July 12

The meeting with Luizinho was very nice. He is into doing a concert with me and a couple of his friends. We talked about the local scene, the difficulties to make it here, about the Brazilian music and it's roots and many other subjects. He and his wife, who is a pianist herself, are about to open a new performance space here, even with a grand piano. If they are on schedule, I'll get to check out the place before leaving Porto Alegre.

The evening started with the visit to Parangolé, where Rafael Ferrari and Samuel Costa were joined this time by Max (violão de sete cordas) and Reloginho (Pandeiro). I met both of them in Parangolé last year. The music was not quite as hot as last week, but still very very good. I am slowly starting to recognize the tunes - I've been looking at some of the famous choros by Pixinguina, trying to learn by memory all those cascades of notes (something I haven't subjected myself to in quite a while…) They also played, at my request, a Milonga by Bebeto Alves, the tune Rafael and I will play in August, I hope. I must admit, it is not easy to pick up all these new genres and run with them, but I wil try.

Afterwards, we went to a very nice relatively new place called "Boteco Tchê", the "in" musical club of Musica Gaucha in town. We caught the end tail of the promotional event for the upcoming annual Moenda - a huge Festival of regional music, taking place in the interior, a city called Santo Antonio da Patrulha. Even the star of accordion (gaita) Borghetinho was there, giving TV interviews and enjoying being in the midst of it all. Wonderful, familiar atmosphere, different groups playing the kind of music I normally don't hear. The influence of the neighboring Argentina and Uruguay are very apparent in this music. Great hang, but too many beers...