Chico Chagas – Um Chopin no Bach ouvindo Forró

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.

It was while he was in Europe the idea of what Chopin, Bach, Beethoven and other classical composers would have made of listening to his native Forró music.  The result was this flight of fantasy which takes the well known themes of many of those composers and uses them as a basis of improvisation in the Forró style.  Recorded on his Beltrami P26 special built to his specification and in colour (Goodwood Green). Sit back, smile and enjoy.

Tracks:

Beethoven – Symphony No5

Richard Strauss -Thus Spake Zarathustra

Peter Illych Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake

Saint-Preux – Concerto for a Voice

Frederic Chopin- Tristesse

Chico Chagas – Um Chopin no Bach ouvindo Forró

Sergei prokoviev- Dance of the Knights (Romeo and Juliet)

Niccoló Paganini – Moto Perpetuo

Gabriel Fauré – Pavanne

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No.40

Gioacchino Rossini – William Tell Overture