Almir Cortes on Jacob do Bandolim

This workshop aims to describe the contributions of Jacob do Bandolim as a choro musician, putting emphasis on the particularities of his personal style through a study of the social and cultural contexts that shaped his musical development; an introduction to the interpretative elements of his musical style, extracted from the analysis of his interpretations of selected works of two important choro composers, Ernesto Nazareth and Pixinguinha; and an exposition of pictures and recordings, including musical examples (played by Almir Cortes) and transcriptions of Jacob's significant recordings.

Cortes was born in Santo Antonio de Jesus, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. He is a musician and academic researcher in the field of Brazilian instrumental music. He plays genres that are considered "traditional" or "regional" (choro, frevo, baião, etc), but with a contemporary approach that includes experimentation and improvisation.

Cortes is a multi-instrumentalist who plays the following plucked string instruments: mandolin, guitar, electric guitar, cavaquinho, and viola caipira. He has an undergraduate diploma in classical guitar from UFBA (Federal University of Bahia). He also has a master's degree in music, and is working on a Ph.D. in popular music performance at UNICAMP (State University of Campinas). In 2005, his composition Freveando was awarded the Best Instrumental Music prize at the III Festival de Música Educadora FM in Bahia. He has played professionally and held workshops in Brazil (Bahia, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo) and in Europe (Italy, France, and Spain). He has recorded two CDs, Almir Côrtes (Fábrica Discos, 2006) and Choro da Voz (Gravina Música, 2008, in partnership with the singer Bel Dias). Among his most important performances are the XIV Festival de Música Instrumental da Bahia, III Encontro de Cordas da Mantiqueira, VI Prêmio Nabor Pires Camargo, I Festival de Inverno de Jaguariúna, and the Mostra de Música Instrumental do Sesc Campinas. He also organized the V Encontro Nacional de Choro da Unicamp in April 2009. During his career, Almir has played with musicians such as Armandinho Macêdo, Izaías Bueno, Israel Bueno, Tinoco, Jorge Cardoso, Ivan Vilela, Reco do Bandolim, Paulo Freire, Ná Ozetti, Suzana Salles and Ana Luiza. At present he is a visiting scholar at the Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.