A neurological disorder called dystonia is estimated to have ended the careers of at least one member of every major American metropolitan orchestra. Dystonia has claimed the livelihoods of musicians across genres including the acclaimed pianist Leon Fleisher of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, former first oboist of the Chicago Symphony Alex Klein, acoustic guitarist Billy McLaughlin, classical guitarist Liona Boyd, keyboard player Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and others.
Radim Zenkl, the Czech-born, California-based magician of the mandolin has been on the road and onstage since he arrived in the USA more than twenty years ago. He recently swung through my hometown of Portland, Oregon and performed his eclectic solo show to a packed house of enthusiastic fans.
Rio Con Brio started out to make one CD. As they recorded tracks, they realized they had two albums on their hands. One is their third choro album, the other is the debut of fado singer Alexandra Coutinho.
The NAMM Show, one of the largest music products trade shows in the world hosted by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), opened today at the Anaheim Convention Center, welcoming an expected crowd of 90,000 musical instrument manufacturers, retailers, associates and their invited guests from all over the world to the industry's annual gathering.
If you were there, you’ll agree that the Baltimore host team put on an excellent convention for our quarter-century landmark. With so many people attending, the energy level was high. If you weren’t there, you want to know what you missed. Here are some highlights.
Guitarra Baiana
Electric solid body ESB02 built by Jean Paul Charles
Photo by J.P. Charles
The Guitarra Baiana could be the first electric solid body mandolin.
According to Guitarra-Baiana.com, it was first built by Osmar Álvares Macêdo and Adolfo 'Dodô' Nascimento around 1942 or 1943 in Bahia, Brazil. The instrument was called 'Cavaquinho Elétrico' or 'Pau Elétrico' (electric log). It was a electrified hybrid between cavaquinho and mandolin.
The pau elétrico had four single courses of strings tuned like a mandolin (e-a-d-g) and looked like a stick. During the fifties it got the shape of electric guitars.
During the seventies pau elétrico became very popular in Brazil due to the foremost exponent Armandinho Macedo who expanded it's use into rock and jazz. Armandinho called his fathers invention 'Guitarra Baiana' (The guitar from Bahia), and the name stuck. He also added a fifth string (c), inspired by the electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.
The instrument is used extensively in Brazilian carnivals, especially in the Carnaval da Bahia in Salvador, Bahia. The music is often frevo, rhytmic street dance or marcing tunes. Frevo has a flavour of hot boiling polka.