Max Blesin « Chorazz »

Chorazz is a mix between Choro and Jazz.

The Choro follows the same path as Ragtime and other movements which gave birth to the Jazz in the United States, that means a reappropriation of a classical European repertoire in popular music with African and Amerindian influences….

What was originally played on the piano has been adapted to other instruments : the pandeiro (typical Brazilian percussion with Maghrebian origins), the 7-string guitar (an extra bass string to play bass), the cavaquinho (small guitar from Madeira), etc…
The Choro was born. Its meaning is “to cry” (under the influence of so much emotion and beauty!)
Today, he has his own repertoire and is at the origin of all so-called urban music in Brazil (samba, pagoda, etc.). It is a common vocabulary for all Brazilian musicians.
Max Blesin studied and lived in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Belgium, France and the USA.
That’s the reason why he lives so intensely this music, the popular music in the Americas and its connection with classical music, from his first notes played on a piano at his Grandfather’s house, a Chopin’s fan, to the nylon string guitar in Brazil, to the percussions he played during the Rio carnival parades, in which he participated 5 times, the Jazz and finally, the Cavaquinho.
In this group he plays an unconventional form of this instrument, the “5-string Cavaquinho”.

Photo : Hugo Lefevre