DC Choro at the Grill from Ipanema

On Sunday, I visited the Grill from Ipanema in Washington DC. I had been invited by Bryan McCann, who teaches Portuguese and Brazilian History at Georgetown University. On 2nd and 4th Sunday evenings, DC Choro plays choro, samba, and forró music at Grill from Ipanema.

The food was great, as was the music! Bryan played harmonica and the clarinetist was Andy Connell. They traded off melodies along with their stellar singer, cavaquinho-player, guitar player and bassist. They even let me join in on Flor Amorosa and Rosa, which I had been practicing all week on the flute! I noticed that they use the wonderful Songbook do Choro Vol 1 as a reference for chorinhos. DC Choro played chorinhos for about 2/3 of the time, and then mixed in some sambas and some forró, so that the locals (who seem to be a regular crowd) could get up and dance! (See above!) My DC friends joined me for the jam. They were exchange students in Brazil with me in 2001, and they were also pleased to see this lively local Brazilian community & culture.

Andy is an ethnomusicologist at James Madison University in Pennsylvania, while Bryan also mixes in some Brazilian popular music in his Georgetown classes. Bryan’s colleague, Vivaldo Santos, at Georgetown also teaches classes about Brazilian Popular Music.

The other members of DC Choro are:

Gigi Macaxeira — Vocals & Accordion
Pablo Rapadura — Cavaco & Vocals
Richard Sarapatel — 7 String Guitar

(These seem to be nicknames, so hopefully someone can tell me Gigi, Pablo’s, and Richard’s actual last names! I also heard Gigi refer to Richard as “Ganesha!”)

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Next time you are in the DC area, I highly recommend you check out DC Choro!