Jojo Moura

Even though instrumental choro has been jazz-influenced for decades, reedsman Moura really falls somewhere between choro and jazz-samba. The jazz elements are very strong, the local ingredients more varied and more Afro-Brazilian than usual, and he is fond of a big-band sound and a somewhat staid avant-gardism, both of which are foreign to the mainstream idiom. But the spirit and the underlying sound are choro rather than anything else, even if they do stretch the boundaries. And Moura is a fine player with a fine group.

Ana Moura is universally acknowledged as one of the finest fado singers of the present generation. Her plaintive, smoky vocals has garnereda loyal European following, including members of The Rolling Stones. Whether starkly declaiming or swirling into filigreed crescendos of emotion, Ana's burnished alto personifies fado's darkly sensual credo of wisdom born of pain, grace, and futility, and secual passion perpetually on simmer, despite repeated and increasingly bitter betrayals.

On this latest release in the Guitar Laureate series, Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo, winner of the 2022 European Bach Guitar Award, presents a selection of works transcribed for guitar from the rich repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach. Dimitrov-Jojo’s beautiful sound and poetic interpretations bring an intimate connection to Bach’s boundless imagination, crowned in this substantial programme by the famous Ciaconna, BWV 1004.