Choro Ensemble

WHAT IS CHORO?

Choro is a Brazilian music style that originated in Rio de Janeiro, in the 19th century. It evolved from a blend of European styles like the Polkas, Waltzes and Mazurkas and the emerging Samba. The result was a sophisticated, polyrhythmic, lively music which demanded the best from its performers. It became, over the years, a form of popular chamber music based in acoustic instruments, mostly guitar, seven string Guitar, mandolin, cavaco, flute and light Percussion (pandeiro, tamborim -- a small hand held Drum, and shakers). Choro influenced many Brazilian Composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Tom Jobim and Hermeto Pascoal.
A blend of different traditional European and Afro-Brazilian music forms, CHORINHO was born in the first half of the 19th century in Brazil. "Many believe the origin of the name comes from the Portuguese verb 'chorar' (to cry), stemming from choro's lilting melodic lines which sound like weeping. Also another theory states that the term originated from xôlo, a word used by Afro-Brazilians for vocal or dance concerts.
"Choro is not only the Brazilian music which is closest to European classical, it is the essentially Brazilian genre. Developing from European forms, African rhythms, and a classical spectrum of harmony that had been modified by the early masters, choro eventually acquired its own identity. Among all the styles that come from Brazil, it is the genre that speaks most of the Brazilian personality." 
BRUCE GILMAN

There is something new in the New York music scene.
We're talking about "Choro," a Brazilian style that is older than Bossa Nova or Samba. Though most tunes have been around for one-hundred years, they still sound exquisite today.
Choro was born in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th Century, a result of mixing polkas, waltz, mazurkas and African-Brazilian rhythms such as the Lundu. Poor people, most of them former slaves and mestizos, put together their own musical style with instruments like flute, clarinet, guitar, cavaquinho, and light percussion. The music would be played at Christian parties, weddings, and birthday parties, always in the backyard of family homes. Choro means "cry." Jacob do Bandolim (1918-1969), one of the Choro masters, said "Choros are a collection of music to cry, to make people cry." Not because of sadness, but of happiness.
Pixinguinha, a flute and saxophone player and an arranger and composer, took the style to its extremes. He wrote scores with beautiful lines, some of them so rich that will sound modern even for a today's musician, even though they were composed over 80 years ago.
The New York based group Choro Ensemble is dedicated exclusively to the tradition of Choro music. It also presents contemporary original compositions and arrangements.

From Pixinguinha to Jacob do Bandolim: 
Choro in two decades of evolution (1930-1950)
By Pedro Ramos
The Birth of Choro
Choro is a popular urban phenomenon, typically from the middle and low middle classes, which occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 1870 and 1880, as most of the authors who wrote about Choro pointed out.
First, let's talk about the controversial origin of the name "Choro" (which means "cry"). In the book Choro: Do quintal ao Municipal, 1998 (Choro: From the backyard to the Municipal Theater) the author Henrique Cazes wrote: " (...) The folklorist Luis da Camara Cascudo believed that Choro came from "xolo," a dance party that slaves made in the farms, and that the word would be changed to "xoro" and finally, Choro.
Ary Vasconcelos believes the name had its origins in the "choromeleiros," an important musicians' corporation in the Brazilian Colonial Era. He says the musicians didn't play just the charamelas (woodwind instruments, precursors of oboes, bassoons and clarinets), the people later start calling any musical group as "choromeleiros," and later they would short the word for Choro.
Jose Ramos Tinhorao believes Choro would come from the impression of melancholy generated by the bass lines from the guitars and that the word "chorao" (person who cries) would be the result.
Although I have an enormous respect for each one of these researchers, I don't believe in country origins for a phenomena that is typically urban like Choro. I don't see either how the charamelas could influence something that happened much later. About the guitar bass lines' melancholy, as I could check in the first Choro groups' recordings, made around 1907, when the style was almost 40 years old, the guitar wasn't already used with the exuberance that we are familiar today.
Therefore, if something called for melancholy it was the way of playing the melodies. So I believe that the word Choro is a result of the crying way of phrasing, which would have generated the term "chorao," that designated the musician that "softened" the polkas.(Henrique Cazes. Choro: Do quintal ao Municipal p. 18-19).
For the historian Jose Ramos Tinhorao, Choro music was an evolution of the "musica de barbeiros" (barbers music), in the 18th century:
"(...) In Rio de Janeiro City the barbers music was the mother of Choro, grandmother of the professional radio Choro groups (Regionais) and great-grandmother of the Bossa-nova groups.(...)" (Musica Popular Brasileira: Um tema em debate, p. 113). The author quotes, among others, a historian from Rio de Janeiro Vieira Fazenda, that in an article "Christmas Parties", included in: Antiqualias e memorias do Rio de Janeiro, that "(...) the barbers played flute, cavaquinho or rabeca, that confirms the evolution of these groups of noisy music to the intimate music of Choros, which were born exactly in the base of flute, guitar and cavaquinho, when the barbers music died.(...)" (Musica Popular... p. 113). Referring to the direct relation of the barbers from Rio with Choro, Tinhorao wrote:
"[...) Everything through a curious evolution that, starting from the poor black barbers, barefoot, it would pass to the mestizos from the lower middle class of the end of the 19th century, known as Choroes, and then to the radio professional musicians of the first three decades of this century(...)".(Musica Popular... p.116).
The barbers from Rio used to play outside churches in Catholic feasts and also in the end of weddings and christenings. Each person that formed these groups worked as a barber, a job that implied many hours of idle time. With this free time they could practice their instruments and even rehearse the acts they would perform on the streets and outside churches on party days. These "musicians" were mostly slaves that worked for their masters as barbers, helping the masters to earn some extra income. The musical practice was actually very welcome by the masters because such skills would raise the price of the slaves in trades done in the future. From this point, playing at Catholic parties became a trademark in Rio de Janeiro. This practice develops until we find it as the famous Choro trios, composed by flute, cavaquinho and guitar in the 19th century. However, Jose Ramos Tinhorao talks about Choro just as a special or romantic manner of playing the polkas, waltzes and mazurkas from Vienna. The author didn't write about Choro as an authentic musical genre.
From 1870 on, this authentic Brazilian musical genre was started with the compositions of the flutist Antonio da Silva Callado (1846-1880), and was consolidated by the composer, arranger, flutist, and conductor Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho, nicknamed Pixinguinha (1897-1973). Henrique Cazes wrote:
"(...) just in the 1910 decade, by Pixinguinha's genius hands, Choro also began to mean a musical genre with a definite form.(...)" (Choro: Do quintal ao Municipal, p.19).
Tinhorao, one of the greatest Brazilian popular music researchers, has very interesting studies like, for example, the statistic data about the information within the book "O Choro: Reminiscencias dos Choroes Antigos" by Alexandre Goncalves Pinto. This is a very important book for both the history of Choro and its social mapping because it says where and who did Choro performances in Rio de Janeiro in the end of 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. In his statistic data, Tinhorao concludes that 90% of the people who performed Choro in the turn of the century were amateur musicians from the middle class and lower middle class. And more, their job were as government employees in Rio de Janeiro City.
"(...) The proof that the Choro groups that had been formed during the 50's, with almost all its elements coming from the lower middle class before the 1930 Civil Revolution, is found in this meaningful data provided by today so useful Animal (Alexandre Goncalves Pinto's nickname): from the 128 choro players with their jobs revealed, 31 of them were low federal servants, mainly from Customs (9), Central Post Office (8), Treasury (4), Mint (3), and 13 others low Municipal workers (...)." (Musica Popular... p. 102 to 106).
In all Alexandre Goncalves Pinto's book, just one Choro player, the brass player named Catanhede, is recognized as a professional musician. Since Choro players worked in public jobs, they had flexibility in terms of working hours (a privilege that remains until today), so they could work during the day and also have a night life with a lot of music, food and drinking at wedding parties, christenings, mournings and Catholic parties in general. Alexandre Goncalves Pinto shows us the phisical-social environment where Choro were performed: in the suburb neighbors like Piedade and Cidade Nova, always obeying the Catholic calendar. Accordingly to 1872 Census, showed by Tinhorao, these suburb neighbors were formed by free slaves and their descendants, Portuguese people and mestizos in general. It was the perfect environment for a cultural explosion with its own life and identity; the Choro music was its greatest exponent. It was in the middle of this "cultural promiscuity" that Choro was born and developed:
"(...) The mesticagem (black and white mixed) that soon were established in this poor urban population nucleus could be also explained by the data provided from the first National Census of 1872: in the Cidade Nova area it had eight thousand and ten Portuguese, which indicated the presence of recent immigrants, that were living there among the former slaves because of the lower rent prices. The cultural product that would result from this environment explains, in a little more than 20 years, a totally unique area in Rio de Janeiro with its own culture and characteristics, including an original genre of music and dance.(...)" (Pequena Historia da Musica Popular Brasileira p. 61).
The author also gives his opinion about how the Revistas (Brazilian musicals), the records, and the radio "killed" Choro. When the author refers to the "death" of Choro, he talks about the end of a specific urban lifestyle in Rio de Janeiro from 1930 on.
"(...) In times when there weren't records or radio, the players of the flute, cavaquinho, and guitar groups were then the poor people's orchestras that could count on minimum resources(...)." (Musica Popular... p. 106). Continuing, Tinhorao adds: "(...)So, it's easy to understand that the parties at family homes worked as the only choice for the lack of public entertainment." (p. 106).
"Death of Choro" is a drastic term used by the author. He verifies the end of a practice of playing Choro in parties at family homes from 1930 on, but this new music genre already had deep roots in Brazilian popular music. Choro is very much alive in the beginning of the 21st century, constantly renovated and with lovers even in Japan, like, for example. The record of the mandolin player Evandro do Bandolim, recorded live at Palacio de la Guitarra, Toquio, in 1994, was just released in Japan.
Biography of Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho (1897-1973), Pixinguinha
Pixinguinha, a grandson of slaves, was born on April 23rd in 1897 in Piedade, suburb of Rio de Janeiro, and received the same name as his father-Alfredo da Rocha Vianna. His mother was Raimunda Maria da Conceicao. Pixinguinha's father was a music big fan. He often organized "rodas de Choro" (reunion of musicians and their friends to play Choro music) at his home, which included the best players of Brazilian popular music at the time. Pixinguinha himself talks about that time in his testimony to MIS (Image and Sound Museum of Rio de Janeiro): "(...)(At this reunions) were joined Irineu de Almeida, Candinho do Trombone, Neco, Quincas Laranjeiras, and others. I, a little boy, kept watching... I liked music. Around 8 or 9 pm, my father used to say: "Kid, go to bed!". And I went to my bedroom. But I didn't fall sleep, no. I kept awake listening to those Choros that I liked so much."
Pixinguinha's father also hosted his musician friends like Sinho (Jose Barbosa da Silva), Bonfiglio de Oliveira and others in his house in Catumbi, Rio. That's why the house was known as "Pensao Viana" (Viana Hostel). It was in this environment that Pixinguinha grew up. 
Pixinguinha was a prodigious child. In 1911 he played with his brothers in a Carnival group called "Filhos da Jardineira" (Sons of the Gardener) and in 1912, at 15 years-old, he started his professional career and would never stop.
With the group "Os Oito Batutas" (The Magnificent Eight), which started its professional career at Movie Theatre Palais located in Rio de Janeiro City, on April 7th, 1919, Pixinguinha toured Brazil. But the legendary group also had the opportunity to make international tours. In January 29th, 1922, "Os Oito Batutas" went to Paris and in November 20th of the same year they went to Argentina, always sponsored by millionaire Arnaldo Guinle, from Rio. It's important to remember that in all newspapers at that time, rescued by the historian Sergio Cabral, Pixinguinha was unanimously praised by critics. The flutist always appeared as a special figure in the group.
In 1927, Pixinguinha got married with his partner at the "teatro de revista" (Brazilian musicals, where he worked as a composer and flutist), Jandira Aimore (her real name was Albertina Nunes Pereira), and they adopted the only child of the couple, Alfredo.
In his professional life, Pixinguinha was a composer, arranger, instrumentalist, orchestrator, and conductor. Sergio Cabral wrote: "(...) To say that Pixinguinha was the "founder" of the Brazilian music arrangements is not an exaggeration, it's just a realization of a historical truth.(...)" (p. 19 and 20)
Pixinguinha died in Ipanema in February 17th, 1973 of a heart attack.
Biography of Jacob Pick Bittencourt (1918-1969)- Jacob do Bandolim
The biography of one of the most important personalities of the Brazilian Popular music history, not just because of his music, but also because of his restless work as a Brazilian music researcher, consists of just one well documented book: Ermelinda A. Paz's Jacob do Bandolim, of 1997. The reason the book is so well documented and full of details is because Jacob do Bandolim (Jacob of the Mandolin) left his biography when he was alive in form of daily detailed notes. He left, for example, notes about all his performances until his death, which included cachet, time and where he played.
Jacob Pick Bittencourt was born on February 14, 1918 in the Maternity-School of the University of Brazil (today's Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). He was the only son of Francisco Gomes Bittencourt, pharmacist, from Cachoeiro do Itapemirim, state of Espirito Santo and Rachel Pick, housewife, originally from Russia. Jacob, who played harmonica, was strongly influenced by music between 12 and 13 years old (1930-31). Residing in the neighborhood of Lapa, he always heard his French neighbor, who was blind, play the violin. Later Jacob said:"(...) That French guy was the one who put the musical feeling inside me: he played so well that I asked my Mother to buy a violin for me.(...)" (Jacob do Bandolim, p. 16). With this instrument, Jacob used to reproduce by ear the waltzes and Brazilian folk songs that were sung by his mother and the people on the street. However, Jacob didn't get comfortable with the using of the bow and started to pick the strings with hair clips. A lot of strings were broken because of that. Then a friend of his mother explained that there was a proper instrument to play with a pick, a fact that motivated Jacob to buy a European mandolin.
He graduated in 1937, with a degree in Accounting, but he never worked in this area. The music "spoke louder". But at that time, to be a musician wasn't a respectable job and Jacob worked selling everything on the streets -- from insurance titles to soap. During the 30's Jacob was torn between being a musician and working in different jobs. On May 11, 1940, Jacob married Adylia Freitas, a young lady from the middle class. They had two children, Helena and Sergio.
Jacob was a meticulous person. He left all his life written, step by step. Also, he left rare long plays and cassette tapes containing Brazilian Popular music, which were collected and organized by himself and were donated by his wife after his death to the Sound and Image Museum of Rio de Janeiro (MIS).
Jacob was a leader in his time. His way of composing and playing with harmonic, phrasing and style innovations represented a revolution within Choro music. As an extension, he definitely left to the mandolin an authentic Brazilian soul.
He was employed as a public servant (Registrar of the Justice Department of Rio de Janeiro), which guaranteed him a certain independence in terms of money. This independence allowed him to refuse recording deals that didn't please him. Jacob also worked in all of Rio de Janeiro's radio stations and was an exclusive artist of recording label RCA Victor in Brazil. He died on August 13th, 1969, when he was walking back home from his Master's house, Pixinguinha. Jacob was a victim of a heart attack.

THE GENRE CHORO STYLISTICALLY CONSOLIDATED
The various theories in respect to the born of name "Choro" itself already shows how big and rich is this artistic manifestation. It was born within the mixed people from middle class in Rio de Janeiro City in the second half of the XIX century. During its development, Choro was made just as special Brazilian manner of "interpreting polkas, mazurkas, xotes, waltzes and etc." (Alexandre G. Pinto. O Choro, p.30) Choro didn't exist yet as an authentic music genre. As Jacob explains it in his interview the Sound and Image Museum of Rio de Janeiro (MIS): "We need to make clear that in that time, there wasn't Choro; there was Choro music. A polka was Choro, Brazilian tango was Choro, everything was Choro". It's exactly on the definition of the style that I will take an insight. Antonio da Silva Callado (1846-1880)- who is a Choro pioneer-Viriato Figueira (1851-1883), Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935), Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934), Juca Kalut (1857-1922), Irineu de Almeida (1873-1916), Candido Pereira da Silva (1879-1960), Zequinha de Abreu (1880-1935). From these and other composers, Choro will then appear as an authentic genre of music that was crystallized since the barber's music that was made in the 18th century. Around the year of 1870, when Choro wasn't recognized yet as an authentic genre of music by the composers themselves, Antonio Callado composed the polka Flor Amorosa (Lovely Flower), which clearly presents the fundamental characteristics of the new genre. However, is with the compositions of the Master Pixinguinha that Choro is consolidated. Jacob do Bandolim affirmed that himself:
" (...)Choro, Choro itself, had a great definition with Pixinguinha. It was Pixinguinha who gave rhythm to Choro. Choro until then was considered a collection of music to cry, to make people cry. By the way, I have notebooks from 1900, Choro collections, Choro music, but not Choros. Within that you find polkas, quadrilhas, xotes, everything was considered Choro music.(...)" (Jacob do Bandolim, Interview to MIS-RJ in April, 22, 1968).
Such form, phrasing and harmony that is known in the traditional Choros, is still a model for contemporary Choros. These basic structures are as follows:
1. FORM
It obeys one of the various kinds of the Rondo form, a formal manner of composition that is used in European compositions since the 13th century, that can be seen as an expansion of the ternary principle in terms of a theme presentation followed by contrasts and representations. The traditional Choros present three parts -- A, B, and C, always with ritornello in each part, returning always to the A part, which results in the form A-B-A-C-A.
2. HARMONIC WAYS
There is a distinct key for each one of the parts. As a general rule, the key centers in each part varies as follows:
2.1- Major key
Part A- Main key (Tonic- I), part B- Key of the relative minor (VI), and C- Key of the Sub-Dominant (IV).
2.2- Minor key
Part A- Main key (Tonic- I minor), part B- Key of the relative Major (III) and C- Main key in Major mode (I Major).
Still within harmony, Choro in his general aspect presents an amazing richness that is reflected in surprising modulations for both neighbor or distant keys that always come back to the starting key. To get a harmonic sophistication just from basic chords like major, minor, and diminished triads, as are seen in Choros, demands high skills from a Choro composer.
3. MELODIC WAYS
Choro composers have a common characteristic among them: they were and are, all of them, skillful players in their respective instruments. Composers like Antonio Callado (flute), Pixinguinha (sax and flute), Viriato Figueira (flute), Luis Americano (clarinet), Joao Pernambuco (guitar), Abel Ferreira (clarinet), Waldir Azevedo (cavaquinho), Jacob do Bandolim (mandolin), Bonfiglio de Oliveira (trumpet), among others, presented excellent technique in their instruments. The melody construction of a Choro is based mainly in groups of sixteen notes and its variations. A Choro melody contains a virtuosi tic character and therefore, it can be directly related to the high technical level of its instrumentalist composers.
The melodic lines are constructed over arpegios, diatonism, and also the chromatism.
About the rhythmic division, Choro saxophone player Mario Seve wrote:
"The European phrasing that originated samba modified itself at the same time that the music was exposed to dance, always adapting itself to new Brazilian dance swing. In this way polka transformed in maxixe, the maxixe in samba etc.(...)"(Mario Seve. Vocabulario do Choro , 1999, p.11.).
"In popular music, specially when it is associated with dance, it allows great freedom of interpretation. About the music charts, we can say that "what is written is not always what is played". As is well known, in Jazz, a group of eight notes is interpreted as an intermediary division between eight notes and doted eight notes, almost a triplet feel.(...) On the same way, in Brazilian music one of its characteristic rhythmic group-sixteen note, eight note and sixteen note -- is interpreted between this and an eight note triplet. Another characteristic rhythmic group-especially in polkas and Choros-four sixteen notes plus one sixteen, is played exactly as it is in fast tempos, but it tends to be modified to a group of two sixteen plus a sixteen note triplet tied with the last one or a group of one eight note plus a sixteen note triplet plus one sixteen in slow tempos. Also, while in Jazz the strong accents in the 4/4 measure are located on the 2nd and 4th beats, in the 2/4 Brazilian music the accents are located mainly on the 2nd beat (samba, Choro, frevo etc) (...). Still, the Choro permits more freedom in terms of alteration in rhythmic division.(...)" ( Mario Seve. Vocabulario do Choro. 1999. p. 11).

PIXINGUINHA AND THE CRYSTALIZATION OF THE TRADITIONAL CHORO STYLE
Pixinguinha is unanimity as the great master of Brazilian popular music of the XX century. He contributed with compositions in many different popular styles (around 3,000 works, which most of them belongs to his son Alfredinho) and also Pixinguinha has a key role as a pioneer in arranging and orquestrating Brazilian popular music. Part of these works were recuperated and recorded in two CD's:Orquestra Pixinguinha & Orquestra Brasilia. These projects were organized and directed by the cavaquinho player Henrique Cazes, who explains:
"In the book Filho de Ogum bexiguento, by Marilia Barboza e Arthur de Oliveira, we can see the importance of Pixinguinha's orquestral experiments resumed by Guerra Peixe: "Pixinguinha must be seen as a starting point to be followed by the Brazilian Orquestrators. His works in this area let our typical Brazilian musical values being shown in terms of harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, and regional face. And so this is true that he is considered the only orquestrator that gives regional character to our music". (Henrique Cazes. Choro: Do quintal ao Municipal. 1998. p.77).
It's him, Pixinguinha, who crystallizes Choro as a musical genre with its own characteristics. In his book, Henrique Cazes concluded the chapter about Pixinguinha as follows:
"(...) Starting from the music of Choro players (polkas, schotisch, waltzes, etc) and mixing Afro-Brazilian elements, music from the country side and with his large professional experience, Pixinguinha got ideas and gave to Choro a definite musical form. Under the light of his geniality Choro got rhythm, beauty, warming. It also got the improvising habit, an area where he was a master. Radames Gnattali, one of Pixinguinha's biggest fans, affirmed that: "There are a lot of Choros around, but the Pixinguinha's are the real good ones, and that is not because they are more elaborated, but because he was a genius." (Henrique Cazes. Choro: Do quintal ao Municipal p. 57-58).
The fundamental Choro characteristics showed and commented in the beginning of this chapter will be analyzed.
Example 1- "Cheguei" - F Major
Although the chart shows the genre Maxixe, all characteristics- harmonic, melodic and form-appears as an authentic Choro.
It obeys the Rondo form A-B-A-C-A, with presentation, contrast, re-presentation, contrast, and re-presentation with Ritornello and 16 bars in each part. The first part develops in the Tonic (F Major), suggesting, in the bar number 6 the idea of descending arpeggio A-F-D-A over the Sub-Dominant(IV), which will be main motif of the B part. The B part presents the D minor as the key center (relative minor-VI). The C part begins in the key of the Sub-Dominant (IV).
The melodies of the A, B, and C parts are built, in each part, as two parallel periods of 8 bars each. The general melodic aspects are mostly arpeggiated and diatonic. However, the bars 30 and 31 present a totally chromatic melody coming from the D3 until E4. At the bar 13 the melody shows the progression F-G-G#-A (tonic-9-#9-3rd), which is largely used in the Blues style.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE GENRE CHORO WITH JACOB DO BANDOLIM
When I was doing this project I could notice that the influence of Jacob do Bandolim over Choro and, consequently, over Brazilian popular music, go far beyond his compositions. Jacob had an important role in three distinct areas: as an interpreter, as a composer and as a researcher. The "Mandolin Master of Brazil" (David Grismann. Mandolin master of Brazil. Vol.1&2. Acoustic Records 1997 CA-USA) always brought some contribution in his compositions and arrangements, his immortal interpretations or in his restless research over Brazilian popular music.
Like an authentic Choro player, Jacob always had another jobs going along together with his musical career, what allowed him to just dedicate himself in artistic projects that were interesting for him. In his interview to Sound and Image Museum of Rio de Janeiro -MIS- he affirmed:
"(...) It's because I don't make music to survive. If I did so, I had to obey the same professionals' game rules, obviously I couldn't be an exemption".
Jacob wrote a letter for a friend in Sao Paulo (October, 1959) and there he said a little about the pressures he suffered from the musical producers:
"(...) My goal always was to present our stuff in an honest interpretation, without distortions nor perverted alien influences(...). They have to eat me as I am and not as the way they want I am." (Ermelinda A. Paz. Jacob do Bandolim. 1997 p. 35).
As an interpreter, Jacob did his first performance with a friends group in 10/15/1933 in "Dean of Students from Israel" when he was 15 years old. His debut in the radio happens in the same year in 12/20/1933 at Guanabara Radio Station playing the Choro "Aguenta Calunga" by Atilio Grany. At that occasion "(...) Jacob's group won the contest among 20 others groups and received the maximum score from a juri composed by Orestes Barbosa, Francisco Alves, Benedito Lacerda, Cristovao de Alencar e Erastotenes Frazao". (Sergio Cabral. Text in cover sheet of the record "Jacob do bandolim-In Memorial").
He took part also in various radio programs at the following radio stations: Educator, Mayrink Veiga, Transmissora, Club do Brasil and Ipanema. From these works in the radio stations, Jacob had the privilege of accompanying singers in many different music styles: "(...) finally I can affirm that there wasn't a singer of any genre, that I hadn't played with." (Jacob do Bandolim. Interview to MIS-RJ in April 22, 1968).
His debut in the records was in 1947 at Continental Records, where he recorded four 78 rotations records (compacts). In 1949 he signed a contract with RCA Victor where initially he recorded several compacts and 10 LPs later on.