Celso Machado, Afro-Brazilian Guitarist & Composer

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Blanke, John
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The Magic Circle
Images do Nordeste; Boliviana
Misterios do Rio Lento
Julian Gray & Ronald Pearl, guitar
Dorian Recordings 80111 (1994)

Celso Machado: Joga da Vida
CBC Records 3021 (2007)

Varal
Canto de Escravo (Slaves Song)
Surucua Art Productions 002 (1997)

Home -> Musicians -> Machado, Celso

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Celso Machado (b. 1953)

Afro-Brazilian Classical Guitarist & Composer

Table of Contents

1 Classical & World Music
2 Film Scores & Sheet Music
3 Master Classes for Guitar
4 Rhythm Maker
5 Childhood
6 Family Unity
7 First Guitar
8 Solo Career
9 Vancouver
10 Selected CDs
11 Jogo da Vida

Celso Machado on Guitar

Audio Samples: Surucua Art Production 002 (1997); Varal; Celso Machado, guitar
a Parazula
b Canto de Escravo (Song of the Slaves)

1 Classical & World Music
Celso Machado is an Afro-Brazilian composer, guitarist, lyricist and singer. The works he writes and performs are played by guitarists in both classical and world music genres. He was born in Ribeiro Preto, Brazil on January 27, 1953. At age seven he began performing in street bands. Machado first performed in Canada in 1986; he moved there in 1989. His many CDs consist of music composed by himself and others. His recordings, compositions and awards are listed at his Web site: www.CelsoMachado.com

2 Film Scores & Sheet Music
Machado has composed sound tracks for several documentary films. His score for the film In the Company of Fear won a Leo Award in 2000 in Canada, where he has lived for many years. Publication of Machado's sheet music has resulted in many performances by other guitarists. The French firm Éditions Henry Lemoine has published a volume of his music whose title translates to Brazilian Popular Music for Flute and Guitar.

3 Master Classes for Guitar
Machado has adopted rhythms and musical instruments from many cultures. He teaches master classes for guitar. Three of his CDs have been nominated for Canadian Juno Awards: Varal, Surucua Art Productions 002 (1997); Jongo Lê, Daqui (1999); and Capivara, Surucua Art Productions (2005). Capivara was a nominee for 2006 in the 'World Music Album of the Year' category. Varal includes Canto de Escravo (Slaves Song), a song whose lyrics pay homage to the Afro-Brazilian slaves who once worked Brazil's sugar plantations. The Magic Circle: Music for Two Guitars, Dorian Recordings 80111 (1994) includes three works which Machado composed: Images do Nordeste, Boliviana, and Misterios do Rio Lento. The guitarists are Julian Gray and Ronald Pearl.

4 Rhythm Maker
Tony Montague wrote an article on Celso Machado for The Georgia Straight, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada July 15-22, 1999. It is reproduced at the guitarist's Web site. The title is: The Rhythm Maker: the instruments Celso Machado plays are the fruits - sometimes literally - of his love of music. Dried-tangerine-skin samba anyone? The reporter observes that Machado is constantly making music with whatever is at hand.

But there’s another side to Celso’s musical inventiveness and versatility: He’s a highly respected multi-instrumentalist and composer, with nine solo recordings to his name - including 1997’s Juno-nominated Varal. Marcus Vinícius, one of Brazil’s leading critics, has hailed him as “ the most important Brazilian guitarist of the new generation.” And in France, where he lived for a number of years, Celso’s compositions are taught [in] the conservatories.

For the mercurial Celso, the serious musician and the eternal kid are never in opposition - both facets of his artistic personality developed naturally. Born in 1953, the fifth of six brothers, Celso was raised in a poor neighbourhood of Ribeirão Preto, a city some 500 kilometres north of São Paulo, Brazil.
“We didn’t own any instruments in the house, but that didn’t stop us from making music, especially in the kitchen,” he recalls. “Often we would be sitting together around the table, and it’s surface became a percussion instrument for our hands."

5 Childhood
Montague quotes Machado as saying that five of the six brothers became professional musicians. He continues:

Since coming to Canada as a landed immigrant in 1992, Celso has made Vancouver home. He feels in tune with the city’s multicultural identity and the growing folk, jazz, and world-music communities. But there’s one aspect of life in Brazil he misses: the sense of rhythm that both pervades everything Brazilians do and constitutes a common ground for all the country’s musicians. “That’s why it’s so great to have my brothers to play with, because they understand the real syncopation, the swing," says Celso. “With them I can just relax and play free and loose.” For many years Celso, Geraldo, Carlinhos and Filó
(another brother) attended “samba schools” - which are not really schools at all but local organizations that organize and rehearse for a costumed percussion and dance parade at the annual Carnaval.

6 Family Unity
The article adds that music held the family together after the brothers lost both parents within a few years of each other:

To the young Machados, music was not just a boisterous celebration. It was also a vehicle for communication between them, and a means of survival. Their father died when Celso was still a small boy; and when his mother, too, died a few years later, the family was split up. The three youngest sons Celso, Carlinhos and Filó, ended up with the eldest Machado, Benedito, who had already left home and was eking out an existence as a guitarist in a dance band. Celso became fascinated by the instrument and took careful note of everything when his older brother practised or gave lessons.

7 First Guitar
Machado explained to Montague how long it took him to obtain a guitar of his own, after years of borrowing and sharing instruments:

Celso proved a precocious student, and he soon picked up enough technique to give a neighbour, who had just bought a guitar, some basic lessons. In exchange, he got to practise on the instrument whenever the neighbour was at work. It was not until five years after he first picked up the guitar that Celso obtained his own instrument, a gift from a local admirer.

“That was in 1969, and I was already teaching quite a bit. The guitar was nothing fancy, but it was so great to have one of my own at last that I almost cried.” He made rapid progress, and started taking formal lessons with a series of classical-guitar teachers. “I never had to pay for a single session. They were happy to show me what they knew. The condition was that I wouldn’t miss any classes, and that I learned everything they taught.”

8 Solo Career
The article chronicles Machado's early career as a soloist, a quartet he and three brothers formed for a while, and his first two recordings:

Little by little Celso was able to put together a career as a solo artist, performing in bars and theatres, even appearing on TV. He played classical compositions, as well as popular Brazilian pieces in styles such as chôro, baião, and samba. In the early ‘70s, Celso moved to the sprawling city of São Paulo to live in a house with Geraldo, Carlinhos and Filó, and performed in a quartet with them. Despite the pleasure of being reunited with his brothers, it was a difficult time. “I was still young, and trying to figure out how to get into the music business in Brazil, which is extremely competitive. There were so many promises made to me - but for a long time they never came to anything. Eventually, though, I did manage to put out a couple of records of instrumental music on guitar - Brasil Violão and Violão”.

Released in 1977 and 1980 respectively, the albums established Celso’s reputation at home and abroad as one of Brazil’s most outstanding new guitar players. In 1983, he was invited to perform in London, and such was the response that he decided to stay. Celso remained in Western Europe for almost a decade.

9 Vancouver
Performing at three festivals in Vancouver in 1986 convinced Machado that he wanted to live in the city, and when he eventually made the move he found a close collaborator with whom he often performs:

Over the next six years the multi-talented guitarist made many visits to B.C. He’s since become one of the pillars of the world-music scene here, and has collaborated with many artists - with none more closely than Chinese pipa (lute) virtuoso Qiu Xia He, whose group Silk Road Music also appears at this year’s VFMF.

10 Selected CDs
The compositions of Celso Machado can be found on a number of CDs, some
including him as a guitarist and others not. Selected examples of his works on such CDs are:
Algodao Doce, Musique populaire brasilienne: Pé de Moleque; Piazza Vittorio; Quebra Queixo; Evocacion; Duo AgiLeo - Zsófia Boros, guitar; Daniela Lahner, flute; Preiser Records 90505 (2005)
Algodao Doce, Paçoca, Pé de Moleque, Piazza Vittorio; Guitare Plus Vol. 33: Argentine, Bresil, Colombie; Confluences Ensemble; Mandala 4943 (1999)
Algodao Doce, Paçoca, Pé de Moleque; Modinha: Die Musik Südamerikas;
Walter Stoiber, Winfried Stegmann, guitar; Ambitus 97925 (1999)
Algodao Doce, Paçoca, Pé de Moleque, Quebra Queixo; Romancing the
Oboe; David Nutall, Timothy Kain, guitar; Tall Poppies 119 (2006)
Bolinhas de Queijo, Imagens do Nordeste, Sambalanco; Folios Guitar Duo; Neil Anderson, William Buonocore, guitar; Centaur Records 2181 (1995)
Danças Populares Brasilerias; Jamerica: Guitar Music From The New World; Jam Quartet; Bis 977 (1998)
Imagens do Nordeste; (Excerpts): Catgut Flambo; Harris Becker, Pasquale Bianculli, guitar; Msr 21699 (1999)
Misterios do Rio Lento; Nylon & Steel; Manuel Barrueco, Al di Meola, Steve
Morse, Andy Summer, guitar; Emi Angel 56941 (2001)
Quebra Queixo; La Luna; Canadian Guitar Trio; Skylark Digital 9802 (1998)
Xaranga do Vovo; Brazilian Portrait; Gerald Garcia, guitar; Naxos 550226 (1994)

11 Jogo da Vida
The online music shop of CBC Records, http://www.cbcshop.ca/, says Machado's CD Jogo da Vida, CBC 3021, released July 3, 2007, represents a substantial departure for him:

Until now, Celso’s recordings and live performances have been mostly solo affairs: amazing, delightful, but still focused pretty much on his own talents. To start this project, however, Celso put together his dream band for a Toronto concert as part of CBC Radio’s OnStage radio series. He brought in his brother, Carlinhos Machado, from São Paulo, added the prodigiously-talented young Torontonians David Virelles and Rich Brown, and completed the quintet with renowned New York-based Brazilian expatriate, Cyro Baptista. The concert was a great success. Then, as the subsequent recording sessions heated up, two more young Torontonians – singers Eliana Cuevas and Guiomar Campbell – stirred their sonic spices into the delicious musical stew that is now Jogo de Vida. Celso alone is a force of nature, but you won’t believe your ears when you first hear the sound of these six other great musicians adding their unique voices to his. Bon apetite!

Performers on Jogo da Vida are Celso Machado, acoustic guitar, vocal and percussion; Carlinhos Machado, electric guitar; Cyro Baptista, percussion; David Virelles, piano; Rich Brown, electric bass; Guiomar Campbell, vocals and percussion; and Eliana Cuevas, vocals.

This page was last updated on September 15, 2007