How fitting that my last week in Brazil was also the week of the Dia Nacional de Choro and the birthday of one of the most important choro composers, Pixinguinha. I spent that week in Rio, the birthplace of choro music, playing in a few special rodas de choro and seeing all of my new Brazilian facebook friends wishing everyone a happy Choro Day. Pixinguinha also shares his day with saint São Jorge whose feast day is cause for a national holiday, so everyone gets the day off. But the composer is regarded almost like a saint himself and both seemed to be honored equally which I thought was so cool.
The best part was the Sunday prior when my friend Leandro invited me to the first Trem do Choro. I had to meet him at the central train station at the crack of 9am. I was running late as usual which doesn’t tend to be a problem here but this time I had a train to catch. Luckily the train followed suit and we had plenty of time. We were greeted at the track by a roda already in full swing and they happened to play some of the whopping 11 songs I have memorized (hey it was only 3 songs when I arrived in Brazil!) so I was able to join in. We played as we boarded the train and kept playing the whole way, even as we got off at our destination. I think I truly hadn’t lived until I played choro and danced samba on a moving train.
