odeon as composer and soloist. In 1928, he was invited to play for three months in Argentina. He played in the orchestra of the American drummer Gordon Stretton, and a little later in the orchestra of the Argentine Adolfo Carabelli. After this, he returned to Brazil. Here he started playing in various orchestras. From 1932 onwards, he began to play with masters Pixinguinha, Donga, Bonfíglio de Oliveira and João da Bahiana at Cabaré Assírio. Don't worry if you have no idea who these musicians are, I'm planning to tell you all more about them in future blog postings.
Now we return to Jacob. Many months after he heard "É do que há" for the first time, he went to a Music Store called "Casa Silva" to try out the mandolins they had for sale. He noticed a man looking at him while he was playing, paying attention very carefully to what he was doing. The man finally spoke to him, complimenting his playing. Jacob found out the man was a professional musician, a musician who played on the radio! This mysterious man said he would write a letter recommending Jacob as a potential performer on a show on Radio Philips. Jacob was even more thrilled when he read the signature, and realized the man was Luiz Americano.
Listen to the recording by Jacob of "É do que há" from 1961. The video here is for the full album "Chorinhos e chorões", but "É do que há" is the second track at 3:02):
What do you think Jacob did with the letter?? Do you think he took it to the radio station, or ripped it apart?? Until my next blog posting...
Um grande abraço,
Elisa Meyer Ferreira
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