Chorro Music

For about eight years now Donna and I have been going to a music camp called Lark in the Morning in Mendocino pretty much every summer. I will write more about the camp at some other time. This past summer we both took an early morning Brazilian Chorro class. Chorro is an original form of Brazilian music created around the turn of the twentieth century. It is traditionally played with three instruments: a guitar, a panderra (a Brazilian tamborine) and the flute or mandolin. The class filled with about 30 fluid music readers. The sound was gorgeous. I was never even close to being able to read the music at speed, but Donna had it pretty well under control.

When we came home at the end of the summer, equipped with large piles of music, we began to play together. For about a month now Donna and I have been playing the tunes together- me on guitar and she on mandolin. We have been married for 22 years and very rarely played music together. We would learn the occasional song but rarely play on a regular basis just for fun. Her music orientation for so many years was Balkin singing and mine, Irish music. I have switched to mainly jazz and swing. She has begun to play more flute and percussion. This has been a happy meeting of musical styles. It is challenging for both of us as well as deeply satisfying.