Biography
In the latter half of the nineteenth century Brazilian popular music acquired its own distinct character, while urban settings at the century’s close saw African-derived rhythms take root. Modest residents of Rio’s hills fashioned percussive devices from household objects—frying pans, sand- or pebble-filled tins, cuícas, tamborins, and atabaques whose heads were fashioned from cat skins.
Portuguese colonial influence carried European cultural components, among them musical structures and symphonic instruments. Local players already fluent in the European canon on piano, flute, violin, and Spanish guitar adapted the percussive patterns to those instruments. By roughly 1875 the term “choro” served as a catch-all label for any compact ensemble featuring a lead instrument that rendered popular melodies, frequently outdoors.
Alfredo da Rocha Vianna, Jr., known as Pixinguinha, proved central to shaping the regional style of choro performed by the genre’s characteristic small ensembles. A prodigious flutist from an early age, he wrote his debut piece at thirteen—the choro “Lata de Leite,” offered to companions with whom he played pranks such as pilfering milk cans from neighbors’ doorsteps.
Beginning with the intimate chamber configurations then prevalent—flute, acoustic guitar, and cavaquinho—Pixinguinha altered their makeup and assembled his seminal unit, Os Oito Batutas. Through this innovative group he imported jazz-derived instrumentation to Brazil, adding trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and banjo alongside an array of native percussion.
Born in the Rio suburb of Piedade on 23 April 1898—Saint George’s Day, also Ogum’s Day—he had already earned recognition as a master flutist by age twenty-two, with multiple recordings to his credit; the date was September 1920. Following engagements in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, Os Oito Batutas received an invitation to accompany the celebrated dance duo Duque and Gabi at the Assírio cabaret in Theatro Municipal; the pair had gained renown in Europe performing maxixe, the Brazilian form descended from lundu and an immediate forerunner of choro. At Duque’s urging, the wealthy admirer Eduardo Guinle underwrote a European tour for the ensemble. The musicians reached Paris in the winter of 1922 to perform at the Scheherazade cabaret, where Duque had previously triumphed. Concerned that his sound reach the larger Parisian spaces, Pixinguinha acquired a Selmer soprano saxophone and thereby introduced the instrument to Brazilian jazz. In addition to this overhaul of choro’s conventional lineup, Os Oito Batutas became the first group to incorporate reco-reco, pandeiro, and ganzá alongside the customary flute, guitar, and cavaquinho.
The engagement, planned for one month, stretched to six. Parisian audiences and critics alike embraced the hallucinatory Brazilian rhythms; Pixinguinha received accolades from distinguished musicians, among them Harold de Bozzi, first-prize flutist of the Paris Conservatories.
Weary of sustained professional travel after years of largely recreational music-making at home, the musicians returned to their former Assírio residency, now equipped with an expanded palette: Donga switched to banjo, relinquishing guitar, while Pixinguinha featured saxophone—though he retained flute as his primary instrument for another two decades until a tremor induced by drinking impaired his embouchure and compelled him to concentrate solely on saxophone.
In 1926 he assumed leadership of the Teatro Rialto Orchestra, where he met chorus girl Albertina de Souza. Two years later he disbanded Os Oito Batutas to pursue fresh projects. Also in 1928 he recorded “Carinhoso,” which drew criticism for harmonies deemed excessively Americanized; another departure that unsettled traditionalists was his shift from choro’s customary three-part structure to a form consisting of a distinct introduction and two separate sections. That same year he formed the Orquestra Típica Pixinguinha-Donga with Donga and cut several sides for Parlophon.
Around this period his reputation as an arranger began to flourish. As Radamés Gnatalli later observed, “there weren’t composed arrangements in Brazil at that time.” Sheet music had previously been imported from Europe or the United States; Pixinguinha ranked among the first to create written scores for Brazilian repertoire, initially supplying carnival marches to Transmissora Radio and, after November 1929, to the newly established Victor Talking Machine Co. of Brazil.
Collaborating with Heitor Dos Prazeres, João Da Baiana, Radamés Gnatalli, Luís Americano, and Tute, he ushered in a fresh chapter of Brazilian music. Victor’s first release featured two Pixinguinha choros—“Vem cá! Não Vou” and “Urubatan”—and subsequent discs preserved his instrumental command and improvisational skill.
Still under contract to Victor, he assembled the celebrated ensemble Guarda Velha in 1932, drawing together exceptional musicians including Bonfiglio de Oliveira, Luís Americano, Vantuil, Donga, and João da Baiana. Among the group’s notable recordings were Lamartine Babo’s “Linda Morena,” “O Teu Cabelo Não Nega,” and “Moleque Indigesto,” performed by Mário Reis, Carmem Miranda, and Castro Barbosa.
In 1940 the renowned maestro Stokowsky traveled to Brazil to oversee recordings of the finest popular music from Latin-American nations. On Heitor Villa-Lobos’s recommendation he sought out Pixinguinha, who in turn enlisted Donga, João da Baiana, Cartola, Luís Americano, Zé Da Zilda, Jararaca, and Ratinho. Stokowsky produced eight discs of Brazilian popular music for a U.S. label. Recalling their encounters, Pixinguinha noted receiving “a compliment on arriving, an enthusiastic praise when leaving.”
That same year Pixinguinha joined Benedito Lacerda’s regional band, inaugurating one of Brazilian music’s most productive eras, distinguished by unprecedented standards of execution. Once more he transformed Brazilian musical practice, supplying superb improvised counterpoint on saxophone beneath Lacerda’s flute melodies. Fresh compositions emerged, among them “Ingênuo,” “Um a Zero,” “Segura Ele,” “Sofres Porque Queres,” “Proezas do Sólon,” “Oito Batutas,” “O Gato e o Canário,” and “Ainda Me Recordo.” Although Lacerda received co-composer credit on all these works, they originated solely with Pixinguinha, who extended shared authorship in recognition of Lacerda’s promotional efforts.
During the 1950s the prevailing mood of samba-canção, boleros, and tangos eclipsed the buoyant exuberance of Pixinguinha’s music, leaving it overlooked once he reached fifty. Between the ages of fifty-five and fifty-six he recorded three LPs with the Velha Guarda ensemble for the Sinter label.
The bossa nova movement of the late 1950s celebrated Brazil’s traditional musical heritage; Pixinguinha was invited to apply his extensive experience to the soundtrack of the film Sol Sobre a Lama, created in partnership with Vinícius de Moraes.
In 1964, however, he suffered a stroke that curtailed much of his enjoyment of and involvement with music. By 1968 he announced his withdrawal from Brazilian popular music: “Now I want tranquillity and living in peace with everyone. I’m afraid death takes me by surprise. I want to die peacefully.” Thereafter his days followed a tranquil pattern of gatherings with friends in downtown Rio and early bedtimes, until the death of his cherished Albertina in July 1972.
On 17 February of the following year he left to baptize a grandson. At roughly four o’clock that afternoon he was at the church in Ipanema. After conversing with family he suddenly felt unwell. He declined medical attention. At half-past four that same afternoon the father of Brazilian popular music died in the Igreja da Paz, aged seventy-four.
Portuguese colonial influence carried European cultural components, among them musical structures and symphonic instruments. Local players already fluent in the European canon on piano, flute, violin, and Spanish guitar adapted the percussive patterns to those instruments. By roughly 1875 the term “choro” served as a catch-all label for any compact ensemble featuring a lead instrument that rendered popular melodies, frequently outdoors.
Alfredo da Rocha Vianna, Jr., known as Pixinguinha, proved central to shaping the regional style of choro performed by the genre’s characteristic small ensembles. A prodigious flutist from an early age, he wrote his debut piece at thirteen—the choro “Lata de Leite,” offered to companions with whom he played pranks such as pilfering milk cans from neighbors’ doorsteps.
Beginning with the intimate chamber configurations then prevalent—flute, acoustic guitar, and cavaquinho—Pixinguinha altered their makeup and assembled his seminal unit, Os Oito Batutas. Through this innovative group he imported jazz-derived instrumentation to Brazil, adding trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and banjo alongside an array of native percussion.
Born in the Rio suburb of Piedade on 23 April 1898—Saint George’s Day, also Ogum’s Day—he had already earned recognition as a master flutist by age twenty-two, with multiple recordings to his credit; the date was September 1920. Following engagements in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, Os Oito Batutas received an invitation to accompany the celebrated dance duo Duque and Gabi at the Assírio cabaret in Theatro Municipal; the pair had gained renown in Europe performing maxixe, the Brazilian form descended from lundu and an immediate forerunner of choro. At Duque’s urging, the wealthy admirer Eduardo Guinle underwrote a European tour for the ensemble. The musicians reached Paris in the winter of 1922 to perform at the Scheherazade cabaret, where Duque had previously triumphed. Concerned that his sound reach the larger Parisian spaces, Pixinguinha acquired a Selmer soprano saxophone and thereby introduced the instrument to Brazilian jazz. In addition to this overhaul of choro’s conventional lineup, Os Oito Batutas became the first group to incorporate reco-reco, pandeiro, and ganzá alongside the customary flute, guitar, and cavaquinho.
The engagement, planned for one month, stretched to six. Parisian audiences and critics alike embraced the hallucinatory Brazilian rhythms; Pixinguinha received accolades from distinguished musicians, among them Harold de Bozzi, first-prize flutist of the Paris Conservatories.
Weary of sustained professional travel after years of largely recreational music-making at home, the musicians returned to their former Assírio residency, now equipped with an expanded palette: Donga switched to banjo, relinquishing guitar, while Pixinguinha featured saxophone—though he retained flute as his primary instrument for another two decades until a tremor induced by drinking impaired his embouchure and compelled him to concentrate solely on saxophone.
In 1926 he assumed leadership of the Teatro Rialto Orchestra, where he met chorus girl Albertina de Souza. Two years later he disbanded Os Oito Batutas to pursue fresh projects. Also in 1928 he recorded “Carinhoso,” which drew criticism for harmonies deemed excessively Americanized; another departure that unsettled traditionalists was his shift from choro’s customary three-part structure to a form consisting of a distinct introduction and two separate sections. That same year he formed the Orquestra Típica Pixinguinha-Donga with Donga and cut several sides for Parlophon.
Around this period his reputation as an arranger began to flourish. As Radamés Gnatalli later observed, “there weren’t composed arrangements in Brazil at that time.” Sheet music had previously been imported from Europe or the United States; Pixinguinha ranked among the first to create written scores for Brazilian repertoire, initially supplying carnival marches to Transmissora Radio and, after November 1929, to the newly established Victor Talking Machine Co. of Brazil.
Collaborating with Heitor Dos Prazeres, João Da Baiana, Radamés Gnatalli, Luís Americano, and Tute, he ushered in a fresh chapter of Brazilian music. Victor’s first release featured two Pixinguinha choros—“Vem cá! Não Vou” and “Urubatan”—and subsequent discs preserved his instrumental command and improvisational skill.
Still under contract to Victor, he assembled the celebrated ensemble Guarda Velha in 1932, drawing together exceptional musicians including Bonfiglio de Oliveira, Luís Americano, Vantuil, Donga, and João da Baiana. Among the group’s notable recordings were Lamartine Babo’s “Linda Morena,” “O Teu Cabelo Não Nega,” and “Moleque Indigesto,” performed by Mário Reis, Carmem Miranda, and Castro Barbosa.
In 1940 the renowned maestro Stokowsky traveled to Brazil to oversee recordings of the finest popular music from Latin-American nations. On Heitor Villa-Lobos’s recommendation he sought out Pixinguinha, who in turn enlisted Donga, João da Baiana, Cartola, Luís Americano, Zé Da Zilda, Jararaca, and Ratinho. Stokowsky produced eight discs of Brazilian popular music for a U.S. label. Recalling their encounters, Pixinguinha noted receiving “a compliment on arriving, an enthusiastic praise when leaving.”
That same year Pixinguinha joined Benedito Lacerda’s regional band, inaugurating one of Brazilian music’s most productive eras, distinguished by unprecedented standards of execution. Once more he transformed Brazilian musical practice, supplying superb improvised counterpoint on saxophone beneath Lacerda’s flute melodies. Fresh compositions emerged, among them “Ingênuo,” “Um a Zero,” “Segura Ele,” “Sofres Porque Queres,” “Proezas do Sólon,” “Oito Batutas,” “O Gato e o Canário,” and “Ainda Me Recordo.” Although Lacerda received co-composer credit on all these works, they originated solely with Pixinguinha, who extended shared authorship in recognition of Lacerda’s promotional efforts.
During the 1950s the prevailing mood of samba-canção, boleros, and tangos eclipsed the buoyant exuberance of Pixinguinha’s music, leaving it overlooked once he reached fifty. Between the ages of fifty-five and fifty-six he recorded three LPs with the Velha Guarda ensemble for the Sinter label.
The bossa nova movement of the late 1950s celebrated Brazil’s traditional musical heritage; Pixinguinha was invited to apply his extensive experience to the soundtrack of the film Sol Sobre a Lama, created in partnership with Vinícius de Moraes.
In 1964, however, he suffered a stroke that curtailed much of his enjoyment of and involvement with music. By 1968 he announced his withdrawal from Brazilian popular music: “Now I want tranquillity and living in peace with everyone. I’m afraid death takes me by surprise. I want to die peacefully.” Thereafter his days followed a tranquil pattern of gatherings with friends in downtown Rio and early bedtimes, until the death of his cherished Albertina in July 1972.
On 17 February of the following year he left to baptize a grandson. At roughly four o’clock that afternoon he was at the church in Ipanema. After conversing with family he suddenly felt unwell. He declined medical attention. At half-past four that same afternoon the father of Brazilian popular music died in the Igreja da Paz, aged seventy-four.
Albums
Singles
