Vitor Lopes interview

Vitor Lopes joins me on episode 97.
He is a Brazilian chromatic player who specialises in Choro music.

Vitor tells us about the history of the harmonica in Brazil, starting out when Hohner opened a factory there in 1923, which later became the Hering factory. The availability of harmonicas in Brazil made the instrument very popular and spawned some tremendous players.

In 2008 Vitor was awarded the APCA prize for the best Brazilian musician of the year. He has recorded several Choro albums with his bands, has toured in Europe several times and appears on numerous albums with other musicians. 

If you want to learn some Choro, Vitor has an online course available so you can play some of this wonderful music on the chromatic harmonica.

Links:
Chorando as Pitangas band website:
https://chorandoaspitangas.com

Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/vitor-lopes-harm/tracks

Vitor’s Choro harmonica course:
https://hotmart.com/en/marketplace/products/choro-harmonica-with-vitor-lopes/U51984467A?sck=HOTMART_SITE

Videos:

History of harmonica in Brazil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIF4-7Em_aw

Edu da Gaita playing Paganini’s Moto Perpetuo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w8j_gfIEiU

Vitor’s series of videos on Brazilian Choro music on harmonica:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb7Pnj0vhWE3TcArNwNkjO4P9IQVCAbxA&si=Ai7wIhxP7LTXzrV-

Concert with Chorando as Pitangas:
https://youtu.be/Wbe2Dr0oi9s?si=IyiLCCHoiwHevJ2f 

With Ana Fridman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuxUvAEIPCM

Duo with Pablo Fagundes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s87mSjNEGJ8

Vitor playing diatonic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-RtOdozKdw

Suzuki condenser mic  overview from Joe Powers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQKs3yFRInc

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

or sign-up to a monthly subscription to the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/995536/support

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram 

Chapters

• 1:30 Vitor is a Brazilian chromatic player
• 1:57 The history of the harmonica in Brazil, started by the opening of the Hering factory in 1923, originally opened by Hohner
• 2:46 Hohner sold the factory to some Brazilians, and they changed the name to Hering
• 3:07 Hering probably moved off using Hohner components as a result of World War II
• 4:00 Vitor has a Japanese mother, so he is aware of the difficult time Japanese, Italians and Germans had in Brazil during WWII
• 4:09 How Hering evolved to become the most important manufacturer of harmonicas in South America
• 5:13 The Hering factory was instrumental in the harmonica becoming so popular in Brazil
• 5:29 Edu da Gaita was an early pioneer of the harmonica in Brazil, with him winning some championships set-up by Hering
• 6:25 Edu da Gaita started his career busking on the streets of Sao Paulo
• 7:15 Edu da Gaita went on to record the first wind instrument version of Paganini’s Moto Perpetuo
• 10:04 Lots of players in Brazil started out on diatonic harmonica, including Vitor’s teacher Omar Izar, who went on to play chromatic
• 10:49 In the beginning lots of different types of harmonicas were played in Brazil but over time the chromatic is the most popular now
• 11:23 The history of music in Brazil means there is a lot of regional Brazilian music played on the harmonica
• 12:09 Use of diatonic for blues in Brazil started in the late 1980s, led by Flávio Guimarães
• 12:55 Vitor specialises in Choro music
• 13:24 History of Choro music has it’s origins in classical Portuguese music, with the Brazilians adding their own accent to that
• 15:07 Two centuries since it’s beginnings Choro became the foundation of all Brazilian music
• 15:27 Brazilian music is very rhythmical and percussive, due to mix of cultures that migrated to Brazil
• 16:31 Rhythmic playing on chromatic can be a challenge
• 16:48 Vitor has produced some great YouTube videos about Choro music and playing it on the chromatic
• 17:08 Initially learnt Choro by ear but then added reading music scores
• 18:14 Can play acoustic guitar and piano to a reasonably good level
• 18:24 Harmonica was first instrument, taking it seriously from age 14 and performing professionally a year later
• 19:25 Has a set of videos about how different instruments have influenced his sound on chromatic
• 20:49 The bandolim is a plucked instrument with a very precision staccato attack of the note, which is the opposite of the chromatic
• 22:15 What Vitor adapted to harmonica from the flute was legato and using the doubled notes on the chromatic to achieve this
• 23:12 Uses an open, soft mouth to get closer to the timbre of the clarinet and drawing inspiration from the great players of those instruments
• 24:22 Emulates the sound of the accordion by mixing chords and melody on the chromatic, and uses chords to accompany other instruments
• 25:39 Now uses Suzuki Sirius 14 hole chromatic
• 25:53 What chords he uses considering the limited chordal possibilities of the chromatic and selecting tunes where it works
• 26:26 Likes to play solo harmonica solos with the chords and melody at the same time
• 27:08 Um Trio Viralata is Vitor’s first Choro band
• 28:09 Toured ten times in Europe with the trio
• 29:38 Popularity of Brazilian music around the world
• 30:09 Toots Thielemans released The Brazil Project album, with Vitor seeing him perform live in Brazil at this time
• 31:12 Chiquinha em Revista album album with Ana Fridman
• 32:39 The Choro music scene for harmonica players in Brazil
• 33:13 Other Choro harmonica players in Brazil, including Pablo Fagundes, although Vitor was the first to play Choro seriously
• 34:35 Harmonica players are becoming more common with Choro groups in Brazil
• 35:35 Albums with current group: Chorando as Pitangas, who have played together for more than twenty years
• 36:23 Um Passeio na Benedito Calixto album was a tribute to a market in Sao Paulo where Vitor played four hours a day for seven years
• 37:32 Cheguei has five different harmonicas, all played by Vitor
• 38:59 Choro music is challenging on the chromatic, and Vitor’s dedicated practise routine
• 39:58 Writes some new Choro songs, and last album is completely new compositions from the band
• 40:30 As well as fast Choro songs, there are also slow ballads
• 41:00 Vitor plays some Samba, Tango and other types of Latin music too
• 41:29 Recorded a chromatic duo with Pablo Fagundes
• 42:57 Vitor has a video tutorial available for anyone who wants to learn some Choro
• 43:58 10 minute question
• 45:04 Choro chord structures are quite complex, derived from the different waves of Brazilian colonisation
• 47:25 Suzuki Sirius is chromatic of choice. Did play 16 hole, then 12, now 14
• 47:48 Vitor plays the 14 hole partly because it has the same range as the bandolim
• 49:18 Embouchre: moved over to tongue blocking during pandemic and how learning the tongue switch technique has transformed his playing
• 51:03 Using tongue switching lots in latest album: O Tempo E a Arvore
• 52:30 Does play some diatonic, and has recorded some
• 53:36 Plays acoustically a lot of the time, but does use a condenser mic from Suzuki
• 55:27 Two albums released in last year, and plans to release a compilation of this solo harmonica recordings
• 56:44 The Bagdad Cafe soundtrack from William Galison