Chico Chagas – O mundo magico de Maria Copy

At last, and well worth the wait we have recordings of Chico Chagas available in the UK. Chico Chagas only lived in London a short time but he made an incredible impact in that short time. It’s a great shame that due to the UK Government’s policy on immigration Chico had to return to Brazil when his Visa expired.  In that time, he took classical accordion lessons from Romano Viazzani but was already an incredible jazz accordionist.  He managed to support himself very well by forming a band, employing musicians and playing Brazilian Forró music at the Guanabara club off Drury Lane where he delighted the samba-dancing revellers two or three times a week with various categories of Brazilian dance music.  He then made a mark on the British Jazz scene playing regularly with Jazz saxophone legend Dave O’Higgins and occasionally with Classical and Jazz pianist Simon Mulligan. It was his intention to go on to study classical accordion and jazz at the Royal Academy of music but it was not to be. The London accordion scene as well as the jazz scene misses him very much.

This a CD that is difficult to categorise.  You will undoubtedly hear Chagas’s latin-american and jazz influence but this album dedicated to his baby daughter Maria has a filmic quality. He plays both piano and accordion and it could almost be a soundtrack to a collage of different scenes. Happy yet quite poignant at times this album shows a different side to Chagas’s creativity. Recorded on his Beltrami P26 special built to his specification and in colour (Goodwood Green) this is arguably the best album to hear the many tonal possibilities of his 5- voice instrument. It’s also a lovely album for children to first enjoy the accordion and piano with some wonderful melodic writing.Something to listen to and contemplate!

Tracks:

O mundo magico de Maria

A primeira luz de Maria

O caminho de Maria

Brincadeira de Maria

Hora de Maria dormir

Embalando Maria

O ballet de Maria

Te acquieta Maria

O sonho de Maria

O sambinha de Maria

Maria e Molly

O nascimento de Maria

O mundo magico de Maria -Fim