It's been too long since I've watched this :)

[bort]

Makes me smile every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlLw169nk_c

[tuba-tobias]

And here's another:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESdI5aYlG3w&NR=1" target="_blank

Does anyone have any info about these to share?

[David Richoux]

Where are they from? The language seems to be Portuguese but I don't find much info on a Google of "Marcelo Cego" except the videos. If it is Brazil, what part, what culture?

Nice stuff, anyway!

[bort]

I always assumed Brazil... the language on the page is Portuguese, and if nothing else, most of the world's Portuguese-speaking people are in Brazil.

[David Richoux]

my band played in Blumenau, Brazil (the largest German speaking city outside of Germany) Oktoberfest a few years ago, and also toured 6 other cities in that country. While we couldn't check out every possible kind of music available in that very diverse country, I did not hear anything exactly like this.

(we also toured parts of Spain and Portugal on a different trip - same thing...)

It would be so great if people posting to Youtube would put some basic info in the "About" box for every clip!

[David Richoux]

Got the answer from the DJML group (posted here with permission) :

Yes I know very well Marcelo Cego (in portuguese/brazilian Cego means Blind) of course he's blind.
His name is Marcelo Sotti Troni (yes, Italian family) lives in Arujá, a small town 50 Km from São Paulo where I live.

He played in my Band the Tito Martino Jazz Band in some few gigs. He's a very nice guy, he plays professionally with dance bands and sometimes with dixieland bands (there are very few of this kind around here in Brazil !

He's a very strict follower of a Christian Evangelic church, and has somewhat limited degree of autonomy due to strict church's rules. He is always guided and accompanied by his efficient and charming wife, who takes good care of him.    The tunes played in the links you send are improvisations over Hymns from his church book.  He has absolute ears, perfect timing, good harmonic knewledge and great imagination to improvise, but he 's not attached to traditional jazz and I wouldn't  say he's a jazzman because he can't swing in the way Duke Ellington means, the way real jazzmen do; I mean, like a Cyrus St. Clair, or a Wilbert Tillman.  He could if he had studied these tuba masters.

The rolling tempo you refer is nothing more than the very traditional popular brazilian rhythm called "Maxixe", which I consider one of the very important
authentic hard-core brazilian folk rhythm. Certainly it's a stint of african rhythms, (but not a jazz "swing")  because the same Yoruba ethny who entered Louisiana as slaves or as freepersons of color, coming from Cuba, those same Yorubas went to Brasil;  to Bahia state and Rio de Janeiro state, bringin their soul-food red-beans-and-rice,   their animistic religion - Umbanda (same as Santeria, Vodoo) and what matters for music, their tribal drumming which in New Orleans influenced directly Baby Dodds drumming after Congo Square, and in Brasil influenced the heavy drummings of "Escolas de Samba" in Carnival,
and influenced the other important rhythmic and stylistic Brazilian musical contribution that is the
"Chorinho".

Hans Koert has a whole fantastic blog about choro or chorinho, that I strongly reccomend for you all to visit
http://choro-music.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" target="_blank

Go there and listen and see youtubes with examples of the REAL brazilian music, not commercial, played by some musical geniuses at level with jazzgreats.

(shameless plug: he put a page about my 50 years playing Traditional Jazz, in his extraordinary jazz site, at http://keepswinging.blogspot.com/2007/1 ... rtino.html" target="_blank" target="_blank   )

that's all. Enjoy!

and keep on swingin'

Tito Martino

[tuba-tobias]

Thank you!
I've seen him in other clips playing valve trombone, tenor sax and keyboard aswell.
But the sousaphone playing is the most interesting.