[Dixielandjazz] Jazzing in Brazil

[tito martino]

Well, dear listmates, let me tell you too how I started -  how I came to
know about Jazz and to play it.

Being born in São Paulo, Brazil, September 2 1937, I never paid any
attention to popular music from Brazil, or from any other country; since
early teens I only listened with 
great interest to Classical music (!) Don't ask me why, my parents never
had any special interest for music except that my mother, as a good
Italian immigrant, listened all day long to Neapolitan songs on radio
(Caruso, Tito Schipa, Roberto Murolo, etc.)   When I had 16, I
discovered an old Philips demo-LP coming with new phonographs, and got
absolutely hooked on one of its tracks, the Buddy Bolden Blues by Dutch
Swing College Band. As nobody ever cared to tell me that this was jazz,
I remained in total ignorance what kind of music was that and where I
could find more. It remained a mystery for years. When I was preparing
to enter University, 
I had a colleague, was a polish boy coming from London, where he had
learned to play Dixieland and New Orleans Jazz along with Ken Collier,
Humph, and the likes at High School.   This man, Peter Dakowsky, in
exchange for my explanations of Physic and Math lessons during classes
intermissions, he decided to be my guru in Jazz and told me for the
first time about Armstrong, Fats, Morton, Bix, and Bunk Johnson: gave me
old 78 records (I keep some till today) and taught me how to play an
ukulele-banjo, called Francis (The Speaking Mule).   
He played cornet also, and we started my first Band with two other
students, on piano and drums. This was 1957, I had 20 years old.  

Then I succeeded the examination and entered the Aeronautics Engineering
Faculty, 300 kilometers away from SPaulo. The first day as soon as I
appeared was caught as a fresh-man by a sophomore and he gave me the
task of learning to play a clarinet - I was obliged to appear at his
room door at six o'clock next morning and play IN TUNE the reveille! AND
EACH NEXT MORNING AT A DIFFERENT KEY!
He just happened to be a clarinetist himself and taught me some tricks
just to start, he was my first and only teacher, and that was my
beginning. But my Idols soon became Johnny Dodds, Albert Nicholas, Omer
Simeon, because finally I had learned where and how to find their
records.

In the early 60 I started a real Band, named it the Traditional Jazz
Band, and in few years we where playing Concerts at big Theaters in all
Brazil, recording 6 LPs and making our first tour to the USA, in 1974,
sponsored by American Consulate in Sao Paulo and Brazilian Consulate in
Washington.
 
This is how I got started, but I can't resist telling also how it
continues.  As my Band attracted attention of John Wilson in the New
York Times, and from Hal Willard in the Washington Post, with very nice
reviews of our concerts in NY and in Wash. DC, we where engaged by Royal
Stokes, a wonderful person and a foster of OKOM, (he had a Radio Jazz
Program Coast To Coast), and under his supervision we did a second tour
next year (was 1975) to Chicago Heights, Toledo, Akron, St.Louis, NY,
Wash., Boston, Worcester, after playing at the NOrleans Jazz and
Heritage Festival and being considered (by Second Line writers) the best
foreign Band at the Festival.  Wow!   When we came back, it was just the
moment to open a Jazz Club, what I did, and named it the OPUS 2004, and
soon we had big Jazz names jamming with us after hours, like Earl Hines,
Teddy Wilson, Manuel Sayles, Kid Thomas, and also Brubeck, Johnny Best,
etc. after their Concerts elsewhere in SPaulo. 

All this finished in 1983, when my wife was engaged by Swiss Radio
International to work at Bern; I had gladly to
leave my day job as an engineer, my chair of band-leader in the
Traditional Jazz Band, and my partnership on the OPUS 2004; and there we
came all the family (a little son and two daughters), to  live in a
civilized country. Soon I started a new Band, the Bogalusa New Orleans
Jazzband, with other 6 (swiss) players, and this Band attracted
attention of George H. Buck and for his label we recorded GHB-230 "Lets
Have a Good Time". I and my family came back to Brasil in 1992, and here
I am now with my Tito Martino Jazz Band (recorded two CDs).

Besides clarinet, I started soprano sax after listening to Bechet, and
alto sax after listening to Hodges;

We play every Friday night at Bar Brahma, in the very heart of SPaulo
town, and do as many Concerts and Shows in theaters and music halls as
possible. Weddings, Bar-Mitzvas, Meetings, Clubs too, and even Funerals
if demanded!
December 2001 I managed to bring to SPaulo the legendary Original
Dixieland Jazz Band, now under leadership of Jimmy LaRocca, and the
famed Porteña Jazz Band from Buenos Aires, and my own Band, to play the
Armstrong Memorial Concert at a big 900 seats Auditorium, I'm proud to
say it was a success!    Now finally I retired from my electrical
engineering job and concentrate on JAZZ! Or is it OKOM?

If you are still here, thanks a lot for sharing this great list!

Tito 

Tito Martino
clarinet, s.sax, a.sax,
Tito Martino Jazz Band
São Paulo  Brasil  


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.491 / Virus Database: 290 - Release Date: 18/6/2003