Choro

In the 19th century, choro resulted from the style of playing several musical genres (polka, schottische, waltz, mazurka and habanera) by carioca musicians, who were already strongly influenced by afro-brazilian rhythms, principally the lundu and the batuque.

[5] Just like ragtime in the United States, tango in Argentina and habanera in Cuba, choro springs up as a result of influences of musical styles and rhythms coming from Europe and Africa.

In the beginning (by the 1880s to 1920s), the success of choro came from informal groups of friends (principally composed of workers from the postal, railway and telegraphic services)[6] which played at parties, pubs (botecos), streets and home balls (forrobodós).

The mainstay of the repertoire was made of the big hits of Ernesto Nazareth, Chiquinha Gonzaga and other pianists, whose musical scores were published by print houses.

In the late 1970s there was a successful effort to revitalize the genre in the mainstream, through TV-sponsored nationwide festivals in 1977 and 1978, which attracted a new, younger generation of professional musicians and listeners.

More recently, choro has attracted the attention of musicians in the United States, such as Anat Cohen, Mike Marshall and Maurita Murphy Mead, who have brought this kind of music to a new audience.